{

A scraping, dragging sound drew my attention, and I put down my book to focus on whatever was making the noise. My stomach rumbled and I clenched the muscles in my torso, trying to stamp out the gurgling that seemed to reverberate around the open space of the factory I was in.

Abruptly, the side door burst open and a writhing, gooey…thing fell through the doorway. I shrieked and nearly fell over the box I was sitting on in my haste to get away, but as my arms were flailing as I tried to regain my balance, I realized it was Bella.

She looked…dead. Her right leg was torn off and there were gouges and tears nearly everywhere I could see. She leaked a tar-like fluid and she wheezed and dragged herself across the dirty concrete floor, leaving a slime trail behind her.

"Mom?" Bella's voice came from the struggling form. I darted over to her, tripping once over the table leg next to the box I had been sitting on. Bella moaned and her skin moved like it was full of snakes. I swallowed down the bile that rose in my throat and focused only on what mattered: my daughter.

"Bella," I whispered as I hovered my hand over her mutilated body. How was she even still alive? "What can I do, baby?" Tears fogged my vision and dribbled onto her body, instantly absorbing upon contact like she was a sponge.

"No!" Bella gasped as I felt something grab the hand that was near where I knew her left shoulder should have been. "No! Get away from me!"

Black vines held my arm harshly, slithering around it and squeezing. I felt the bones pop and break and I let out a gasp of pain and surprise, trying to pull away from the impossible hold. The vines moved higher and squeezed more – tighter still, like a boa constrictor.

The tendrils dug into my skin and I felt them running through my veins like acid. I screamed out as Bella shrieked something incomprehensible. My heart pounded like a hummingbird's wings and the slithering things moved and impaled me further, attacking my stomach and peeling my skin away.

"Mom!"

They reached my face and my eyes rolled back, praying for a quick end to this pain. I felt my body pull apart and go numb, and then I knew no more.

}

-Chapter 13: Twisted Metal-

The trees started to blur by as I bounded farther and farther into the forest without any regard for secrecy. It was raining, and the pellets felt like cool pinpricks as I vaulted through the downpour. My legs pumped like pistons and I could feel the tightness in my muscles from pushing them to the limit. They didn't hurt, but they almost seemed to ache as I pushed against my top speed threshold.

I wasn't really thinking or paying attention to where I was going; I was tuned out and running on autopilot. Thinking hurt too much. But though I tried to keep my brain turned off, thoughts leaked through all the same.

Who was I, if not Bella Swan? Was I even a person or I was I just an imitation – a mimicry of a human being? My thoughts spiraled past memories of my father, weak as they were; of fishing trips and summertime visits. I hated fishing and was never good at it, but it made Charlie happy to teach me how to cast a line out into the water. He would always hook the worm for me.

I choked as images of my mother flitted past next. Her smiling, childish face glowing as she looked down at me from within some un-indexed memory. Renee's face melted into a grimace as the life was crushed out of her and her eyes glazed over. The depression and self-loathing pressed down on me and I closed my eyes tightly, running blindly now through the forest.

They weren't my parents – not technically; not really. I wasn't Bella; I was just the thing that killed her and stole her life.

But it felt so real – so legitimate! I couldn't reconcile what Carlisle had told me with the life I knew. Perhaps he was mistaken, though? Carlisle admitted he didn't know everything about me from that sample – he said he could spend a decade studying me and not really know everything. Just because he thought I was never human didn't make it so.

But then a part of me knew he was right – and maybe I suspected it all along, deep down. I had killed and absorbed the memories of others, an amalgamation of thoughts and ideas that weren't my own, but I had always tried to block them out. They were wrong – alien – they shouldn't be there; each one I consumed made me just another number in the horde, and I never tried to think about them.

But I was thinking now, and I couldn't stop.

I had made peace with the fact I wasn't human a while ago, even before I came to forks. No amount of psychic blocks or denial could hide my physiology from myself. I was a monster, there was never any doubt in my mind.

But to have always been this. To not really have an identity or even a name – just the one from my first victim – it was too much. I was just so lost.

My feet stuttered against the floor for a moment as my eyes opened and caught sight of the pavement of the highway ahead of me, but it was only for a second. I continued ahead, even as the telltale high-beams of a vehicle ghosted between the trees and the faint sound of a motor running rumbled underneath the continuous pellet of rain. A part of me – the largest part – screamed at me to stop; I would reveal myself and hurt whoever happened to be driving by.

A middle-aged man was driving in a dated, silver minivan down the road. A woman – likely his wife – sat next to him in the passenger side; I couldn't see her face completely, but she had dirty blonde hair that reached her shoulder. Another person – a boy – was stretched out in the back seat.

My clothes shuddered over my skin as I rebelled against the human part of me – the part that so obviously belonged to Bella – and bounded out of the tree line. I plowed through the silver van's side with a wild tackle, satisfaction flooding my veins at the sound of shrieking and bending metal as the vehicle's sides collapsed under my blow.

The driver's side came off the ground and the frame groaned as the passengers' minds finally caught up with what was happening. I pushed the fan off the road like it was made of Styrofoam, sending it careening down the hill, where it rolled twice before slamming into the opposite tree line. It rocked once and settled, smoke hissing out of the mutilated hood.

I stood staring at the ruined van for a minute, letting the raindrops fall unobstructed onto me from my spot on the pavement. The guilt and revulsion washed over me and I let out a single, dry sob as I watched for any sign of movement from the twisted metal below me. I steeled myself and ground my teeth together, forcing my head to turn away from the wreck.

It's not me feeling these things. It's not real – Bella's not even real.

I could hear another car approaching in the distance, coming from the same direction as the van. I pivoted and faced the sound, considering what to do. My eyes flitted to the tire marks and uncovered soil on the ground, an obvious sign that an accident had taken place, and I decided to get out of sight. I bounded back across the road in the direction I came, leaping up into a tree far enough back that no one would be able to see me from the road.

I wasn't entirely sure why I waited to see if the car would see the wreck. The conscious part of my brain – the 'Bella' part – needed, I think, to make sure the victims of my wrath didn't go unnoticed. This was my mess I had made, and I needed to make sure it was cleaned up.

But then the other, more predatory part of me, wanted another victim – it wanted to feed. It recognized the car crash as a lure, set expertly to draw in curious eyes for me to consume. A shiver rolled through my limbs at the thought, but I couldn't tell if it was one of pleasure or revulsion.

A tan-colored Honda rounded the bend, the window wipers moving furiously back and forth as its tires pushed through the water clinging to the road. Even through the rain and despite the distance, I was able to make out the familiar face of Jessica Stanley in the driver's seat.

My eyes stayed pinned to her as her car moved close enough for her to notice the totaled van crumpled against the trees, and I was able to catch her pupils dilating and her mouth parting as she finally saw it. Red light flared brighter from behind the Honda as she stopped at the side of the road and jumped out into the rain, holding a hand over her eyes as she jogged closer to see through the broken glass.

After a moment, she pulled a cell phone out of her jeans pocket and dialed a number on it, holding it to her ear as she rushed back to her car. She slipped once, managing to catch herself before toppling over, and as the speaker shifted away from her ear I was able to hear the distant hum of someone speaking on the other end. I was too far away to hear any words, but I was reasonably sure it was the police she was talking to.

Jessica got back into her car and turned on the emergency lights before pulling farther off the road. She snapped the phone shut and leaned back in her seat, breathing quickly and shallowly; fog began to build up along the driver's side window as she worked to calm herself down.

I watched her for almost two minutes before I noticed it, a movement from the woods behind the wreck drew my focus.

The unmistakable, enormous head of a werewolf poked through the dense foliage, its nose flaring as it angled toward the ground near the van. I stilled instantly on my perch, the breath I was taking frozen in my lungs. He hadn't seen me yet, I was almost positive, but I couldn't move a muscle – couldn't draw his attention to my hiding place.

The wolf moved out of the forest and slinked along the trench marks left in the soft ground, which were already filled-in with water from the torrential downpour. My insides writhed as I recognized him as Paul, the wolf most likely to try to kill me on a good day, much less one where I murdered a van-full of people.

My eyes flickered to Jessica, but she seemed to be pointedly ignoring the future crime scene, staring behind her car through the side mirror. I wasn't sure if her eyes would have been able to see Paul's dark-silver fur through the rain, even if she was looking, but it was a stroke of luck that she wasn't. No good could come of a human being discovering a horse-sized wolf perusing through a car accident.

Paul moved away from the wreck – toward me – and paused, his muzzle pressed near the ground. His black lips pulled back over his white teeth and he let loose a rumbling growl that rolled into a snarl. His head swiveled and he scented the air, trotting up to the road and standing brazenly on the pavement as he crouched low and bared his teeth in the direction I was hiding.

"Oh my god," Jessica gasped from inside her car. I heard her fumble around inside the car and I shifted my eyes back to her in time to see the locks go down on the doors – as if that would save her from the mutant wolf. But Paul paid her no mind, completely ignoring the panic-stricken girl as he made it across the road and into the thin opening of trees near my hiding spot.

Shit!

My mind raced as I considered what to do. Paul had obviously caught my scent and was moments away from finding me. Should I fight, then? The werewolf was surprisingly alone, without his pack to help him, and wouldn't be difficult to kill. But the other wolves would surely find out if I killed him, right? Or would the rain wash away my scent before any of them came across the wreck?

I watched the muscles on his back bunch and ripple as he walked up to the tree I was hiding on, and suddenly my time was up. I needed to act now if I wanted to have the advantage – he hadn't found me yet. Vines of red and black slithered down my arms and hands as they morphed into the familiar set of claws, the oversized talons slicing into the tree bark as they formed.

I pushed off the branch and dove toward the ground like a missile, my claws extended and ready to tear through the soft meat of the werewolf. I didn't count on Paul being able to react so fast, though, and he was able to dodge out of the way before I was able to impale him. The talons on my right arm tore a deep gash on his side as I impacted with the ground, leaving a sizable crater and flinging mud in all directions.

Paul snapped at me to keep me from lunging, and did so even as blood trickled down the mauled side of his body, the fur staining maroon as it collected in his pelt. I waited in a crouch and shot forward as his teeth mashed together in the air, swiping my right claw upward in an attempt to spear the underside of his throat. My eyes went wide as he was able to dodge this as well and counter with impossible speed.

His enormous jaws crunched down on my forearm, slicing easily into my flesh. I flexed my clawed hand and the tendrils inside my arm writhed, damaging myself further as the wolf's teeth shredded the tissue as it shifted. I let out a gasp and panicked, attempting to pull my arm out of his bear-trap-like maw regardless of the physical damage I was inflicting on myself. His paws dug into the mud as my flailing dragged him forward and dollops of black ooze plopped down and mixed with the churning mud beneath our feet.

Suddenly, my feet were pulled out from under me and I was flung backward, toward the road. I slid over the slick pavement for a few meters before the friction caught me and I tumbled to a stop on my back. I could hear the growling wolf approaching again and I struggled to get to my feet as shooting pains rippled over my body. My mangled arm began to knit itself back together, the red and black tendrils weaving my skin back to its unblemished state.

"Oh my god, Bella?" Jessica's voice came from somewhere over my head. A car door opened and I hoped she wasn't stupid enough to come over here. She had already seen too much.

I was on my feet when the wolf came stomping up to the side of the road, keeping a safe distance between us. Even though Paul was a wolf and didn't have the correct facial muscles for it, I could have sworn he was smirking. His eyes gleamed with satisfaction and anger.

My right arm shifted and elongated, losing its rigidity and becoming fluid; a razor-sharp spear formed at the tip. I drew my shoulders back and hung the whip-arm behind me, taking a ready stance as I sunk into a crouch. With a heave, I flung the spear out toward Paul like a shot. The Quileute was fast, but he had never seen me use something like this; they had only seen my more static weapons and increased strength, and had no idea I could fight at range.

Paul ducked and was impaled through his shoulder instead of his chest; he howled as the bone splintered and gave under the force of the throw. My appendage wrapped around his body like it had the bear I ate, the barbed sides embedding into his flesh. Like he had done to me, I flung the wolf through the air; his body tumbled and rolled as he unraveled. As the spear was pulled out of his body, a sickening, wet popping sound rang out and Paul crashed into the pavement on the other side of Jessica's car.

My whip-arm retracted quickly, the barbs scraping eerily against the damp pavement. I flexed my fingers as my hand reformed, jogging past Jessica – who was completely petrified, leaning against the side of her car with the driver's side door open – and approaching the heap of collapsed wolf with caution.

The steady rise of Paul's chest was the only indicator he was still alive. He was bloody and beaten, and the shoulder I impaled looked like it had been sent through a paper shredder. The bone stuck out of the mutilated flesh and hung at an unnatural angle, appearing completely wrenched out of the socket and grinded into several different shards. A wave of pity wove through me, but this had to be done.

I was finished with this, this idea of normality. It was childish to think something like me could live peacefully with my father – who wasn't even my father, after all. It was foolish of me to tiptoe around to appease a group of monsters that would hate me anyway, one of which hadn't even given me a chance to explain before he went for the kill. And so it was then that I overcame that intrinsic sense of moral right and wrong I had been wrestling with and gripped Paul's body tightly, slamming my fist through his chest and invading his body with my own.

The wolf whimpered as my tendrils dug through his tissue, branching off like roots and embedding deep inside. It was a slow-going process, and I marveled for a moment at the werewolves' resilience to infection; resilience, but not immunity. Paul's body finally fell apart after a few seconds and collapsed in a sea of red, staining the pavement as the final groups of tissues writhed and slithered back into me with a slurping, sucking sound.

"What the fuck…" Jessica's voice came from behind me. I began to turn around to face her when my head was assaulted with a flood of memories.

"…the wolves are our brothers…"

"…and it will be OK, son; La Push isn't so far away, after all…"

"…chosen to protect the tribe is a great honor…"

"Look at you, growing up so fast. You'll have to beat the girls off with sticks…"

…I can take care of this bitch before Sam orders me to stop; there's no one out on patrol to tattle…

My vision swam as I came back to reality with my hands clenched over my head. I could feel Paul's memories and thoughts filing themselves away inside my head, spreading and tucking themselves away in the multi-layered web of chaos that was my mind. I knew now why Paul was alone.

The wolves sent a few of their pack to check out what was happening in Tacoma; they didn't trust us at all. Since the pack was spread thin, only one wolf was out at a time for patrol – Paul – and he was supposed to howl to signal the pack if anything happened. Fortunately, he didn't alert the others; he thought he could take me himself. I smiled at the memories of practicing with the pack to fight someone like me; they had tried to prepare the best they could.

I staggered to my feet and breathed deeply, taking in the rusted scent that permeated the area from the goopy pile of bloodied fur that stained the road. My eyes met Jessica's, a look of disbelief and paralyzing horror charred on her face, and I took a step forward. She flinched and hit her back against the opened car door, the blood draining from her face and her knuckles turning white from how hard she was gripping the car frame.

The unmistakable sound of a police siren echoed from a couple miles away and I mentally cursed; there was no way to clean up my little accident before more witnesses showed up. I cocked my head to the side and continued to stare at Jessica Stanley as she gaped at me.

"What am I going to do with you?" I mumbled.

End notes: Hmm. A mixed bag of reviews for the last chapter. Some praise, some criticism, and some misinformed criticism. Let's dig right in, shall we?

Yes, the Bella that has been telling the story is technically a virus that made Bella its first victim. This was planned and very much needed to be a part of the story, but the implications are not so much different than having her be a 'human with strange powers.'

On that same note, I feel I must inform some of the reviewers that Alex Mercer was very much the Blacklight virus. He died when he broke the vial before the game started and the virus replaced every cell in his body. Look it up if you don't believe me (or play the game and look through the 'Web of Intrigue').

I still have a few surprises up my sleeve. Don't you worry about it being too predictable (although we're not talking Bioshock level surprises here, so don't get your hopes up that much). And as for not being able to absorb vampire DNA...well...just chillax, I got you covered, baby. She'll definitely be evolving pretty damn soon.

Guest: As a writer you need to remember most people who play the game would NEVER read twilight so you need to explain more indepth! When you rewrite something you cant then expect you readers to just know whats going on if you don't type it, it doesn't exist

A few things. First, I'd like to point out the subtle irony in this review. Second, the events that happened (at least in Forks, regarding the Cullens) has been covered. It might not have been specific or all at once, but then again Bella only got the highlights from talking with the Cullens. But I do get what you're saying and I'll keep it in mind as I continue on. Thirdly, it's a Twilight fanfiction in the Twilight category.

Guest: I like the idea of this story but your doing waaaaaaaaaaaaay to much romance set up between the girls (not all of your readers are going to be 13 year old love struck)s to be too heavy on romance plot but you have skipped over a lot of the story that the books covered... and that's not even counting what you should be doing with the Bella powers angle... I applaud your dedication to realism and totally agree but you've throw out a lot of the point of the prototype games (EVOLUTION and CHANGE) when useful DNA is encountered

The first time I read the first sentence of that review I assumed it said there wasn't enough romance...and then I read it again and my face went all strange-like. What are you talking about? This story is Bella/Alice, yes, but it's not the focus; they're still friends at this point.

I apologize for the slow update, but classes have started and have been draining my time. Also, I changed the rating to 'M,' since I am pretty sure the story is only going to get more graphic.