A/N: Time travel is tricky. I'm not gonna lie, I had to really think it the whole process through. R&R if you so desire.
I do not own Twilight, I just play with the characters.
BELLA
"ARE YOU SERIOUS? TELL ME THAT YOU ARE NOT SERIOUS!" Edward explodes all over the place.
"Edward, shouting never solved anything," I roll my eyes and shake my head at him.
"Just ask the Queen of Hearts," Dakota adds.
"Alice in Wonderland?" Rosalie asks.
"We are a wealth of random knowledge," Jen answers.
"Could we possibly get back to the subject at hand now?" Edward demands. He is throwing such a tantrum.
"Calm down, Edward. We have done things that are a lot more dangerous," Dakota tries to soothe his feelings.
"And when it comes down to it, it is my choice," I add. I have had enough. He has been there when we have done worse. I would have thought he would have learned his lesson by now.
"But…" he starts to whine a little.
"Look, I love you, but you have to see that this affects all of us. We need to take care of it," I interrupt him.
"Then let me go too," he pleads.
"Edward, think about this. That arrangement did not work out," Alice tries reason.
"Besides, time travel is extremely finicky. Witches are really the only type of immortal to be able to work with it," Jen informs him.
"And even then, most witches that attempt it meet their fate," Dakota adds for good measure.
"Can't you just go back to before they had the idea and stop that from happening?" Emmett booms across the room.
"No Emmett, then we would have no reason to go back and they would still have the idea in that timeline," Jen patiently explains. The workings of time travel are complicated and often seem weird until you think them through.
"They have no idea that we know, so this plan is very solid," I assure my still slightly irate husband. Edward continues to pout.
"Vampires cannot defend themselves against magic. I would have thought you would remember that because of the whole Volturi thing," Jen comments.
"This is really the best way, Edward. They can't run around indefinitely defending themselves in the present and the past," Carlisle takes our side. Edward looks oh-so-thrilled to hear his father say that.
I'll admit it, our plan is risky. But we can't sit around and let the witches take over everything again. Going back and taking care of those who do the same is the only way that we won't have to quit our lives to be on our guard. Jen's mom wants to come with us. It did not take long to find her this time around. Apparently Mary Beth paid her a visit to explain everything to her. Jen does not know how that will work out. Her concerns are valid. Bad things happen to those who deal with time travel. All sorts of things can and do go wrong. The tiniest details can have life-altering effects. Say some scientist saw some random tiny thing that inspired them. If that thing did not happen, then the scientist would not invent whatever they were supposed to. Then there is the whole what if you were supposed to go back and change something thing. It's just one giant headache.
"I still want to go," Edward stands his ground. In another circumstance, I would find that way cute. But now it is just foolish.
"There is no way that you are going with us," I state firmly. We stare each other down a bit, neither willing to give in.
I mean it. There is no way. Any harm that would come to him would be my fault. Now that was Edward's voice that just jumped through the many years and popped into my head. I guess I can see his point of view better now. Not that that changes anything. I will not be moved. Suddenly Emmett's booming laugh fills the room.
"Not liking that taste of your own medicine brother?" he manages in between bouts of laughter. Everyone else tries to hide their amusement at this concept. Edward just scowls at us all.
"Besides, everything will turn out fine," Dakota assures him.
"But you are going to the past, you can See the future," my sulking husband points out.
"We are going to the past in our future," Dakota rolls her eyes.
"No visions of us dying?" Jen can't help but ask the question we were both thinking.
"There are always those during our missions, and this is no exception. You two always seem to get out of the situations you die in through some random and completely unforeseeable string of actions and decisions," our Seer dismisses the questions.
"Good, cause it would not be a real mission if you didn't tell us we were going to die," I add, much to Edward's dismay.
There is some more quibbling about the plan, mostly from Edward. The only surefire way for the curse to be lifted is to make it to where it never happened. Jen thinks that since her family feels like Jen's mother is defective and would go for a mortal regardless of whether or not it was Jen's dad, they will go for making sure that she either dies young or is never conceived. Dakota and I agree, so we are going to station ourselves at three different points in her mother's youth. Fortunately, even though it is way weird, our telepathy is not affected by either time or space so we can keep into contact with each other and go to whenever and wherever we are needed. Eliot is going with her. Nathaniel is not leaving Dakota's side. I'm going to be working with Bethany again. She wants to help out and already knows about our particular idiosyncrasies.
"Can I ask what happened to your father?" Alice broaches the subject that every one of us has wanted to. Sadly it is also the very subject that Jen has never talked about…not even with Eliot.
"I'm not sure, exactly. Mom always answers that he died when she cast the curse because her family was so enraged. She says that he was tortured until he drew his last breath. Mom says that a witch will hear the last few moments of their mate's life even if they are on the other side of the world," Jen starts.
"But you don't really buy her story?" Eliot looks concerned as he hold his wife's hand.
"I have just seen too much to think that it is true. My family still looks for him, though they try to be quiet and clever about it. Mom moves around so often that there has to be a reason. It's not just that she used all of her magic because then she would just hide in plain sight, not basically become a traveling hermit. I just think that there is the possibility that he is still alive, even if I'm not sure exactly how that could happen," Jen explains.