Chapter 12: Reverse

A/N: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended. (In other words – I don't own it, I'm just playing). Please take the time to leave some words if you really loved it or really hated it! Thanks to my beta FE71SH for working the magic.

-BPOV-

Fear.

Pain.

Darkness.

I tried to hold onto anything concrete as pain ripped through my body. Pain radiating from deep within me as well as without. Unsettling emotions coursed through my body, making it difficult to concentrate. I tried to get images of my saviour, of my angel, in my mind, but Edward's face wouldn't come. Instead, I saw flashes of a face I didn't know. A woman, small and petite with flowing brown hair and deep ruby red eyes. She whispered of affection, of love, but ordered murder. Flashes of her face kept coming to me - always a new victim, always another pledge, always more pain. Each time she haunted me the fear grew, the despair increased and the darkness deepened.

Fear.

Always afraid.

Pain.

Always pain.

Darkness.

Faces - hundreds of faces.

I tried to stop the flashes. I tried to hold onto an image, having it in my mind for more than a few fleeting seconds at a time. Nothingness overtook me and I felt dead inside. My chest was filled with a void. Despair and desolation was all I knew. I didn't know what love was. I thought I knew, but I didn't. What I imagined was love, was actually lust and control.

I lusted after her and she was controlling me.

The brunette's eyes burned into mine each time she ordered a new death. Each new addition she brought to me added to my pain. I felt them burning. I felt their fear. And in their final moments, I felt their hate. Hate directed at me.

I needed to get away.

Fear.

Pain.

Darkness.

Nothing.

Flashes of light.

I tried to recall the last instant before I sank into the darkness. I remembered pain. The sting of the venom as Jasper did what he thought he needed to do to protect his family.

Fear.

Pain.

Darkness.

Nothing.

Flashes of light.

Another flash and then Alice's face burst into my vision like a shining star. She was all I could see. Hope filled me. I couldn't recognise the emotion, because I had never felt anything like it. Slowly, the scene drew back and I realised I was in a diner that was only half-full. I was myself again and felt the hope radiating from Jasper. I realised what I had felt was projected from him. Alice hopped down from the high stool she was perched on, and walked over towards Jasper.

"You've kept me waiting a long time," Alice said to him.

Jasper ducked his head. "I'm sorry, ma'am."

Alice held her hand out for Jasper and, without hesitation, he took it.

I watched them staring into each other's eyes - completely lost in one another. I felt like an intruder.

I felt a shift as I sought out another memory. I needed to find something that would save me in the present. I knew at any second my life could be over.

I could smell the human and the horse, even though I was yet to see them. I knew they were behind me, but I was afraid to turn around because I was worried what I might see. I knew this was a pivotal moment in Jasper's life - this was the day he changed. I could hear the whispers of three immortals a short distance away. I turned and saw the three stunning women watching him intently.

I realised I could stop it from happening. One flash of his life as it would be might send him running in the other direction. He might have the opportunity to live happily in this time. Or he might die in battle. Either way he had the opportunity for a human life.

The ripples of that small change would be felt throughout history. A small voice whispered in the back of my mind that if I changed him, he wouldn't be there to hurt me in the future.

But I couldn't do it. Despite everything that had happened - despite the horror of what he was doing to me, and to Edward - I couldn't take away the life that he and Alice had led. Because, without Jasper, Alice might have never joined the Cullens. Without Alice, Edward may have left long ago. He might have led a very different life. I would have led a different life. I would rather have lived a relatively short time with Edward than a whole human life without ever knowing love that deep. It was easy to find selfish reasons not to change anything when I knew that Jasper and Alice were happy enough with their current existence.

I needed to keep my selfish reasons close to the front of my mind because one vision to Jasper - one flash of his own memories - and everything I knew... wouldn't exist.

"Shh, baby, it's all right," Edward's voice rang out through my mind.

I wanted to tell him I was sorry for not fighting back harder. I wanted him to tell his family I forgave them. They thought I was trying to hurt Edward. They thought I was controlling him. I couldn't blame them for their protectiveness. If I thought someone was hurting Edward I wouldn't think twice before throwing myself at them and doing anything possible to save him.

"Bella, come back to me," he whispered, his voice circling on the breeze before drifting into nothingness.

I watched as Jasper encountered the three beautiful immortals. He climbed off his horse and spoke to them, thinking they were simply women - albeit stunning beauties - who needed to be led to the camps.

"He's speechless," one of the two blonde women said.

"Mmm," another moaned softly. "Lovely."

"Concentrate, Nettie," the smallest of the three, a petite little brunette, snapped.

Jasper stood gawping at the three vampires.

"He looks right - young, strong, an officer..." the brunette continued, "and there's something more... do you sense it? He's... compelling."

"Oh, yes," the one the brunette had called Nettie agreed. She leaned in toward Jasper and I saw the glistening venom on her teeth.

"Patience," the brunette said, twisting one hand in front of the one called Nettie.

"You'd better do it, Maria," the other blonde spoke again "if he's important to you. I kill them twice as often as I keep them."

"Yes, I'll do it," Maria said. "I really do like this one. Take Nettie away, will you? I don't want to have to protect my back while I'm trying to focus."

"Let's hunt," Nettie's musical voice trilled on the night. She reached for the other girl's hand. I watched as they ran away, whispering softly about the new addition as they went.

Maria's eyes never left Jasper as he watched the other two vampires disappear at what must have seemed like an alarming speed to him.

"What is your name, soldier?" she asked Jasper.

"Major Jasper Whitlock, ma'am." Jasper's human voice was so unlike his immortal one, yet at the same time, I could hear the similarities.

"I truly hope you survive, Jasper," Maria said to him. "I have a good feeling about you."

I turned away in horror as she bit into his throat. The smell of the warm blood on the air sent my own throat burning. I shifted, shying away from the memory, as soon as the screaming began.

"Bella," Edward's voice carried softly around me as I opened my eyes again.

I didn't recognise the house I was in, but I did recognise its inhabitants.

"I don't want any part of it," Rosalie huffed. "If you aren't willing to accept that maybe, just maybe, Edward really has found something special that's fine. But what you are talking about is ludicrous."

Alice rolled her eyes. "Rosalie, look at the facts. That female has bewitched Edward since that first day we found out about her. He's been secretive about things he has never worried about before. I know for a fact he found and kept one of her blouses. It's not right. I know all about love at first sight -" she looked briefly at Jasper, who clasped her hand a little tighter. "But this isn't that. There's something more to that vampire. The vision I had today confirms it. She's doing something to him."

"What do you mean?" Rosalie asked.

"She touched him and suddenly it was as if he couldn't keep his hands to himself. He wanted to have her..." she closed her eyes, no doubt trying to suppress the images of Edward and I in each other's arms. "But then he was rude to me when I phoned him. He wasn't himself. He hasn't been himself for almost twelve months."

"Edward's always been the odd one," Emmett said. "Maybe you are reading too much into this?"

"Maybe..." Alice agreed but her voice trailed off. I saw the vagueness in her eye that indicated a vision.

"He's... he's bringing her here?" Alice said with confusion.

"Why?" Emmett stood.

"She's convinced him that they are stronger together. That they shouldn't be apart. He's coming to tell us..." her voice faded again. Another vision hit her. "He's leaving," she gasped.

A stunned silence fell across the room.

"He's going to tell us that he is in too much danger... she knows about the Volturi and they don't want to endanger us." Alice groaned. "Bella... her name's Bella."

"Do you think she's from Italy?" Jasper asked.

"I don't know," Alice whispered. "They will disappear as soon as they leave us."

"Do you think that means..." Rosalie couldn't finish the sentence, but everyone winced away from the unspoken words.

"Possibly," Alice said. "Edward is in danger."

"We have to do what we can to stop her," Emmett declared.

"You don't know anything yet," Rosalie whispered. "Maybe it is..."

"Do you want to risk it?" Alice said, cutting her off.

"Maybe she's harmless." Rosalie shrugged.

Alice sighed. "I don't want to see him hurt any more than he already has been."

Jasper clasped Alice's hand. "If he's in danger we need to go to him. We need to save him."

"What if he won't listen," Rosalie asked.

"Then we make him," Jasper said. "Maybe if we can separate them, he will realise. Maybe it's proximity that ties him to her?"

"I don't know," Alice said.

Emmett touched Rosalie's cheek softly. "Babe, I love you... but I'm not betting against Alice."

Rosalie stood and stalked from the room, leaving the other three to plan. I didn't know where Carlisle or Esme were. I didn't think they would allow this plan to take shape.

"Bella, baby, show Alice..." Edward's voice filtered around me again, but faded away just as quickly.

I couldn't figure out what he wanted me to show Alice, but I had thought of a way to remove us from immediate danger.

- EPOV -

Jasper's teeth were just cutting into the creamy, soft skin of Bella's neck when I found them. Bella cried out softly and whispered my name. I was about to rip Jasper from her - with no mercy or concern for his safety - when a pain greater than any I had ever experienced ran through my core. I fell to my knees and let loose a guttural scream. The pain came from within me and all around me at the same time.

It took me half a second to realise the pain was not my own. Nor was it Bella's. It was an agony sent out in a single, sharp pulse from Jasper. It was the pain of long repressed memories - of a life of desolation and despair. A life without hope... without love. It was a pain that Bella had accidentally shaken loose as she scrambled desperately to find a way to save herself.

I crawled over to her and dragged her away from the screaming Jasper. His pain still hung palpably in the air, his screams punctuated by a name I knew - Maria.

I wrapped myself entirely around Bella as she lay unconscious on the ground. No one would get to her without destroying me first. I would fight for her with everything I had, especially as she lay, unable to protect herself.

I listened to Bella's thoughts as she raced through Jasper's memories. Finally, she settled on one. Jasper's and Alice's meeting. She shied away from the memory.

I heard her mind shift again and suddenly she was watching Jasper's last night as a human. I could feel her start to panic. I wanted to calm her down, but struggled to know how. I did the only thing I could think of; I whispered to her, "Shh, baby, it's all right."

I was surprised when I heard her recognition of my voice. She'd never really been able to hear me when she was in the past before. In fact, I could strongly recall one instance where she hadn't heard me despite me pleading with her for hours to come back to me. The most she had ever acknowledge me before was vague notions of things I told her, like having her ask Alice's past self whether she wanted her memories.

Alice called my name behind me, but I ignored her. I knew she wouldn't hurt me, and to get to Bella she would have to. If they wanted to hurt her ever again, they would have to come through me first.

I watched the past play out in front of Bella. She turned away as Jasper's creator bit into him. I tried to call to her again, softly whispering her name. Again, she recognised my voice and my words.

I saw where she was and clenched my jaw tightly. Alice, Jasper, Rosalie and Emmett were plotting her destruction.

"No!" I whispered, turning on Alice. "How could you?"

"Edward, she's a threat."

"She's not."

"Then why did you suddenly fall in love with her, like you were under some kind of spell."

"It wasn't sudden," I said, recalling our history. "Or I should say - it wasn't as sudden as you think."

"You're not making sense," Alice whispered, her voice filled with concern. I thought of a way to fix the problem. I knew it was something Bella didn't want to do, but surely Alice, with her vision of the future, would understand and be willing to try anything to help Bella.

"Bella, baby, show Alice what you can do," I whispered softly into Bella's ear.

I watched as Alice backed away, fear lining her face.

I whipped my head back around to Bella as I heard her plan in her mind. I wasn't sure if it would work, but I realised it might. At very least... it should avoid the situation we were currently in.

X - X - X

"It's not the answer," I whispered to Bella. "Being apart isn't the answer for us. We both know that now."

She nodded.

"We're stronger together," I continued.

I love you, she told me silently.

"And I you."

I stepped back away from her. "Ladies first?" I asked, pointing to the window.

Bella froze and I immediately saw why. I shuddered as a memory filled her mind. But it was a memory of future events. I saw Emmett, Jasper and Alice corner us. I saw Jasper steal Bella away and my jaw clenched shut with rage. How could our family do this to us? The memory cut off - but I wasn't sure whether it had stopped or whether Bella had just put her shield up when she saw my reaction.

"We can't go," she whispered. "We need to think about this first." And then she passed out. I reached forward just in time to catch her. I placed her on the bed and stroked her face gently as panic rose in my body. I didn't know what she had done, or what I could do.

- BPOV -

I knew what I had to do. I had a plan that I was certain would work I shifted toward a memory of my own. I was back in Charlie's house watching myself and Edward prepare to leave for our meeting with his family. I knew this was the pivotal moment to stop what was happening. I could change anything before this moment and risk Edward not knowing...but anytime after this would be too late. Alice would know something had happened. I watched the scene from the sidelines, waiting for the moment to intervene.

"It's not the answer," Edward whispered to my past self. "Being apart isn't the answer for us. We both know that now."

She nodded.

"We're stronger together," he continued.

Although I wasn't using my dual-viewpoints, so I didn't know my past-self's thoughts, I knew she told him that she loved him.

"And I you," Edward whispered in response, before stepping back away. "Ladies first?" he asked, pointing to the window.

I used that moment to change the future. I concentrated on showing my past self what had happened, knowing that her shield was down in that moment and Edward would see whatever I showed her. My past self froze as the memory assaulted her. I showed her Emmett, Jasper and Alice cornering Edward and I. I showed her being captured by Jasper. From the corner of my eye, I saw Edward's jaw clench shut with rage. I showed her what happened from there. The feeling of Jasper's jaws as they came in contact with the skin on my neck. I could tell from Edward's reaction that my past self had pulled her shield up - there was no way he would react to that sight so calmly, only the merest indication of stress lined his features.

"We can't go," my past self whispered. "We need to think about this first."

I shifted back to the present - with no idea what I would find.