Disclaimer. All publicly recognizable characters, settings etc., are the property of their respective owners. The original characters, ideas 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. I only do this for fun.

Overwhelming Darkness

A/N:This story is written as a collaboration by both Xo Bella Italiana oX (My new penname) and DeathQueen26. We hope that you enjoy the story and look forward to reading your reviews. If you have any questions or comments, post them in my reviews and I will answer them in my next Author's Note! Enjoy! – B

Chapter 20
(Isabella's POV: The hill top overlooking the compound;Texas)

I sat with my knees drawn up to my chest as I looked down over the compound watching my army train and live their every day lives. My head was so messed up ever since Jasper came back into my life. The emotions that stir behind his eyes every time I blow him off bothers me more than it should. But then again, he is supposed to be my mate; his pain is supposed to be my own... and it was whether I wanted it to be or not.

Have I been too hard on him?!

I was broken out of my thoughts by Rosalie's scent as she approached me from the side and took a seat next to me. We sat in silence for several minutes before she finally spoke.

"I know you think that I've always hated you." She said as we both continued to look out over the horizon.

"Haven't you?" I retorted.

She let out a long sigh. "No." She murmured. "Bella, I've always envied you." I cringed at the use of my old name, but let it go just this once, for now.

I snorted. "Envied me? What was there to envy? I was a weak human who was constantly walked over and taken advantage of. Look what being me got me. I was left and deserted by people that I considered family."

"I envied you because you were able to have the choices in life that I had always wanted." She admitted. "Sure, I was afraid for my family's safety at first, but after realizing that you cared about us too much to expose us, I started to care about you in my own way, as well." She paused and swallowed thickly. "Bella, did Edward ever tell you my story?"

I pursed my lips and shook my head. "No. He always said that everyone's stories were their own to tell, but he did say that it was similar to what happened to me in Port Angeles, except there was no one there to help you."

She let out a huff. "I guess he did have some honor left in him, even if he was driven mad by his singer's blood."

I nodded, knowing exactly what she meant. Thing between Edward and I were wonderful and we truly were in love, that is...until he got his first real whiff of my blood in Phoenix after the James fiasco. Since then, he became possessive, controlling, and all around uncaring. It continued on until the day that he finally left me in the woods alone. I never learned what his true plans were, but I had several ideas on what they could be. He probably wasn't expecting me to pick up and move to the South where I chose to be who I have become. I know that Alice was involved with whatever his plans were and that if I didn't have my shields, they would have tracked me down to carry out whatever scheme they had come up with.

But was it really the rest of the Cullen's fault that they were pawns in Alice and Edward's little game?!

Okay, so I could see where Carlisle and Esme could be at fault because they were supposed to be the leaders, the parental figures of the coven or family. They weren't supposed to let Alice and Edward make those kinds of decisions.

Maybe Rose, Em and Jasper truly were innocent parties...I still had a lot of thinking to do before I decided on that for sure.

"Would you like to hear my story, Bella?" She asked bringing me back out of my thoughts. "It doesn't have a happy ending – but which of ours does? If we had happy endings, we'd all be under gravestones now."

I nodded, though there was an unsettling edge to her voice. It would be nice to know why Rosalie is the way that she is.

"I lived in a different world than you did as a human. My world was a much simpler place. It was nineteen thirty-three. I was eighteen, and I was beautiful. My life was perfect." She stared out over the desert at the silver clouds as darkness began to take over the daytime sky. Her expression was far away.

"My parents were thoroughly middle class. My father had a stable job in a bank, something I realize now that he was smug about – he saw his prosperity as a reward for talent and hard work, rather than acknowledging the luck involved. I took it all for granted then, in my home, it was as if the Great Depression was only a troublesome rumor. Of course, I saw the poor people, the ones who weren't as lucky. My father left me with the impression that they'd brought their troubles on themselves.

"It was my mother's job to keep our house – and myself and my two younger brothers – in spotless order. It was clear that I was both her first priority and her favorite. I didn't fully understand at the time, but I was always vaguely aware that my parents weren't satisfied with what they had, even if it was so much more than most. They wanted more. They had social aspirations – social climbers, I suppose you could call them. My beauty was like a gift to them. They saw so much more potential in it than I did.

"They weren't satisfied, but I was. I was thrilled to be me, to be Rosalie Hale. Pleased that men's eyes watched me everywhere I went, from the year I turned twelve. Delighted that my girlfriends sighed with envy when they touched my hair. Happy that my mother was proud of me and that my father liked to buy me pretty dresses.

"I knew what I wanted out of life, and there didn't seem to be any way that I wouldn't get exactly what I wanted. I wanted to be loved, to be adored. I wanted to have a huge, flowery wedding, where everyone in town would watch me walk down the aisle on my father's arm and think I was the most beautiful thing they'd ever seen. Admiration was like air to me, Bella. I was silly and shallow, but I was content." She smiled, amused at her own evaluation.

"My parents' influence had been such that I also wanted the material things of life. I wanted a big house with elegant furnishings that someone else would clean and a modern kitchen that someone else would cook in. As I said, shallow. Young and very shallow. And I didn't see any reason why I wouldn't get these things.

"There were a few things I wanted that were more meaningful. One thing in particular. My very closest friend was a girl named Vera. She married young, just seventeen. She married a man my parents would never have considered for me – a carpenter. A year later she had a son, a beautiful little boy with dimples and curly black hair. It was the first time I was truly jealous of anyone else in my entire life."

She looked at me with unfathomable eyes. "It was a different time. I was the same age as you were when we left Forks, but I was ready for it all. I yearned for my own little baby. I wanted my own house and a husband who would kiss me when he got home from work – just like Vera. Only I had a very different kind of house in mind..."

It was hard for me to imagine the world that Rosalie had known. He story sounded more like a fairy tale than history to me. I wondered – while Rosalie sat silent for a moment – if my world seemed as baffling to her as her's did to me?

Rosalie sighed, and when she spoke again, her voice was different, the wistfulness gone. "In Rochester, there was one royal family – the Kings, ironically enough. Royce King owned the bank my father worked at, and nearly every other really profitable business in town. That's how his son, Royce King the Second" - her mouth twisted around the name, it came out through her teeth - "saw me the first time. He was going to take over at the bank, and so he began overseeing the different positions. Two days later, my mother conveniently forgot to end my father's lunch to work with him. I remember being confused when she insisted that I wear my white organza and roll my hair up just to run over to the bank." Rosalie laughed without humor.

"I didn't notice Royce watching me particularly. Everyone watched me. But that night the first of the roses came. Every night of our courtship, he sent a bouquet of roses to me. My room was alwayss overflowing with them. It got to the point that I would smell like roses when I left the house.

"Royce was handsome, too. He had lighter hair than I did, and pale blue eyes. He said my eyes were like violets, and then those started showing up alongside the roses.

"My parents approved – that's putting it mildly. This was everything they'd dreamed of. And Royce seemed to be everything I'd dreamed of. The fairy tale prince, come to make me a princess. Everything I wanted, yet it was still no more than I expected. We were engaged before I'd known him for two months.

"We didn't spend a great deal of time alone with each other. Royce told me he had many responsibilities at work, and, when we were together, he liked people to look at us, to see me on his arm. I liked that, too. There were lots of parties and dresses. When you were a King, every door was open for you, every red carpet rolled out to greet you.

"It wasn't a long engagement. Plans went ahead for the most lavish wedding. It was going to be everything I'd ever wanted. I was completely happy. When I called at Vera's, I no longer felt jealous. I pictured my fair-haired children playing on the huge lawns of the Kings' estate, and I pitied her." Rosalie broke off suddenly, clenching her teeth together. It pulled me out of her story, and I realized that the horror was not far off. There would be no happy ending, as she'd promised. I wondered if this was why she had so much more bitterness in her than the rest of them did – because she'd been within reach of everything she'd wanted when her human life was cut short.

"I was at Vera's that night." Rosalie whispered. Her face was smooth as marble like all of us vampires, yet it was just as hard. "Her little Henry really was adorable, all smiles and dimples – he was just sitting up on his own. Vera walked me to the door as I was leaving, her baby in her arms and her husband at her side, his arm around her waist. He kissed her on the cheek when he thought I wasn't looking. That bothered me. When Royce kissed me, it wasn't quite the same – not so sweet somehow... I shoved that thought aside. Royce was my prince. Someday, I would be queen."

I could see her face get even paler as the upcoming moonlight struck her skin as it rose into the heavens.

"It was dark in the streets, the lamps already on. I hadn't realized how late it was." She continued to whisper almost inaudibly. "It was cold, too. Very cold for late April. The wedding was only a week away, and I was worrying about the weather as I hurried home – I can remember that clearly. I remember every detail about that night. I clung to it so hard... in the beginning. I thought of nothing else. And so I remember this, when so many pleasant memories have faded away completely, just as you remember what happened to you..."

She sighed, and began whispering again. "Yes, I was worrying about the weather... I didn't want to have to move the wedding indoors...

"I was a few streets from my house when I heard them. A cluster of men under a broken streetlamp, laughing too loud. Drunk. I wished I'd called my father to escort e home, but the way was so short, it seemed silly. And then he called my name...

"'Rose!' he yelled, and the others laughed stupidly.

"I didn't realized the dunks were so well dressed. It was Royce and some of his friends, sons of other rich men.

"'Here's my Rose!' Royce shouted, laughing with them, sounding just as stupid. 'You're late. We're cold, you've kept us waiting so long.'

"I'd never seen him drink before. A toast, now and then, at a party. He'd told me he didn't like champagne. I hadn't realized that he preferred something much stronger.

"He had a new friend – the friend of a friend, come up from Atlanta.

"'What did I tell you, John,' Royce crowed, grabbing my arm and pulling me closer. 'Isn't she lovelier than all your Georgia peaches?'

"The man named John was dark-haired and suntanned. He looked me over like I was a horse he was buying.

"'It' hard to tell,' he drawled slowly. 'She' all covered up.'

"They laughed, Royce like the rest.

"Suddenly, Royce ripped my jacket from my shoulders – it was a gift from him – popping the brass buttons off. They scattered all over the street.

"'Show him what you look like, Rose!' He laughed again and then he tore my hat out of my hair. The pins wrenched my hair from the roots, and I cried out in pain. They seemed to enjoy that – the sound of my pain..." Rosalie looked at me suddenly, as if she'd forgotten I was there.

"I won't make you listen to the rest," she said quietly. "They left me in the street, still laughing as they stumbled away. They thought I was dead. They were teasing Royce that he would have to find a new bride. He laughed and said he'd have to learn some patience first.

"I waited in the road to die. It was cold, though there was so much pain that I was surprised it bothered me. It started to snow, and I wondered why I wasn't dying. I was impatient for death, to end the pain. It was taking so long...

"Carlisle found me then. He'd smelled the blood, and come to investigate. I remember being vaguely irritated as he worked over me, trying to save my life. I'd never liked Dr. Cullen or his wife and her brother – as Edward pretended to be then. It had upset me that they were all more beautiful than I was, especially that the men were. But they didn't mingle in society, so I'd only seen them once or twice.

"I thought I'd died when he pulled me from the ground and ran with me – because of the speed – it felt like I was flying. I remembered being horrified that the pain didn't stop...

"Then I was in a bright room, and it was warm. I was slipping away, and I was grateful as the pain began to dull. But suddenly something sharp was cutting me, my throat, my wrists, my ankles. I screamed in shock, thinking he'd brought me there to hurt me more. Then fire started burning through me, and I didn't care about anything else. I begged him to kill me. When Esme and Edward returned home, I begged them to kill me, too.

"Carlisle sat with me. He held my hand and said that he was so sorry, promising that it would end. He told me everything, and sometimes I listened. He told me what he was, what I was becoming. I didn't believe him. He apologized each time I screamed.

"Edward wasn't happy. I remember hearing them discuss me. I stopped screaming sometimes. It did no good to scream.

"'What were you thinking, Carlisle?' Edward said. 'Rosalie Hale?'" Rosalie imitated Edward' irritated tone to perfection. "I didn't like the way he said my name, like there was something wrong with me.

"'I couldn't just let her die,' Carlisle said quietly. 'It was too much – too horrible, too much waste.'

"'I know,' Edward said, and I thought he sounded dismissive. It angered me. I didn't know then that he really could see exactly what Carlisle had seen.

"'Of course you couldn't,' Esme agreed.

"'People die all the time,' Edward reminded him in a hard voice. 'Don't you think she's just a little recognizable, though? The Kings will have to put up a huge search – not that anyone suspects the fiend.' He growled.

"It pleased me that they seemed to know that Royce was guilty.

"I didn't realize that it was almost over – that I was getting stronger and that was why I was able to concentrate on what they were saying. The pain was beginning to fade from my fingertips.

"'What are we going to do with her?' Edward said disgustedly – or that's how it sounded to me, at least.

"Carlisle sighed. 'That's up to her, of course. She may want to go her own way.'

"I'd believed enough of what he'd told me that he words terrified me. I knew that my life was ended, and there was no going back for me. I couldn't stand the thought of being alone...

"The pain finally ended and they explained to me again what I was. This time I believed. I felt the thirst, my hard skin, I saw my brilliant red eyes." She reached up to touch her crimson eyes that had once been a liquid gold, like I remembered them to be.

"Shallow as I was, I felt better when I saw my reflection in the mirror the first time. Despite the eyes, I was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen." She laughed at herself for a moment. "It took some time before I began to blame the beauty for what had happened to me – for me to see the curse of it. To wish that I had been... well, not ugly, but normal. Like Vera. So I could have been allowed to marry someone who loved me, and have pretty babies. That's what I'd really wanted, all along. It still doesn't seem like too much to have asked for."

I hesitantly reached over and put my hand on her shoulder as the venom welled in my eyes at the thought of Jake and my unborn son. She looked over at me and I began to shake my head. "No, it wasn't. It wasn't too much to have asked for." I choked and she reached out to pull me to her as I cried. I cried for the first time in as long as I could remember for the life that I could have had, but lost all because of Victoria...because of Edward. I finally allowed myself to mourn for everything that had been taken away from as I clutched my empty womb as Rosalie held me tightly in her arms.

I don't know how much time had past, but it was still dark when I stopped crying. Rosalie still held me and cooed to me as she tried to comfort me.

How can she act this way with me when I've been nothing but horrible to her and her family? Not that some of them didn't deserve it...

I pulled back and looked up at Rosalie. "What happened to Royce and his friends? Did they get what was coming to them?" I asked.

She looked thoughtful for a moment and nodded. "I murdered the five humans," she told me in a complacent tone. "If you can really call them human. But I was very careful not to pill their blood – I knew I wouldn't be able to resist that and I didn't want any part of them in me.

"I saved Royce for last. I hoped that he would hear of his friends' deaths and understand, know what was coming for him. I hoped the fear would make the end worse for him. I think it worked. He was hiding inside a windowless room behind a door as thick as a bank vault's, guarded outside by armed men, when I caught up with him. Oops – seven murders," she corrected herself. "I forgot about his guards. They only took a second.

"I was overly theatrical. It was kind of childish, really. I wore a wedding dress I'd stolen for the occasion.

"He screamed when he saw me. He screamed a lot that night. Saving him for last was a good idea – it made it easier for me to control myself, to make it slower -"

She broke off suddenly and sighed. "I was never fair to you, Bella. Did Edward or Jasper ever tell you why?"

"He said it was because I was human. He said it was harder for you to have someone on the outside who knew." I mumbled. "But that was before Phoenix. Before he changed."

She nodded. "I wanted you to have the life that I didn't. I guess you could say that I was almost trying to live through you, as wrong as that was." She paused. "But that's only part of it. I'm sure you noticed I was worse after what happened with James."

I nodded. "I just thought it was because you resented me because I put Emmett and the rest of your family in danger."

She sighed. "Bella, you are my family, you're Emmett's family, too. And you're Jasper's mate, whether you accept that, or not. We didn't get the chance to object or not when it came to leaving you. Jasper was blackmailed by Alice and said that if he didn't leave you, that she would go to the Volturi. Jasper couldn't afford that because of what happened in his past with Maria. He was afraid that they would kill him before going after Peter and Charlotte, as well. I left, because I thought it was the right thing to do, get you away from Edward. He was going crazy and you were risking your life by staying with him. I thought I was doing what was best for you. Emmett didn't have a choice, either. He couldn't be away from his mate, from me."

I growled. "But didn't any of you think to get rid of Victoria before deserting me? Or maybe even keeping in touch so that I didn't think that you guys didn't care about me any more?!"

"Jasper tried to convince everyone of Victoria's potential. Edward and Alice would contradict everything he said by saying that Victoria wasn't a threat. He was out-voted in the end and had no choice but to do as he was told. It was the reason why he left the family in the end and turn himself in to Aro, where he became part of their employment as punishment for his crimes in the South. They granted him leniency because of how he turned himself around." Rose explained.

"Then why didn't he come back then if they no longer had anything over him?" I asked.

"It happened a year after we left. Everything with Victoria had already happened, from what we learned. But he didn't go back because he was told by Edward that you hated him because of what happened on your birthday. He thought he was doing right by you." She answered as we both elapsed into thoughtful silence.

A/N: So, what did you guys think?! I thought you deserved a long chapter since I've been slackin with all my updates. But I'm trying to get them done as fast as I can! Bella's conscience is beginning to get to her regarding the remaining Cullen's and though she has a right to be mad at what happened, she needed to hear the whole story. Not to mention, hurting her mate was hurting her, as well. Any idea's what's going to happen next? Review!

If you have any questions on comments, post them in my reviews and I will answer them in my next Author's Note!

To see more, go to either of our pages: Xo Bella Italiana oX or DeathsQueen26

If you enjoyed this story so far, check out some of my other stories on my FanFiction page! Also, I am still accepting Twilight stories that involve Jasper/any female leads or Bella/selected male leads if anyone is looking for a Beta Reader. I will make exceptions on the characters depending on the plot. I will also accept other FF topics, as well.
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Xo Bella Italiana oX