I know I haven't updated in forever and a decade. Sorry for the long delay guys! I'm hoping things calm down around here. Still have my AP Exam and State Testing to prepare for. I hope you like the chapter :) Review and Enjoy!

Chapter Six: The Battle

"Bella? Bella, can you hear me?"

"Overdramatic much?"

"Shush. Poor thing is clearly overwhelmed."

"I told you to just leave her alone."

"Jake isn't one for following orders."

"Duh."

I moaned as the darkness eased along with the cold claws of unconsciousness. I pried myself free and faced the battle with my eyelids. They were so heavy, it was remarkable I was able to open them morning after morning after hours of nights long sleep. I forced my eyes to open, revealing the faces of three individuals. One was Jake, centering himself in my vision so he could make sure I was alright; another was Sam, of course he had to assess the situation being as he was the leader and needed all the answers, all the angles before he could openly express his opinion or orders; the third one was a woman with long black hair, warm chestnut skin tone, beautiful brown eyes and a complex face. She resembled two face…one half was perfectly normal and matched her earthly beauty; the other was scratched up like it had been shred to pieces and was being held together by thin layers of glue. It was fascinating and I couldn't help but stare.

"Bella?" She spoke softly, not even flinching under my gaze, though I knew I wasn't blinking. "Are you okay?"

"Psst. Bells, stop staring." I glanced at Embry but caught Sam out of the corner of my eye. His body had tensed in an unnatural, remorseful way. His face was of pure pain and regret, sullen. He was extremely sorry for something…something I already knew of but didn't know at this particular moment. I blinked, snapping out of it and looked back at the girl apologetically.

"I…I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to be rude…" Her smile was easy and half full. It was hard for her to carry the movement clear across her face but there was something about her, something that made her beautiful even though she was damaged. She had the love of the leader of the wolf pack who thought she was larger than life. My chest ached as if moaning agony. I miss that.

I froze. When had I ever had that? The face from earlier threatened to show itself but I pushed it back, squeezing my eyes shut in concentration.

"It's okay. I know you've been through a lot." The glint in her eyes told me she knew about my dive, about my amnesia and how it was coming back to me gradually. But…they also held the understanding and connection that we had. I didn't know why I felt like I could understand her, her pain, her worry. Had we been best friends or something? There was a flash of me and her in a kitchen, smiling and talking and cooking… It was gone in seconds, but my mind still pondered over the visual now buried in my memory like all the others.

"How are you feeling Bella?" Jake immediately took the spotlight, sliding his warm hand at the base of my head and the tip of my neck, helping me sit up on the bed that I seemed to be on. I let him hold most of my weight because I knew he could handle it and at this point in time, I couldn't. His eyes again filled my visions, coming into focus while everything else was reduced to blurs. "Bells?" He asked again, obviously thinking I had a mental issue from the fall.

"I'm fine…" I told him. "Just…processing.." It had been overwhelming. Having history to which I didn't recall happening flash before my eyes like a home video I had throw away and forgotten where I'd thrown it.

"Just take a deep breath," The girl instructed gently, while Jake positioned himself both under me and beside me. His arms were wrapped tightly around me as he held me to his chest, all while laying down on the bed in the space beside me.

"Jake give her space." I feared he would let go of me and my eyes widened in horror while my mouth blurted out a protest before Jake had the opportunity to neither accept nor regret Sam's order.

"No! He…He's fine." I held his hand in both of mine. I didn't want him to let me go.

I didn't want him to let me go….haven't I thought this before? But with someone else?

"Bella." I looked at Jake who gestured to the girl looking at me both curious and concerned. Her eyes told me what my gut was screaming. I was hugging the wrong person. I was clutching the wrong monster. But it didn't make any sense. Had someone taken Jake's place in the past? "Do you remember Emily?" I shook my head in response to Jake though my eyes never left hers. I watched half of her face slowly form a deformed but successful smile.

"Vampire girl." Vampire girl?

"Wolf girl." I had said it as a correction but there was something about our exchange of words that caused a Déjà vu. This was an inside joke between us. Her smiled brightened as Jake's muscles tightened and Jared groaned.

"This is a real nice reunion and all, but we still have a parasite to kill."

"Parasite?" I asked, looking back at Jake who just shook his head and kissed my hair.

"Jake come on. You can caress her later."

"One more second of this and I'm blowing my brains out."

"Want me to bash them out? There's not much there." Paul gave Embry a clear view of his middle finger and Embry laughed.

"Both of you brainless idiots, shut up," Sam addressed the both of them, then looked at Jake who stiffened against me as if he knew what was coming. I felt Jake nuzzle his face in the back of my neck and wondered if he was inhaling my scent the way I took his in every time he held me to him. I felt his facial features, lips…nose…chin… against my skin and tingled from the intimate, warm feeling it brought me.

"Bells," Jake's voice was soft and muffled from his face still being buried. "You're only safe when you're with us. Please stay here." I had no plans of leaving regardless. There was something about Jake that pulled me towards him. Leaving was the last thing on my mind, a mere nightmare to the dream I seemed to be having.

You're only safe when you're with us. He could only protect me as long as I stayed in the perimeter. Perimeter…what perimeter? The wolves…they were limited here for a reason. There was a line they couldn't cross; a border they were forbidden to hop over in wolf form. And why was that? Were they under an agreement? Something else crossed my mind.

"Why am I in danger?" I asked, partly knowing I was asking an unnecessary question…at least it would be if I hadn't lost my memory. There was an awkward silence in the room. Jared looked at Paul who glanced out the window, faking disinterest. Quil and Embry looked both sympathetic and a bit uncomfortable. Sam and Jake grew completely quiet as their faces darkened. But none was like Jake who's eyes growled pitch black like a night with no moon; lips revealing clenched teeth. I felt the growl rising in his chest, the tremors he fisted his hands into fists in order to gain leverage and control. Emily was the only one not frozen from rage. She looked down at me with gentle eyes and maintained eye contact as she spoke her next words.

"Someone is after you, Bella. A vampire." My eyes widened as my body surrendered my fear, trembling in Jake's arms.

A vampire. Like Alice. My mind flashed back to the creature who claimed I meant so much to her. How did I know she wasn't the vampire trying to kill me? Her and her family of murderers? She was capable of things no other human was capable of doing. She was fast…really fast, and radiated with power that I hadn't understood until now. She had the power to take away a life, the power to give a nightmare, the power to see things no one would want to see, nor was able to.

"Oh…oh god.." Jake snapped back to life, gaining control over the beast and shoving him back in the cage as he pressed me to his chest.

"Ssssh. It's okay Bella. We'll protect you." I looked at him horrified. Him fighting Alice was not an image my heart could handle. If she laid one hand on him, I might just pass out.

"N-No Jake. Alice'll kill you!" There was an eruption of laughter. I looked at Paul who had fallen to his knees, shoulders shaking in hysteria. Embry and Quil were laughing too but not as dramatic. Jared wiped a tear from his eyes. Then I heard Jake's laugh and looked at him in utter confusion and rage.

Did they think this was funny? Did they have any clue what they were up against? I had no clue what we were up against and I was terrified. Jake caught my glared and recovered quickly.

"Alice isn't after you Bells."

"Yeah…she's just a harmless Cullen," Paul said, leaning against the wall as if he hadn't been on the floor seconds before.

"We have bigger fish to fry." I gaped at Embry, shining with confidence. Bigger fish to fry? Bigger than Alice and more dangerous. Embry merely smiled at my expression. "You underestimate us Bella. Relax." Relax?

"You're…werewolves-"

"Ahem," Jared interrupted.

"Shapeshifters," Quil corrected. Whatever.

"You...can't catch a vampire. They're fast…and…super strong…I-I don't want you guys to get hurt."

"I find your concern about our safety insulting," Paul murmured.

"Vampires may be good, but we're better." Sam finally spoke, standing against the wall with his arms around Emily, observing and monitoring what was going on.

"Yeah. That dreads guy was a piece of cake. We'll be kicking ass by sunset." Quil was just as confident as the others. They were almost arrogant.

Dreads guy. Laurent. "You…you killed Laurent?" I asked in disbelief. Judging by the looks on their faces, I had said something that hit a nerve.

"You remember his name?" I bit my lip, noticing the significance as well and nodded. The name had come easily, yet everything else was still encoded in my brain cells.

There was silence for a moment. Jake's body had gone rigid.

"Do you know who's after you?" Embry asked. Though I felt Jake's body turn to stone as tremors shook his figure against mine like a baby earthquake. I slowly let my hand fall over his and intertwined our fingers, it was as if I'd slipped on silver rings fresh from the burning blaze of a summer's sun. I marveled how good...and wrong it felt. The sensations were amazing...but not spectacular. Not breathtaking.

Had I had that with someone else?

"Red hair, serious attitude, tricky moves, all around bi-" Paul was interrupted in his description of my assassin, more like his interpretation of a sassy pit bull.

"Paul, shut up." Sam hadn't spoken. Jake had. His tone dared anyone to challenge him and get ripped to shreds. Oddly enough, the amount of authority he leaked was astonishing...the leader in him came off naturally and it wasn't until now that I realized not only was he fighting the beast, he was fighting this....himself. He could rival Sam for control of the pack, but he chose not to. Because he didn't want it.

Paul did shut up; rolling his eyes to the ceiling and folding his arms across his chest, but never opening his mouth.

I thought of the description he had been able to get out, separating it from the butthead tone he'd used, and let it paint a picture in my mind. My breath came out a bit shaky as my hand squeezed Jake's, squeezing a rock with little impact nor effect. Lips pressed themselves softly to my hair, attempting to calm me. "Victoria." That's her name. Victoria. My relentless killer.

Red hair...red flaming hair that set the water on fire in the sunlight...or was that her breaking through the surface? Red hair...red hair..

"I...I saw her..." I had looked into her eyes as she advanced towards me; leaving me helpless with the heavy task of keeping me from drowning. She had been coming for me. But didn't succeed. Something made her back off...something she was if not afraid of, appalled at...

Jake. My hero more than twice.

It was silent. Completely and utterly silent for the first time. Jake looked up at Sam as he held me even closer, merging our beings together and I didn't fight him. I wanted him as close as humanly possible...being attached to the hip was not enough. There was a single sound. A buzzing sound, breaking through the weight of the quiet...and the weight of Jake.

I didn't notice a thing when he picked me up like a baby doll, and slid his hand into his back pocket, pulling out a small, sleek, silver cell phone that, judging by the furrowing of his eyebrows and confused features, was not his. Sam's body and mind seemed to come to attention; his eyes never left Jake as he nodded slowly.

Jake glanced at the caller ID, then opened the phone, putting the receiver to his ear. "Who is this?" I heard nothing from the other end. I watched Jake's annoyed expression morph to pure anger and hatred.

"Bringing more leeches to town solves nothing. You'll scare her to death." There were more coming? More like Alice. I flinched, shifting so I could bury my face in his chest.

"She doesn't want anything to do with you. Leave her alone."

"Bella, get back." I had thought I was shaking terribly...but it was Jake. The tremors were more frequently, gaining strength until he was vibrating the entire bed.

"Uh oh."

"It's not smart to piss a wolf off."

"Chill Jake, you're too close. You'll kill her." Embry's words, had us all thinking of Emily.

"Bella!," Sam warned again. A strong hand grasped my wrist and pulled me up and away from Jake. It was practically a miracle I got away; I had been gripping his arm with all the strength I could muster, trying to make sure we were never separate again. And now we were.

"Jake!" My eyes widened in fear and horror as his body exploded into showers of confetti...the remains of his clothing. A huge reddish brown wolf, the size of a horse...maybe bigger, stood in his place, breathing heavy and growling into the phone that had once been held by a human hand. I starred, stunned speechless. I couldn't even move, feeling my heart pounding in my chest; my lungs screamed, going into overdrive to handle the oxygen I was huffing in, trying to calm myself. My nerves, brain cells, mind in all it's complexity and entirety, was haywire. I repeated the scene over and over in my head and came to no simple reasoning that didn't blow my mind to the point of malfunction.

"J...J...Jake.." I whispered. The huge wolf turned to face me, it's large brown eyes boring into mine; we were equally leveled.

"Jake...phase back...now." I was fighting to battles. The battle to stop myself from shaking...and the urge to scream as loud as I could. My mind was torn in two. Jake, my best friend, my hero, my...everything as of now. A part of me told me it was still that same Jake that loved me more than I realized and more than I could love him though I vowed to try. A part of me knew he wouldn't harm me. He couldn't.

But another part told me, I'd seen this before...and I knew why this was happening. This is not the beginning, but the middle of something that I had started, something I'd begun with someone else.

And more was coming.