Title: Promises to Keep

By: Cheddar the Cheese

Second Interlude: Both Sides Now

Summery: A single moment can mean nothing or everything. Bella finds a way to live after a part of her dies.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything you recognize from Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series. I do own the plot and any original characters that may pop up.

Note: EDWARD'S HERE! Yay!

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I've looked at love from both sides now
From give and take, and still somehow
Its loves illusions I recall
I really don't know love at all
Tears and fears and feeling proud
To say I love you right out loud
Dreams and schemes and circus crowds
I've looked at life that way
But now old friends are acting strange
They shake their heads, they say I've changed
Well something's lost, but something's gained
In living every day
I've looked at life from both sides now
From win and lose and still somehow
Its life's illusions I recall
I really don't know life at all

-Both Sides Now by Joni Mitchell

"You appear to be too late." The voice rang out in the stone room and echoed in his head.

Edward Cullen stood in front of the Vultori letting nothing show on his face. "Too late?"

He was proud of how he was able to keep the emotion out of his voice.

"You did not know?" Caius asked with a show of shock written on his face. "I thought surely you would have heard by now."

"Heard what?" Edward ground out, forcing the words past his teeth.

Aro narrowed his eyes. "Victoria is dead."

Edward swallowed just to calm his nerves. He studied the three stoic figures seated before him. Giving a slight bow he said, "I thank you for your time then." With that, he turned to leave.

"Boy!" Aro called sharply. Edward froze and turned back to face the trio. Aro was studying him with intense curiosity. "I am not finished yet. I wish to speak to you- as a friend of Carlisle." His brothers were staring at him in confusion, but he ignored them as he stood up quickly.

Edward followed obediently behind, just ahead of Aro's personal guard. His mind was reeling with the new information. Victoria was dead. He was not paying much attention. In a moment, all of his plans had changed. Alice had said that there was a vampire trying to kill Bella. An old friend of Carlisle's had said that someone was after her. Victoria was the only vampire that Edward could think of that might want to kill Bella. She hadn't met any others besides the Cullens.

The question now was what did this mean for his plans? He had planned on gaining the permission to kill Victoria with no repercussions. It solved everything. Bella would be safe and Edward would not be killed for killing Victoria. Whatever Aro had to say, it had better be good but he could tell nothing from the thoughts around him.

Aro's office was not the grand sweeping place that Edward had been expecting. It was large with a large tinted window facing East. Paintings hung on the stone walls with tapestries lending an air of other to the room. There was a large desk in one corner with a very modern computer humming away. Two soft leather couches sat facing each other over a large wooden table that was strewn with books.

It was on one of these couches that Aro sat. He dismissed the guards that followed them and leaned back to study Edward.

Young… Carlisle's son… Not as impulsive as my brothers think… Doesn't know what he started… Mind reader.

And then suddenly he stopped thinking. Edward had never been so shocked in his life. A person cannot simply stop thinking. Thoughts always drifted around in a person's head. They could avoid thinking about something but then they thought harder about other things. His shock must have shone on his face.

"A useful trick I picked up over time. There are those that can read a person's thoughts on their face the same as you pick them out of their head. Only they are more dangerous, Edward. What you do- and what I do to an extent- can be done with none the wiser but you never want someone studying your face too long. You never know what it is they will read. Better to think nothing. Feel nothing."

"You may be able to turn off your thoughts, but in my experience, emotions don't follow your mind."

"Which brings us here today," Aro said smoothly. "You love this girl and yet you have left her alone. I wonder what the most foolish part of you is. There is the part that loves a human girl enough to kill for her. And there is the part of you that gave up that love to protect her. Damned if you and damned if you don't."

Edward mentally grimaced at the use of the word damned. Even if it weren't for all the sins he had committed, he was planning on killing himself eventually. Suicides don't walk on the golden shores.

He said nothing. Aro watched him in silence.

"What did you bring me here for?" Edward finally asked. He knew it was rude but he didn't care.

"What do you know about Victoria and James, Edward?"

Edward thought for a moment. "I know James was a tracker. He liked to follow young women- Like Bella and my sister, Alice. They had been together for a long time."

"Almost two hundred years. He hadn't been a vampire for more than a few years before he found her." Aro shifted back in his seat and gestured for Edward to sit across from him. "Please, sit." So Edward sat but he wasn't comfortable.

"Some two hundred years ago- seventeen sixty something- we had a party here. Carlisle was still here. One of the evening's entertainments was- well, children. I think that was what finally drove your father away from us. James was a babe in arms and he disappeared from a hall filled with vampires. I learned later that the child had been stolen by a woman who was sleeping with Carlisle."

Edward's stomach was in knots. If he could have thrown up, he would have. This being sitting there so causally was talking about the slaughter of children- babies even- as if it were the most natural thing in the world. The thought of Carlisle sleeping with a woman who wasn't Esme was faintly disturbing as well but he knew that his father was a man and four hundred years is a long time to be celibate.

"She had been lovers with Alfonso for longer than anyone really knew and when she and your father started their affair, Alfonso became enraged. He tracked the boy and waited. When he was old enough, he turned him. He sent James off into the world to find Carlisle and destroy him. Only you killed James before he could get to him. Which leaves us with Alfonso. He came to us not long ago and requested the rights to the blood of Carlisle's clan. He included in his list, a human girl."

Edward felt his blood freeze in his veins. "Bella."

"You remind me of myself- many years ago. I too was in love once. I would have done anything for her."

Edward sat motionless, listening. "Will you help me?"

Aro studied him for a long moment and Edward resisted the urge to listen to his thoughts. "If you kill Alfonso, I can promise you that you will find no further repercussions. I cannot rescind the permission we extended to Alfonso but if you get to him before he gets to any of you, it will be over."

Aro stood up and turned his back on him. Edward had the feeling that the meeting was over. He stood. "Thank you," he said. "For telling me- and for your promise. Thank you."

"Do not be the fool who left the girl he loves. Fools never survive in the end," said Aro without turning. Edward nodded, know that Aro couldn't see him but doing it anyway, and left.

Bella was in Texas. Alice had said it seemed like she had really moved on with her life- a thought that had nearly crippled him. But he knew that Bella would be too stubborn to ask for help and even if she had moved on with her life, he couldn't imagine a world without her in it.

"I'm coming, Bella."

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