We won't say our goodbye's, you know it's better that way,
We won't break, we won't die, it's just a moment of change
All we are, all we are is everything that's right
All we need, all we need, a lover's alibi
-All We Are by OneRepublic
Chapter Nineteen
I stood in the clearing, my hand entwined with my wife's, waiting for the inevitable sound of a small vampire army's approach. The rest of my family stood by our side, standing bravely with us. The wolves were hidden in the woods behind us to make sure that they were not seen before the newborns were in the clearing. This would allow them to circle around all of us and make sure none escaped.
It had been a week since our wedding, a glorious week of happiness. When our training session had been interrupted by Jacob announcing the newborns departure from Seattle, I was torn. Part of me dreaded the idea of the battle where I had the chance of losing someone close to me, whether that was a friend, family member, or heaven forbid my wife. But, there was also a chunk of me that just wanted to get the fight over with. There was no way of avoiding a confrontation, so there was also a part of me that wanted it finished, for better or worse, but hopefully for the better.
The idea of Bella and I together for numerous lifetimes was alluring. We could travel, build a house, go to school, follow our dreams. There were no limits on what we could do and I wanted so badly for us to come out of the battle unscathed. The prospect of losing Bella was horrifying. Losing Alice had been difficult, but if I lost Bella as well, I wasn't so sure I would be able to recover again.
Eventually, the sound of the newborns running reached my ears. Good, they caught one of the many trails we had laid out. I glanced around me, letting my gaze linger on each one of my family members, wondering if this was the last time I would them alive. They were doing the same. But, none of us said anything. Even as I looked into Bella's eyes there were no words. We knew the love we felt for each other and there was nothing else to be said beyond that.
Victoria led her band of vampires into the clearing. She held up her hand to stop them at a safe distance from us. She smirked, probably feeling confident seeing our dwindling numbers. There were six of us, compared to her thirteen vampire army.
Carlisle stepped forward. "It is not too late to turn back. We don't want any unnecessary bloodshed. If you stand down now we won't hurt you. We don't want to fight."
"Not so confident without your psychic and mind reader?" Victoria sneered.
"Please, we have already suffered enough loss. No good will come out of any of this. This isn't going to bring James back," Carlisle reasoned.
This only seemed to infuriate Victoria. "Don't you dare speak his name; you have no right."
And with that she lunged forward towards our family and the rest of her followers raced toward us. The battle had begun.
I went for Victoria but a newborn got in my way and I got distracted. I focused on him only, but he was quick and had more training than I expected. He hesitated though as the wolves joined the fray. I took my opportunity to rip his head off and quickly dismembered him.
I looked around me, trying to find Victoria. I glimpsed her flaming hair, and my insides lurched when I saw her sparring with Bella. I pushed towards her but once again another newborn got in my way. I quickly attacked her, but I realized she wasn't fighting back. I pulled back and looked down at her. She appeared young, a teenager when she had been changed. She looked at me, her blood red eyes wide with fear.
"I don't want to fight. I don't want to be here. I just wanted to find my friend," she spoke timidly.
I glanced back to Bella who was holding her own against Victoria. I noticed already the newborns had been thinned out quickly. I wanted to just leave this girl so I could help Bella, but I knew one of the wolves may not be as discerning. I sighed, remembering my own fear when I had been a newborn. How different I might have turned out if somebody had just shown me some compassion.
"Follow me," I instructed her, grabbing her hand to ensure she stayed with me.
I led her to the tree line and told her to sit down and stay hidden for the moment. I reassured her I would come back for her. She nodded meekly.
I returned quickly, spotting Victoria and Bella still battling. I rushed forward, noting that Bella was keeping up with Victoria well. Actually she was doing better than that. Victoria was letting out frustrated growls but Bella was keeping her cool. I could already tell Victoria was getting sloppy. I was almost within reach when I froze, seeing Bella taking advantage of Victoria lunging straight forward. It was very reminiscent of mine and Bella's small sparring match. And apparently she had been paying attention because she quickly grabbed Victoria and trapped her just like I had. I didn't hesitate before closing the distance and decapitating Victoria myself. Bella efficiently tore the rest of her limbs from her torso.
I turned my attention back to my surrounding and was relieved to see no more newborns standing. An immense feeling of relief washed over me and I don't know exactly whose feeling it was because at that moment everybody was realizing at the same moment that not only were we victorious but we were unscathed. We all just stood there, unsure exactly what to do next.
I realized quickly that I had to get the newborn that I had stashed away in the trees. As I was retrieving her, Carlisle started to tell the wolves that they should go.
"You all have sacrificed a lot of your time and energy to help protect our family. I am eternally grateful to all of you for this. Go home and rest. We will clean up," Carlisle spoke to all of the wolves.
They seemed to agree because they started to disappear from the clearing, the same way they had come. Sam paused though in front of Carlisle and knelt forward a small bit and lowered his head. Carlisle understood the sign of respect and nodded back.
I reached the girl, who crouched on the ground, frightened. I leaned down and looked her in the eye. "What's your name?" I asked, as kindly as possible.
"Bree."
"Bree, we aren't going to hurt you," I assured her, holding my hand out for her to take.
She studied my hand for a moment. She must have decided I was worth trusting because she took it. I held onto it as I pulled her up and led her back to my family.
The rest of the family looked at the two of us curiously. "This is Bree. She told me she didn't want to fight," I explained.
Everybody came in closer, but Bree instantly froze, feeling threatened. Esme continued forward though, obviously her maternal instincts kicking in.
"Bree, that's a pretty name. My name is Esme. I don't want to harm you in any way, I just want to talk. Is that okay with you?" Esme's voice was gentle and had a calming affect.
Bree nodded.
"Do you want to come back with me to our house and we can talk?"
"Only you?" Bree asked hesitantly, eyeing how outnumbered she was.
Esme glanced at the family. "Will you guys be okay to finish up here?"
"Esme, I don't know…" Rosalie shook her head.
"We will be fine. You two go ahead. We will be along in a while," I cut in.
Bree dropped my own hand and took Esme's outstretched one, following her out of the clearing. It wasn't until I was sure they were out of hearing distance that I spoke up again. "Bree is harmless. She doesn't have any fight in her, just sorrow. She said something about looking for a friend," I relayed to the family.
"Not to mention I trust Esme. She can handle herself," Carlisle added.
"If you say so," Rosalie said.
"We should get to work," Carlisle changed the subject. "I'll start the fire and you guys start grabbing any pieces you find."
We all set out to start looking for pieces, although first I caught up with Bella and took a moment to give her a hug. I breathed in her scent, thrilled at the prospect that there was no limit to how many times I would get to do that. She and I had our whole futures ahead of us. After kissing her soundly I pulled back and took her hand and followed her.
"You know this would go more quickly if we were doing this separately," Bella teased.
"What's the hurry? We have all the time in the world."
We continued our search for newborn pieces, adding them to the fire as we found them. It was quiet at first but Emmett broke the peaceful atmosphere.
"So the first one I fought was huge, I mean ginormous, and that's saying something from me. He wasn't that bright though. He just kept trying to slam into me. Then the gray wolf, I have no idea who that is, came forward and just BAM bit off his head. It was awesome!"
I laughed at Emmett's excitement as he continued a play by play recount of the battle through his eyes. We each chimed in occasionally with our own stories and overall the mood was light in the clearing as we scoured the ground for any stray bits of vampire.
The mood was broken, though, when we all heard a rustle at the same time. There was the distinct sound of a handful, three maybe four, vampires running towards us.
Instinctively and like lightening each of us ran towards the center of the clearing, regrouping to display a united front. From the looks on everybody's face, I wasn't the only one that was confused. I met Jasper's eyes and he just shrugged. My guess was that it was a few stragglers from Victoria's group. But why then were they so far behind?
They weren't members of Victoria's army I concluded as four figures emerged into the field covered in dark cloaks. They came to a stop and dramatically threw their hoods back to reveal their faces. Every part of me froze and for the first time as a vampire I felt cold. Even though the memory was murky, I recognized one of the vampires immediately. Edward. It seemed he recognized me too.
"Bella!" Edward gasped. He looked like was going to lunge forward but he paused.
I dragged my eyes away from Edward to finally look at his companions. There was a large muscular man, along with an average looking man. But, it seemed the petite blond, who reminded me of a child, held the power. She held up a hand, stopping Edward.
"Well, isn't this interesting. I am assuming this is Bella, the human that was supposed to have died." The blond leveled her gaze at me, appraising me fully. I felt naked for some reason as she studied me.
"Yes." I tried to sound confident, but in all honesty I was floundering at that moment. The fact that the rest of the family had kept quiet so far, made me think these were people to be respected. That meant the Volturi.
"Edward, is Alice…" Carlisle trailed off.
Edward shook his head sadly. A hope I didn't even notice spawn withered away within me. If Edward was alive wouldn't that mean Alice was too? I didn't understand. The grief that had been buried away rose and I imagined it was akin to losing Alice all over again.
"Jane," Carlisle spoke evenly, not betraying what had to be tumultuous emotions at seeing his son alive again. "Aro is well aware that Bella survived and we had made a bargain that Bella was not to be harmed as long as she was turned to a vampire within a year. We are obviously well within that time frame. I hope you will relay to Aro that she has been successfully turned."
"I will." Jane examined the clearing and our family silently for a moment before speaking again. "This is all very fascinating, but alas our reason for being here seems to be taken care of. We were here to handle the growing population of newborns. We were surprised when we landed to find that they left the city. We followed them here and it seems we just missed out on the fight. It is odd that they came after your family," Jane noted, obviously fishing for information.
"Not really. The leader, Victoria, was after Bella because our family is responsible for the death of her mate. She was seeking retribution," Carlisle explained.
Jane nodded as if this made sense. "How unfortunate, but it seems you handled yourself well, remarkably coming out of this without a scratch."
"We were lucky," Carlisle ceded, not hinting at the help we had.
"It seems," Jane muttered contemplatively. I couldn't quite tell if she was suspicious or not, but after a minute of sizing us up, she shook her head and must have decided we were either innocent or there was nothing she could do about it. "Then like I said, it seems our services have been rendered useless. We will leave and I will happily convey to Aro Bella's transformation."
"Thank you," Carlisle responded.
Jane and her two male companions turned to leave, but Edward stood where he was, his eyes not leaving mine. His gaze made me uncomfortable.
"Jane, as you can imagine I would like to catch up with my family." Edward said in a neutral tone.
"Of course. I will tell Aro that you have decided to prolong your stay here with your," Jane hesitated for a fraction of second, "family."
Edward thanked her before she and the two men left, leaving us in the clearing alone. For a brief moment, I actually wished they would stay as a buffer. I knew I was supposed to be ecstatic at Edward's return but I was having a hard time mustering up the enthusiasm. I was happy he was alive, there was no doubt about that. But, that was about all I was sure of. I had so many questions.
Edward was the first to make a move; he ran forward and swiftly caught me in a hug, twirling me around. I reacted instinctively hugging him back, but I didn't respond with his same muttered exclamations. He kept murmuring my name and how he couldn't believe I was alive. Once he stopped spinning he put me down but did not let me go.
I caught a slight movement out of the corner of my eye and I turned my head to see more clearly. Jasper was staring me straight in the eye, willing me to understand something. I didn't know what it was. Then he turned his gaze down and I saw his hands. He was removing his wedding ring. It clicked then. He was trying to tell me he was stepping aside if I wanted. All he had ever wanted was my happiness and if that meant me being with Edward, I knew Jasper would support me.
If I had ever contemplated the idea of having to choose between Jasper and Edward I would have imagined it would be difficult. I probably would have pictured lists and weighing my emotions carefully. But in that moment it was crystal clear and there was no question in my mind or heart. I shook my head to Jasper, who's face brightened. He slid the ring back on his finger.
Edward stiffened in my arms before letting me go. He turned towards Jasper and growled. The air became thick with tension as Rosalie and Emmett quickly flanked Jasper. I moved to stand between Edward and Jasper. Carlisle came around to place a calming hand on Edward.
"What is the meaning of this?" Edward spat out.
His anger sparked something in me and I saw the familiar tinges of red in my vision, telling me I was going down a dangerous path. "Edward," I gritted through clenched teeth. "Jasper and I are married."
Hurt and confusion flashed across his features before he landed on rage. "How could you?"
The question hung heavy in the air, because I knew the question wasn't just for me, it was for each of us. However, I could only answer for myself. "You left me that day in the woods. You said it would be like you never existed, which was the biggest lie you told me. And when I found out you died, it was like my life ceased to have meaning. Your family was there for me and Jasper knew better than anybody what I felt because he had lost Alice as well." Edward flinched at her name, but I soldiered on. "We became friends and then something more. We were married just a week ago."
It felt weird summarizing months of growth and transformation into a few sentences, but I didn't know what else to say. I didn't really expect my words to seem reasonable to Edward and in the end I knew that his opinion didn't matter.
"How could you just move on like that?" Edward asked in disbelief.
That was the moment that Rosalie decided to jump in. "Fuck you. You don't get to past judgment on these two. You lost that the moment you booked that flight to Volterra. You have not seen how these two have suffered, how we all have suffered. Who is to deny them this small bit of happiness?"
This did nothing to dissuade Edward though. "I don't care what you think. I care what Bella thinks and I know she couldn't just stop loving me, at least the Bella I knew."
"The Bella you knew has long since disappeared," I cut in. "She died the day you left me in the woods. You decided for me that my life would be better without you in it."
"I was trying to do what was best for you."
"And look where I ended up," I yelled, waving my arms around me. "Victoria still came after me. I still became a vampire, even without your approval. I never needed a caretaker to guide me through life. I didn't then and I don't need it now. Through all of this, the one thing I have learned is that I am strong and can handle life's obstacles. I don't need somebody to take care of me. Instead I want somebody to share my life with and I have found that in this family and my relationship with Jasper."
"What about you?" Edward retorted, his sights shifting to Jasper. "This is how you decide to honor the memory of Alice?"
I heard a string of profanities come out of Rosalie's mouth and Emmett inhaled deeply. But, I turned slightly to see Jasper's reaction. Fury was emanating from him and I had never seen his features looked so cold and feral. He spoke his words in a dangerous whisper. "You have the audacity to accuse me of betraying her when it is because of you she is dead? I don't know what happened in Volterra, but I know that she left to save your life and yet here you stand and she is dead."
Those words seemed to sober Edward. His shoulders shrunk in defeat and I saw pain in his eyes. "I didn't mean for any of that to happen."
Carlisle sighed, stepping forward. "We can all agree nobody meant for anything bad to happen to this family, yet this is the situation we found ourselves in. Edward you are more than welcome back into our home, but you have to honor Bella's choice of being with Jasper. I will not tolerate any fighting in this family," Carlisle sternly warned all of us.
We all nodded, except for Edward who examined Jasper and I for a minute. I wondered if Edward was reading Jasper's thoughts. I felt a sense of protectiveness of Jasper and something around me tingled. Before I could give it anymore attention, Edward nodded his head in acquiescence of Carlisle's demand.
"Good. Let's get back to the house. Esme will be thrilled to see you unharmed," Carlisle told Edward as he put an arm around his shoulders, leading him back to the house. Edward gave us a lingering glance over his shoulder before turning forward. Rosalie and Emmett gave Jasper and I brief hugs before heading home as well.
I didn't move from my spot, still in a daze at all of the new information that had just been thrown at me. Jasper moved closer, putting his arms loosely around me so he could still see my face. I responded by putting my arms around his shoulders, wanting to be close to him.
"Are you sure about this? Not that I'm complaining about your decision, but I would understand if you wanted to to be with Edward."
I considered his words briefly, before raising my gaze to meet his eyes. "It's funny, but if I had ever considered that this situation would arise, I would have guessed that I would pick Edward, or at least have a more difficult time of choosing. But, when I saw you sliding your ring off your finger, I can't describe how sad that thought made me, that we would be over. More importantly though, I saw how you were willing to put my happiness first, but you didn't make the decision for me. The choice was still in my hands. You are what I want in my life and nothing can change that."
"Thank you," Jasper whispered.
He briefly kissed me before placing his forehead against mine. I closed my eyes, inhaling his scent deeply, letting his presence calm my stormy emotions.
My thoughts drifted to Alice. I considered for a moment, what Jasper would have done if it had been Alice that had been alive. I was relatively certain that Jasper would pick Alice, but that thought didn't sadden me. I knew that the love that those two shared could never be replaced and I could have been at peace knowing that Jasper had Alice back. I squashed those thoughts quickly though, knowing it was useless to even to go down that road. I thought of more important consideration.
"Are you okay? I mean with Edward being alive but Alice still being dead"
His eyes were warm as they opened at my words. "Surprisingly yes. There is no changing what is done and I'm happy that Edward is alive. I may not be okay with the part he played in Alice's death, but I've long since come to accept that it was Alice's own decision to go to him that day. In the end, Edward is family. It may take some time, well a lot of time, but we will get past this."
"You think so?" I asked hopefully.
"Yeah. It is going to be awkward, no getting around that, but our family can survive anything, including this."
I couldn't stop the smile that blossomed on my face. "Have I told you today how much I love you?"
Jasper pretended to ponder my words. "I'm not sure."
"Well, I do. I love you so much."
"I love you too," Jasper murmured. He kissed me lazily for a minute or two, before pulling back. "Now that Victoria is taken care, our future is much more open. Now what?"
I grinned. "Anything we want."
A/N: One more chapter! I hope you enjoyed the direction I took this. One reader predicted Edward was alive in a review. Kudos. This chapter was a bitch. I always had this ending in mind, but let's just say it wasn't as easy as I had planned. I am notorious for dropping the ball with actual plot scenes so I hope that fighting scene went okay. It's better than some of my other climatic scenes in other stories, so I'm pleased, but I would love to know what you think. I also, read the Bree Tanner book and how could I not help but save her. I hope nobody is too peeved with the change in outcome. The next chapter is going to be an epilogue of sorts to wrap things up a little more tightly. Hopefully that will be up soon. If you didn't notice I nodded to Bella's shield powers, but it's not within the scope of this story to actually delve into it, sorry if that disappoints.
Thanks so much for all of you being so patient. Also, thanks for all of the kind reviews. See you again soon.