Past Bella POV
"Tell me you forgive me…."
"Forgive you? For what?!…"
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How the hell did Mike Newton end up in this conversation?!
"Mike Newton ended up in this conversation because Mike Newton would be a hell of a lot healthier for you to be with!"
"I'd rather die than be with Mike Newton! I'd rather die than be with anyone but you!"
--
I gasped when I opened my eyes as the words hit me like a wall of impenetrable concrete, echoing around my head in a flurry of panic. I collapsed against the tree behind me; I felt like someone had just dumped a waterfall of sub-zero ice water over my head. My eyes flitted hastily across my environment to see no other than Alice Cullen standing in front of me for just one split second before she vanished, only to materialize once again to face Edward.
I looked up to meet his gaze, but something was wrong. His eyes didn't appear focused. He looked like a statue almost….He was frozen! His handsome face, so void of emotion, was immobile. The cold, indifferent look on his face still held perfect vacancy. His eyes, no longer deep wells of endless liquid topaz were now solid and remorseless. This wasn't Edward. Or at least the Edward I knew and loved.
Alice's hand was a blur as she placed it on his shoulder, and it almost seemed to illuminate with a sapphire glow.
Edward's eyelids launched open, his face was immediately aware of his every surroundings. He was suddenly by my side, his arm wrapped around my waist instinctively, protectively; his body rigid, but I didn't see what was terribly wrong. Yet.
I slowly took in my surroundings again, taking time to actually see. I gasped at the sheer exquisiteness of this forest. The sun was shining down through the treetops, making the pollen in the air shimmer and give everything a warm, golden aura. But the leaves. The leaves were floating in midair, as if they were frozen….
Something suddenly hit me in a eruption of insight. Alice was in Denali with Jasper. I looked up to ask what was going on, what was wrong, but the words caught in my throat. He wasn't looking at Alice. He was looking at her.
She had been so still in the shadows that I hadn't taken any notice at first, but now I couldn't look away.
As she slowly took a step out into the leaking sunlight, her skin sparkled like one million diamonds set on fire, her eyes a light copper that shined like her flowing hair that reached her elbows in graceful waves of rich mahogany. Her graceful step sent the leaves that pooled at her feet twirling in the air at a sluggish, slow motion pace and she looked up at us through her thick eyelashes. I recognized in a shot of painful agony that she was absolutely gorgeous. And she was a vampire.
Edward POV
This vampire was nothing like I had ever seen before. Or so I thought.
She was like Bella in so many dreadful ways. She was beautiful and stunning and elegant and shy. This woman was strikingly, appallingly diverse from any other vampire, but there was something else that stood out.
She had something that I had only encountered once in my entire existence. The one thing that made her more like Bella than everything else in the whole world. The one thing that petrified me more than anything else right now.
I couldn't read her mind. And she was wearing my mother's wedding ring.
Past Bella POV
I glanced up at Edward, and I saw the most absurd emotions color his face. First there was nothing but absolute terror enveloped his glorious eyes. Then utter pain washed over his features, twisting his features into a heartbreaking look of anguish of a man who had just seen his worst fear unravel before his very eyes….
I watched in slow motion at the same time as the striking vampire met eyes with Edward, an epidemic of pain filled her light eyes, and she brought her snowy hand up to cover her perfect mouth in dismay, causing something on her left hand to glisten like a firework in the brilliant and vivid sun, blinding me for a few split seconds.
The beam of shattering diamonds in the sun that radiated from the vampire's hand flashed over Edward's eyes, and before I could even register what was happening, I was being pressed between a tree trunk and Edward's back, his arms spread wide in front of us, as if he was shielding me from some harm that he saw. A low growl slithered from his exposed teeth, lustrous in the sun.
"Edward stop!" I shouted, but it sounded odd, somehow. I realized that I had shouted in unison with Alice, her high pitched, songlike voice blending with my normal human voice.
He shook his head furiously, glossy bronze hair shaking in front of his troubled eyes. "Shh, Bella, something's wrong!" he whispered to me. My eyes widened as I stared at Alice and the other mysterious vampire standing in front of us.
"Alice, what is he talking about?" I begged, suddenly terrified to what he was implying. Alice let out a huge sigh, and Edward stiffened.
"What?" his voice lashed out like a whip, never relaxing his stance in front of me.
"Edward listen to me!" Alice snapped, suddenly cantankerous. "Nothing is wrong! I'll explain everything, just calm down!" Edward glowered for an immeasurable amount of time, the silence such a heavy weight in the thick air that it threatened to make my head explode. He finally stood up straight, only to wrap both arms around my waist and angle my body away from the mysterious female that was now watching us with wide eyes.
This was a different Edward than the Edward that had taken over since my birthday. It's like he completely shut off that side of him to protect me. To protect me from Alice? No, he couldn't be trying to protect me from his own sister could he?
Edward POV
I counted how many seconds this Alice just stood there, staring at the leaf- covered forest floor, obviously trying to see into the future. I saw into her mind, and it was like trying to fast forward on an old VCR. But every time she tried to 'fast forward', it would 'pause', and the 'screen' would flicker in and out of fuzzy shapes that nobody could identify.
One hundred thirty seven…. One hundred thirty eight….
Her head snapped up, and she let out an aggravated laugh before turning to the other vampire that I refused to look at now.
"I was right. I can't see into the future when I'm in the past."
Past Bella POV
Why couldn't Alice see? She can always see…. WAIT- the past?!
She turned to us, a grim smile on her lovely face "Edward, do you believe in one of Carlisle's theories that as you grow older as a vampire, you're power can become intensified?"
I didn't understand what she was getting at. Edward just nodded his head stiffly once.
"Well… with my power, you know that I can see into people's futures, depending on what they decide… including my own," she continued. I frowned. She was talking about things that we all already knew about.
"What are you saying, Alice?" Edward asked through clenched teeth; Alice was obviously blocking her thoughts.
She sighed. "My power has grown stronger, and I can decide to freeze time if I want to. If I see myself freezing the present, it stops time." I blinked. Stop… time? I gaped, not sure what to do or say.
'Why didn't you tell us, then?" Edward snarled, and I wondered idly if he actually believed her. Alice avoided his gaze, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw the beautiful vampire grimace.
"Oh, I did tell you…. Everyone knows about it in the future," Alice whispered in a voice so small that I had to strain to hear it. There was that word again.
Future.
We were in the present. Not the future. Edward's roar echoed through the whole forest, but it sounded muted, almost like my ears were stuffed in cotton because of the air being so… deep.
I saw the atypical vampire flinch. I wish I knew her name….
"Are you trying to tell me that you're from the future?" He verbally tore at the pixie- like vampire sarcastically.
"Then how did you get here?" I asked in a voice that even I couldn't hear. A small smile graced her face.
"The second part to my enhanced ability is that I can go back. Carlisle doesn't know exactly why, but he says works with me seeing myself going into the past, and that I'm so used to making decisions for the future and manipulating what happens that it grew into changing something that has already happened.
"It's very hard, you see. If I don't focus hard enough and see myself doing something very specific in the past, it doesn't work. It's not set in stone, so who am I to change something in the set stone of the past that has already occurred?"
It seemed like she was talking to herself by now. I couldn't believe this. From the future? It seemed impossible, yet who was I to say something was impossible when I was the one dating a mythical creature. Edward interrupted my thoughts.
"Then why are you here?" he hissed. I couldn't understand why he was being so cruel to her.
"I think you know what I'm here to stop, Edward," Alice murmured bleakly. He glared daggers.
"It's my decision, and I will do what I want," he spat angrily. The other vampire looked nervous, but Alice remained unperturbed. I had no idea what they were talking about. There was something that Alice was trying to stop Edward from doing, and apparently Edward didn't like that too much.
"What is going on?" I demanded, trying to break free of Edward's grip, but he didn't let me move an inch.
"Why don't you explain to her, Edward?" Alice challenged, arching a perfect black eyebrow. He turned to me, putting both hands on my shoulders and looked into my eyes. I gazed back as he parted his lips to answer all my questions.
"Wait!"
Everybody froze. The mystifying vampire who had been so quiet, and so enigmatic had spoken for the first time.
Sorry for the small cliffy, but I needed to stop somewhere! The NEXT CHAPTER will be the last, I promise. :D My beta, Sapphire Mizu, and I spent almost six hours working on this chapter, so please review!
Chapter Preview:
Past Bella POV
"What's your name?" I whispered, wanting to be able to put a name to this unexplained face. A small smile graced her face and she came to a stop at the tree I used to be positioned at
"I'll tell you in a bit, but right now isn't… the best time," she said quietly.