AN: My beta has said this is by far the worst, AND the best chapter of this story. Readers; you've been warned. This is the extremity; the barest prelude to the future. Try to enjoy reading ;) Thanks to cjfed95 and RenesmeeCarlieBlackxo.
It didn't get much worse than this.
There weren't many words you could use to describe the situation.. Helpless; horrible; tragic; useless.
But one word described the situation perfectly for the broken man who lay on the cold forest ground.
Hopeless.
They had failed again.
They were so sure.. They thought they'd prepared for everything, the majestic spirit warriors so confident, but of course they were wrong (they were wrong about a lot). The Cree soldiers had trapped them; used their own strengths against them and turned them into helpless fools fighting in a world where they didn't belong. The brave descrendants of the fearless Taha Aki lying around the dirty emerald trees, in the rain; hearts shattered.
Fighting for something that was probably already gone.
Sam's chest was filled with a soaring agony that sent his stomach into his throat and then back down into his bowels everytime he breathed; everytime he looked around and saw another member of his family mauled by their vicious enemies. His midnight eyes were somber as he came to the full realization of the helplessness they were in.
He thought about Leah, up near the cave who they'd done all of this just to find.... Was it too late now..? Had Sam lost her for good..?
A tear almost slipped down the planes of Sam's glorious face.
The thoughts scared him now more than ever because he had Leah in his grasp and he wasn't about to let those cocksuckers rip her away again. His lover had never, would never deserve the fate God had layed out before her; she'd never done a thing in her blessed life that would've justified the cruelties destiny dealt her.
And it burned Sam from the inside out because he thought he'd had a chance; his hope had bloomed the moment his claws swiped Karl's jugular and he saw the first pulse of crimson but then that fucker sat back up again.... And suddenly Sam was a meer man, sweating and hurting on the ground.
All of his brothers who could once be called proud dodged and raced around the open meadow, a useless tactic against the brute force of seven man-eating, woman-beating beasts who had their minds set on picking their teeth with the bones of the protectors of La Push.
..Their minds set on hurting the only thing important enough to barter their lives for...
Sam wished he could see inside his brothers' minds; know if they were as scared as he was. Not of dying... Scared for what they would leave behind.
Jared's eyes were dark and wise. He realized the grave situation they had found themselves in and when he met Sam's somber eyes, Sam saw the anguish there. Sam didn't need to be in his head to know his thoughts. The torture of knowing he would never see Kim again and that she would be sleeping alone at night..
Jacob had watched Renesmee grow; turn into a beautiful young woman who he was slowly falling in love with. She meant the world to him, she was his destiny, not this. He'd always feared she'd outlive him and now he might be right.
Embry.. Sam's heart went out to him. The troubles in his life, the hand he had been dealt, it all seemed unfair. He needed time. To be happy. To find love.
Paul; his eyes were mirrors into his soul despite the tough act he put on. He was thinking of that night.. The night Leah ran off. His chocolate eyes were smoldering, tears welling up at the thought that this had all been his fault, and that he would never see Rachel again.
Seth... Young, innocent Seth.... This was unfair. He didn't deserve this. Sam would rather die a million times over just to give Seth a chance. To live, to love, to fight, to be happy. His life was stolen from him. Everything he fought for taken away from his grasp. His father, his human life.. Now he would lose his sister, his family, his pack, and his own life. It wasn't fair.
Quil wasn't amongst them lying hurt; he was fuck knows where trying to get to them, hoping for a way out that they already knew had been crushed in some sick sense of dramatic irony.
The Cullens... Would they too fall? Would Leah be the end of all these people..?
"You're at a dead-end here, Uley. It's too late to go back now." Karl was standing with shredded clothes and bloodstained skin; he and Janice had been the only two left unphased (not that Janice could phase). She sat away from them; under the shelter of a cliff near a shallow river where Keith had stowed her for safe keeping. Karl stood before Sam with two rugged dirty brown wolves at his shoulders.
Sam just wanted to know why. And he didn't mean the breeding... He just needed to know why.
"Why would you do this...?" His voice came out softer than he'd predicted as if letting them know he'd given up; Sam Uley, undisputed, undefeated king of La Push hung his head.
"You know why." Karl spat, "That blonde fellow stole the book. Should be clear by now."
Sam grit his teeth; he probably wouldn't ever know more outside the obvious reasons. He had to be strong; now more than ever and after today, if he was a weak man he could be content.
"I won't let you hurt my family."
"We've already done that haven't we? Look around yah dumb fuck, not many of your men are still standing."
Jacob was on his hands and knees.
They all got up after being stuck with that goddamn medicine shit and they'd plowed with fists and kicks; teeth and claws were just better. Blood was running down Jake's tanned back; maybe a rib was cracked.
Embry was on his side; an arm twisted at an odd angle but he was gonna make it up.
Paul dragged himself closer to Sam; hard to walk on a splintered leg.
Jared was down on one knee; fist to the muck holding him up while blood ran down between his eyes.
Seth tried to get up and fell; tried to get up and fell.
"Only one left I s'pose is Leah. Now tell me Sammy, you stash her up in the mouth of the cave..? Or take her out back and shoot her like the bitch of a dog she is?"
The wolves behind Karl barked their laughter and Sam's blood boiled. He hissed out in pain as he forced himself to his feet. Where the hell were the Cullens!? Quil!?
Karl laughed out loud as Sam growled.
"She's probably dead already.. Sucks yah know if you pricks hadn't taken her away from the cabin, maybe she'd still be alive. She'd still be useful."
"She'll never be anything to you!" Sam snarled, venturing a step closer to Karl who in turn did nothing, but his packmates beside him growled a warning as they stood tall and proud over the two human males.
"Spoken like a true jealous lover." Karl smirked. "Well how about this sweetheart, want me to tell yah how tight your ex-girlfriend was when I fucked 'er or do you just have a small cock?"
Karl hit the ground as Sam launched his tanned body in a full-force tackle, the other Alpha's skull taking a hard smack against the wet meadow bottom. Sam's fists barely had time to flail, however, before he himself was taken backward by two devastatingly large dark brown paws. Sam's shoulder let out a hideous crack as it smashed against some waiting rocks, and the claws of Karl's teammate tore the skin on his chest. He let out a gasp in agony and opened his eyes to see the wolf's teeth inches from his face, breathing putrid breath that stung his eyes.
"Don't hurt 'em anymore than he already is!" Karl growled, grabbing a handful of the dark's wolf's fur and trying futilely to tug the animal away from Sam's chest. "When someone finally kills that asshole it's gonna be me."
The beast had growled his dislike, but he backed off.
"See, Sammy? My dogs are well-trained. They don't bite until their master tells them to." His grisly smirk was red from blood on his teeth, watching as Sam raised a red hand to place gingerly on his throbbing shoulder.
"You're nothing but a prick who needs to learn some respect.." Karl looked over at Paul, the tanned guy cradling his leg; perhaps the faint white of the bone amongst copper skin and torn flesh seen? The Quileute man was gritting his teeth so hard to fight screaming that he was out of enamel.
"What was that Paul??," Karl said, pacing fast the few meters away where Paul was sitting. "I don't think I heard you!" The angry Alpha raised his leg quickly and delved a swift kick to Paul's face, knocking the guy backward with a groan.
"LEAVE HIM ALONE!"Sam roared, "YOU DEAL WITH ME!"
"Watch yourself Sam.." Jake muttered, one eye swollen shut as he dragged himself to lean against some damp rocks. "Don't you dare get yourself killed."
That was trickly to do; considering none of them could phase to save themselves. It wasn't hard to figure out after the shot; those bastards probably did the same thing to Leah.
Karl laughed and walked back over to Sam. It seemed the sides of the field had been switched; now the pack was closer to the cave then the La Push crowd was and none of them liked it a single bit. They were getting forced further and further away from Leah; closer to the trees and the cliffs, where they'd be boxed in.
Trapped like rats.
"You know, you guys managed to steal that necklace back and maybe you got ahold of our book too but yah forgot this." He pulled the blue iPod out of his pocket; turned it on full blast and tossed it a few meters away from himself, onto the cold ground. "This battle could use a little rhythm, don'tcha think?" He smirked; fuck Sam was tired of it.
"But then again;" Karl continued, "This isn't much of a 'battle', is it..? Boys don't touch em; I'm finishin' em off myself." He walked closer after speaking to his pack and they backed away from the six injured men. Brandon phased back as well and sneered at them.
"Say goodbye."
XXXXX
'You gotta do this... You can do this.'
Leah heard their voices outside; heard music, for some strange reason it seemed so loud, and used the rocks that scratched and tore at her fingertips to drag herself closer to the mouth of the cave. Into the light...
I know this isn't what I wanted..;
I never thought it'd come this far.
Just thinkin' back to where we started..;
And how we lost all that we are.
'You gotta help, Lee. They can't do it on their own...' She made it finally; suppressed a die-hard scream as rocks brushed her broken ribs and her hand screamed ferocity but she made it; cast her storm cloud eyes out over the battlefield. Saw the blood, saw the bodies.
She saw her friends, saw her family, lying and hurting and fuck they were in shit.. Those goddamned sons of bitches must've done the same thing to them that they'd done to her...
She wouldn't let them get away from it this time. She wouldn't sit back and watch them die; because they'd come for her. For some reason, when she felt Sam's kisses in the cave a small part of her realized that maybe they always would.
'Think, Leah... How long has it been..?'
We were young and times were easy;
But I could see it's not the same..;
I'm standin' here but you don't see me;
I'd give it all for that to change.
'Enough.'
And I don't want to lose her..
Don't wanna let her go;...
XXXXX
No. Sam, Jacob, Embry, Seth, Jared and Paul would've given anything they had if only they could change things. If only they'd stopped Leah from running into that storm and if only they'd changed themselves, before it was too late.
Now the end was past-due; or right on time...? There was no way of knowing. But as their eyes saw Karl phase into a giant; a monster unlike one they'd seen before (a black howling beast with no mercy, unlike Sam), their minds met in unison despite being human.
In it they saw what they would miss. What they would grieve despite their own endings. What they should've changed, and what they should've done to make this night different.
They cried.
Karl dove, sights set on throats.
From out of nowhere, like a noise in a silent world, there was a deafening scream of pain and torture and blood red and ominous splattered the rocks and the green blades of grass. Bones snapped further; breaks got worse and some were forced back together and then there was a howl unlike one they'd ever heard.
Karl got an inch from Sam and Seth before a silver wolf collided with him, the speed of a bullet.
I'm standin' out in the rain;
I need to know if it's over,
Cuz I would leave you alone.
"LEAH!!"
They screamed her name and she looked at them for no more than a second before forcing herself to bite harder down on the thick slab of flesh in her mouth. It was useless, of course.. Karl was larger than Sam when he was phased and Leah herself was the smallest wolf in her pack.
(Let's not forget the crucial life-threatening injuries she was working with.)
Everytime she darted, her vision swam before her eyes. Everytime she stepped and put pressure on her front paw a surge of pain bolted up her limb. Her back, where the bullet still lay embedded probably cracked another one of her ribs during her phasing.
Three weeks was up.
And she was tired of watching them hurt her family.
Leah could hear them as Karl bit and tore at her, her family behind the duo screaming her name and shouting out profanities to her opponent. Janice (Leah had seen spark from her periphery) was wide-eyed, stepping out of her shelter and running across the grass towards them.
It was clear to the hurt female wolf what she had to do.
(Anything for her family.)
Protect.
Leah let loose a savage growl and tore a chunk out of Karl's hind leg before turning her back on the battle, spotting the shallow wall of rock behind the cabin and making a run for it. Head for the hills so to speak.. Anything to keep him away from who she loved most.
In reality Leah was ready to die. She was ready to go.
But she would never be ready to see her brothers, her pack die too.
Flooded with all this pain;
Knowing that I'll never hold her..
Like I did,
Before The Storm.
That goddamn iPod was still playing.
Karl had already run after her; she wasn't getting away. Dumb bitch didn't know what she was doing.. Up the hill lead only to the ridge above the small valley where they lived. She would be running in a circle; either that or crash to the rest of the forest on the opposite side.
His strides were double her's, and the rocks and sand of the cliffs were still wet from the storm. His thick paws scaled the old trail effortlessly, the hairs of her silver tail almost within grabbing distance.
'Gotta say, Leah. You've got spirit.' But it was going to end. Karl would make sure of it. She'd been taken back, possibly touched by that other friggen Alpha and half dead; she wouldn't make it through childbirth now. Hell she wouldn't live till Spring.. It was easy to see in her fast limp, her dripping blood and the horrible wheezing when she breathed.
"NO! DON'T YOU FUCKING TOUCH HER!" Seth screamed and screamed and cried. Jared, Sam, Jake, Paul and Embry did as well. But they knew he.. Or she, wouldn't listen.
And then lightning cackled across the sky; a terrifyingly bright backdrop to the battling wolves at the top of the slender creek.
Rain plummetted to the earth.
Leah'd never been so scared in her life. Her paws were slipping on the muddy path, rocks and pebbles falling over both sides as she and Karl warred. They were both covered in blood and sadly most of it was probably her's. She bit at his throat; he tore through her ear. She scratched across his eye; he slashed a chunk out of her side. She hit the ground more than once.. Speed and sheer will propelling her upward again.
By some miracle, by anything, as the two fought up on that mountain Leah prayed for her brother, her lover and her friends below. To just be gone; gone and away from anything that could ever hurt them. But it was impossible, wasn't it..? She was prolonging the inevitable.. She would be finished for good, soon. And so would they.
She let out a sharp bark of pain as Karl's powerful black shoulder slammed her into the large boulders behind her. Cracks in the rocks scratched and tore at her fur as she slid down the broad facing, her movement becoming slower and slower as the pain overtook her system.
Karl had backed off a step or two; his hackles raised and tail standing straight, gory teeth bared and ready to end her once and for all.
"LEAH! PLEASE! DON'T!"
"IF YOU HURT HER I'LL FUCKIN' KILL YOU!"
"PLEASE DON'T HURT MY SISTER!"
"LEAVE HER ALONE!"
"DON'T DO THIS LEE!"
Multiple screams that she couldn't hear; voices that had become blurry because of the pain swimming in her head. Yet she still heard that music loud and clear? The only thing more distracting was the ground she walked on; her paws kept slipping, the rocks on both sides were loosening and the rain was becoming blinding..
With every strike of lightning;
Comes a memory that lasts.
And not a word is left unspoken;
As the thunder starts to crash.
Then he dove at her again; it happened. A rock stationed on the opposite side of the ridge came loose; it had finally taken too much of a beating from the storm. It fell and began to roll towards the two wolves at a frightening pace, pieces of silver and dark grey flying this way and that.
Down below, hearts stopped.
Karl's wolves howled their fears. Janice ran over to the bottom but Brandon grabbed her arm.
"JUMP KARL!"
"GET BACK, THE FALL WILL KILL 'EM BOTH!"
Leah looked into those blazing black eyes one more time and saw the fear in them; thought about the fear in Sam's, her brother's... And she apologized from the depths of her heart before she leapt.
Karl jumped too.
Maybe I, should give up..?
Standin' out in the rain;
I need to know if it's over.
Cuz I would leave you alone.
I'm flooded with all this pain;
Knowing that I'll never hold her,
Like I did,
Before The Storm.
The guys would say later that the sight of Leah and Karl falling from a height of like fifty feet, massive animals dropping hopelessly to the shallow creek below them was the scariest thing they'd ever witnessed in their lives.
"NO!" Sam had been the only one to talk as the two bodies collided with the water and ground below; and the rocks came falling after, burying them in a mass of black and grey and brown.
Tryin' to keep, the lights from goin' out!
And the clouds are rippin' out my broken heart.
They always say, the heart is not a home;
Without the one who gets you through, the storm.
Standin' out in the rain..;
Knowin' that it's really over.
Please don't leave me alone..
It kept raining; the pack kept screaming; the thunder kept crashing.
I'm flooded with all this pain;
Knowin' that I'll never hold yah..
Like I did, Before, The Storm!
Like I did... Before.. The Storm..
The music stopped.