Hey there! First things first, I just want to say sorry to who's reading this fic. It took me forever to write this chapter and my new obsession for SGU didn't exactly help. Just to clarify... I'm not abandoning this fic. I know how this story is going to end, and I have a few ideas for a sequel. If you're willing to be patient and wait, I'll try and make it worthwhile.

And now, onto the story!

[Elizabeth]

I couldn't help but feel proud of myself when I disappeared just outside Bella's house and reappeared next to my mother. This thing was way easier than I thought!

My plan, on the other hand… not so much. My parents and grandparents immediately volunteered to help me and the reservation, but the oldest ghosts weren't that forgiving or open-minded. Werewolves were evil, inferior creatures, and that ended the question. A few were caught between these two fires, eager to break the curse and move on while not exactly ready to trust the family's sworn enemy, but they weren't enough to make the others change their minds. And the time was running out…

"Enough!" I shouted, tired of all their endless talks and fights. And it was true; I'd really had enough—enough of this situation, enough of what life had thrown atme since my parents' death, enough of… pretty much everything. I was on the verge of a really overdue breakdown, and I didn't really care about who was on the receiving end of my rant.

"Did you listen to yourself? You sound like children! Those people's lives are in danger, it should be a no-brainer… instead we're still here discussing werewolves and how much we hate them! Do I need to remind everyone here that this situation is practically our fault? We brought this curse on ourselves, not just on them. There is just one way this situation can end, and we all know it. So why in the name of God we're still here talking?"

"I don't think you truly understand how…"

"I understand your pride is clouding your judgment, Andreij," I said to one of my great-great uncles. I can't obligate you to come with me. I won't. But rest assured, the Whisperer will know who stayed by her side and who refused to help. "

"You wouldn't blackmail your own family…"

"Exactly. So don't make me. Now, can I please know how many of you have decided to stay and how many are coming with me?"

I really didn't know what I was thinking. Maybe I wasn't the rational, manipulative bitch I thought to be, because just the half of my relatives decided to come with me at the reservation. Eighty ghosts, including me, ready to face an army at least three times bigger. Good thing we couldn't die, otherwise I would've considered that mission a true suicide.

My grandmother put one hand on my shoulder. "Second thoughts, Lizzie?"

"I'm scared and I'm not ashamed to say it aloud, Grandma."

"Only fools and crazy people don't get scared," said my father, and my mother nodded in agreement.

"Really? I thought only fools and crazy could do this."

"Or friends," smiled my mother.

"OK, enough with the mystery. How do you know Bella?"

Mom and Dad exchanged an amused smile.

"So?"

"She was my roommate at college. Bella died in a car accident on her way back home, or so we thought. It was quite the surprise when we heard she was immortal… and that she could talk with ghosts. Or maybe not, she was always so caring and sweet… but you know that too."

"She was your roommate," I repeated. My best friend had been my mother's roommate at college when she was still a human girl. It was enough to make my head spin at the most inappropriate moment.

"Well? Are we done? I thought we had a battle to fight!," my grandmother reminded us.

Yeah, right. The battle. For a second I had even allowed myself to forget. And for another one, I even conceded myself the luxury of feeling scared. I was just a teenage girl after all, no matter how highly I thought of myself. A teenage dead girl.

A teenage dead girl who shouldn't have been dead in the first place. Claire didn't want me to interfere with her plans? Well, the witch and her precious daughter were in for a surprise, and at the moment I didn't care if that could become another battle of Thermophilis. We wouldn't back down. With that spirit, we all appeared in La Push, ready to face our enemy, but what we saw when we all appeared was… well, not what we were expecting.

I stared speechless at the trashed, abandoned town, at the broken doors and windows. Could ghosts really do that?

We suddenly heard people screaming from an house at the end of the road. It was immersed in a thick fog that wasn't really fog at all. The house was still in one piece, though, unlike the others. Why?

"Amazing what we can do with a little focus, huh?" Julie Ateara mocked me, appearing out of nowhere right in front of us and interrupting my musing. Julie just gave us a look and started to laugh, glancing at the house.

"Do you think your little bunch of friends scares me?"

All of sudden, the fog left the house and a thousand ghosts materialized behind Julie as proof of what she was saying. Like I needed one.

Of course they weren't scared by us. They outnumbered us – we knew that. But we would fight nonetheless. Thermopolis, indeed.

Grandmother Helena gave the Quileute ghosts a look full of despisal.

"Come on, child. I think we Kalderash have to teach those dogs a lesson again," she hissed, and I couldn't have phrased it better myself.

An instant later, the battle began.

[Bella]

When I arrived at First Beach, for a second I felt tempted to turn my back and run away. The pack was on the cliff, all ready to jump to their deaths in the raging sea below. Their families were there, each one screaming and trying to wake up their loved ones, all fallen in some deep catatonic state. Leah and Faith were shouting and crying, but my father didn't react. He was holding something in his hand, something glowing. I couldn't tell what was exactly, and no one besides Jacob was holding that thing in their hands.

I looked at La Push, and my heart sank at the thought of the people that didn't manage to escape the ghosts. From what I gathered when I arrived, Grace was one of the few that didn't make it out of the town—but she barricaded herself and the others in her house, with salt protecting every entrance. Once just a stupid story that belonged with folklore and legends, it was now the only way those people had to survive the angry spirits and the creatures their negativity attracted. Before I left, Dave had asked me how to eventually protect the house, and I give them some quick instructions and a couple of magical signs they could use. I really hoped Grace had paid attention to my words.

Please, Edward, find Claire, I thought, lighting the last candle on the ground. I was on the cliff too, and I was going to try and fight the spell that kept everyone in Claire's hands. Something easier said than done—Claire was definitely a more expert witch than I was, and as determined as me to win this battle. I took a deep breath, thought again of my brother and friend fighting their battles in that very moment, and I joined them in the fight. Protecting the pack, that was my task… I just hoped I could make it.

No one protested when Faith, on my orders, detached herself from our father and gathered a sample of blood from all the people present. Claire had the blood of the pack members, and the only way I knew to overcome that spell was to use the blood bonds between the pack and their families against Claire's magic. Nothing's stronger, thicker than blood, or so I learned when I started studying witchcraft. I didn't share that kind of bond with my family. Esme and Carlisle had always been my parents, in every way that counted, but we didn't have the same blood in our veins…

Faith handed me the cloth stained with the blood of everyone, ready to be burned and used for the spell, but I stopped one second before setting it on fire. There was still someone that didn't draw blood for the ritual, and that someone was me. I sighed and bit my wrist, letting a few drops of blood stain the cloth. I didn't care about the wound, it would seal immediately, but it would leave a scar. A scar reminding me the lengths I was willing to go for the same family that had banned me.

"Will it work?" asked Faith. I tried to look and sound reassuring, but the truth was I had no idea. Just hope in my skills and friends.

"It will," I said, burning the cloth. "It has to."

Faith gave me a puzzled look when she heard me cast a spell in Gaelic, but she didn't say a word—probably not to break my concentration. Those few words became my mantra, and nothing would've stopped me from saying them over and over again, until the spell worked or Claire died.

Or both.

[Edward]

Bella's words kept ringing in my ears. Claire would use my fears against me, and I didn't have to believe a thing otherwise the nightmare would become real. But when I reached the cabin in the woods, the one Elizabeth described, it was abandoned. No glowing globes, no books, no hidden torture rooms. Just a regular cabin. Claire had already left.

"Damn it!" I hissed, kicking one of the table's legs, breaking it like a breadstick. Ok, I thought. She couldn't be that far. Claire had worked too hard to miss the last act of her revenge. She had to be still there. But where?

I opened the door to get out of the cabin, but all of sudden I wasn't in the woods anymore. I was in a dark alley… somewhere.

Let's see, Edward. Let's see how much you can endure.

That voice… that was Claire, there was no doubt. And that place looked too familiar to be just a random alley.

"Hello, Edward. It's been such a long time."

I knew that voice. And I knew that if I turned I would've seen a short man in his forties, with clear blue eyes, round eyeglasses and short brown hair, wearing a green golf and tweed pants. His name was Andrew Salander, and he was responsible for the rape and violent death of at least four young women.

As I was responsible for his.

I slowly turned. Yes, everything was exactly like I remembered. Eyes, librarian-style clothes, that predatory smirk of his. The slashed throat, still pouring blood on the clothes.

"Do you remember me?"

"Of course I do," I replied. I did, and I would've given everything not to. That phase of my life, the moment I decided I could be judge, jury and executor and bring my justice on the streets. The people I killed, the remorse I was now feeling…

"Hope you don't mind, I brought some friends. There are so many people that wanted to say hello to you."

I slowly turned, and I found myself facing all the drug dealers, murderers, rapists I've killed in those years. Every and each one of them was staring at me, covered in their own blood.

"This is not real. You're not here."

"We're in your head. Forever. You murdered us in cold blood, Edward. What makes you better than us?"

I couldn't allow them to get to me. Bella and Elizabeth counted on me. That was the most important part of the plan, and I couldn't let them down. I ignored their provocations and tried to get out of the alley, but all of sudden I found myself on the ground with a throbbing pain on the back of my head.

Pain?

I touched the head, and I felt my fingers wet with blood as my tormentors laughed. I touched my neck, too. Under the skin I could feel my heartbeat. No, that was crazy. That was impossible.

"Not so invincible anymore, huh?" said Andrew. "I guess it's time for us to give you a taste of your own medicine."

I realized what he meant when I got up and looked at him in the face again. His face had changed. The eyes were bloody red, the skin chalk white. They all looked the same.

"This is not real," I repeated. "It's just a trick."

Andrew and his friends smirked evilly. One second later, the only thing existing in my head was the searing pain they were inflicting me with their fangs and bites. I was the helpless human, that time. No matter how many times I kept repeating in my head that was just an illusion, the nightmare continued. They were going to tear my body apart, when everything stopped… and I found myself in an hospital. The place was a curious mixture of old and new, like two different buildings were trying to exist in the same time and place.

I moved past two old-fashioned patients using modern wheelchairs, and I began walking down the corridor waiting for the next nightmare Claire would throw at me. I let my guard down for a second and she trapped me there, yes, but if I could figure out the pattern, maybe I could wake up and kill the witch. She had just ensured that I would do everything in my power to give her the slowest, most painful death I could.

A glimpse of a familiar blonde head caught my attention while I was passing near one of the rooms. Carlisle? I immediately stopped and tried to open the door, but it was jammed. I looked inside, and my heart sank. I had found the next nightmare.

My mother's death.

[Elizabeth]

We were going to lose. We could fight until the end of time, but the situation would've never changed. They were too strong, too many. And our little army was just a drop in a really wide ocean. Our plan was to get to the people trapped in the house and take them somewhere safe, but considering the situation, the salt protecting every door and window and magical signs one of us saw painted on the floor, they were safer where they were now.

I didn't understand. What the hell happened to Bella and Edward? I refused to think Claire could be stronger than my friends combined. It just couldn't be.

"Admit your defeat, Kalderash," said Julie, appearing in front of me.

"Never."

"We're getting stronger and stronger. Soon demons and other creatures will join us. I offer you a chance to live."

I realized that 'you' was clearly direct at me. I was the only one not really dead, the one with a chance to go back to life in the truest sense of the word. One word from me, and everyone would stop fighting.

It was a shame I wasn't interested in surrender. At all. I told Julie that using some very colorful Romanian words I learned during my only visit to my family's homeland. She didn't understand a word, but my tone was so challenging and full of distaste that I was sure she had got the message loud and clear. I wouldn't back down, and neither my family. And if that meant to be destroyed by Julie's new allies… so be it.

I was going to speak again, when I noticed Julie's smile disappearing from her face. She was looking at something over my left shoulder, and I felt compelled to turn and see what made my enemy so worried.

I couldn't help but smile. That was the rest of my tribe and family… and apparently, a few family friends had decided to join the party too.

A few hundreds.

"Sorry Julie, I guess I forgot to mention it. My family is huge."

"They don't scare me."

But she was hyperventilating. Absurd, considering she was dead, but very telling about her state of mind. Andreij nodded in my direction, and I returned the gesture. An instant later, they all joined the fight. Julie disappeared, resuming her siege of Grace's house, and I joined Andreij into the battle.

"Changed your mind?"

"Family is more important than anything," said Andreij, punching a ghost in the face. "Even revenge."

I made a mental note to keep Andreij around when it would be time to convince Jonas to make peace with the Quileutes. If he could change his mind on the topic, then there was a little hope Jonas could too.

"What's the plan, granddaughter?"

"Keep the ghosts busy, prevent them from harming the people in that house… give Bella and Edward enough time to kill the witch and save the pack."

"Maybe those people can help your friends."

"But we can't get them all out. It's too dangerous. And it's not like I can go in there and ask."

Andreij gave me a weird smile, and barked some orders to his comrades to get the ghosts away from the house enough for me to get near the door and make an appeal. Maybe there was someone in there as crazy as me, and willing to risk his or her life, but I couldn't know for sure until I was there. Andreij and his army launched an attack against the mist, and a couple of ghosts stayed at my side while we fought our way through the enemy lines. I was told I didn't have more than ten minutes, so I had to make them count.

"My name is Elizabeth, I'm Bella Cullen's friend!" I shouted, certain to be heard thanks to all the supernatural energy surrounding that place. "Let me in or listen to me, I don't care! I need your help!"

No reaction. The drapes were closed, I couldn't see inside. I tried again.

"There's a plan to kill the witch Claire Ateara and get rid of the ghosts. Things can get back to normal, but I need…"

Suddenly the door opened, breaking the salt barrier. A young woman emerged from the house, shouting at me to get inside. I didn't make her repeat the invitation and I rushed inside, just a moment before my friends stopped holding the other ghosts back. The woman reconstructed the salt barrier and closed the door just in the nick of time, one second or less before the ghosts could come in.

The woman – Grace, I heard people call her – joined the rest of the people. I tried too, but I suddenly realized I couldn't move. The red paint on the floor was blocking me. Oh, come on. Was that stuff real too?

"Ok. Free me."

"Not until we're sure of who you are," said Grace.

"I told you who I am."

"Say it again."

I sighed. "My name is Elizabeth St. John. I'm a friend of Bella Cullen's, I think you consider her some kind of witch… Whisperer, I think you call her. Dave called her because there was some kind of emergency she had to deal with, and since I was dealing with trouble myself she offered to take me with her."

Grace and the others looked at my ghost appearance and if the situation wasn't so serious they would've probably laughed at me.

"I was human until I came here. I… I angered Claire by reading the cards. I can see things when I read my tarots, and I was going to expose her plans. I'm not dead, but I will be soon if that bitch doesn't undo the spell or die. Right now, I'm rooting for the latter option."

I indicated the floor. "Would you mind? It's the second time in 48 hours I've been trapped against my will… it's getting really annoying."

I could as well talked to a bunch of statues. Great.

"You said there's a plan to get rid of Claire," said an older woman standing next to Grace. "Speak."

"Bella is trying to save the pack before they kill themselves, and her brother is looking for Claire in the woods. My task was to fight the ghosts so that they couldn't go anywhere else and obstruct Bella and Edward's work. But I'm afraid Edward doesn't really know how dangerous Claire is."

I was afraid something bad had happened. I could feel it in my guts. Edward was invulnerable, but what about his mind? Claire separated my soul from the body, for God's sake. What else was she capable of?

"I need someone to come with me and help him."

As I imagined, no one was willing to do it. Too dangerous, too crazy, no one wanted to help a vampire. It was like I was listening to my family all over again. With one huge difference, though. Grace left the group, kneeled at my feet and broke the protection symbol's circle with the blade of a pocket knife.

"Grace, what are you doing?"

Grace got up and looked at me straight in the eyes.

"I want nothing more to give that witch a good lesson," she said. "What do I have to do?"

I gave the others a good look. No one else was volunteering… oh well, Grace did, and I wasn't going to complain.

"Someone paint again this thing on the floor and keep some salt ready. We're going to make a quick exit, but better be prepared."

A quick check from behind the drapes later, I knew we would be able to get out from the house without Grace getting killed. The hard part was to cross the entire reservation in order to escape, but I could count on Andreij and the rest of the family to give us an escort to escape the battle and reach Edward.

"If we have to do this, we better do it now. Grace, you ready?"

Grace's answer was to take a baseball bat in her hands with a threatening look. Ok, I would've taken that as a yes. Grace opened the door, and after a deep breath we both ran outside. Andreij could lead the army in my place, he assured me that and I had no doubt he would've done an excellent job.

I was almost glad I was leaving that battlefield. It wasn't really my battle, or at least not anymore. The only place where I wanted to be was at Claire's cabin. I wanted to see that woman suffer for all the pain she had caused to me, Bella and the tribe.

And Edward, I added. That horrible feeling was always there, and it was impossible to ignore it. Edward… something had happened to Edward. Claire was winning.

Over my dead body, witch, I thought. Resist, Edward… the cavalry is coming.

This battle wasn't lost yet.