Chapter 6: The Changeling

"Fae?" I asked, incredulous. "As in... A fairy?" I knew there was nothing at all wrong with my hearing, but it was hard to wrap my mind around.

"Well, pixie to be exact." Alice answered me. "It's, apparently, a type of fairy." she sighed.

I suppose I shouldn't be this surprised. Vampires, werewolves and shapeshifters. Why not fairies too? This made me wonder what else was out there...

"I still don't understand Alice, why was this... pixie..."

Alice interrupted me, "Raizia... That's her name." Seeing our looks of confusion she repeated herself, more slowly, "Rah-z-ah, Raizia."

"Okay..." I continued, "Why was... Rah-z-ah... Looking for you?"

"Well, she said she needed to warn me... Aro is looking for talents of his own, to match ours..." She answered.

"Aro..." Jasper quietly growled, as a hiss escaped Rosalie's lips, pulled back over her teeth.

"Guess he's giving up on converting you to the darkside, huh?" Jacob asked her, a little sarcastically.

"So... How does, Raizia, know what Aro is planning?" Esme asked, brow furrowed in confusion. We all wore similar masks of skepticism, except Rosalie. She still had her faced twisted in a furious grimace.

"Can you start from the beginning Alice?" Carlisle asked her. We had all been interrupting with endless questions. "We won't interrupt you." He added, seeing the look of impatience on her face.

"Well, it goes pretty far back... I'll start from the very beginning... Just let me finish before you bombard me with more questions, okay?" She said, raising her brow.

Nodding our heads in unison she began, "It all actually starts before I was born..."

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Alice's mother had been found late one night in the orchard by a Healer, Jalen. She had taken a vicious beating from her husband and ran into the orchard to get away from him. Jalen, a pixie, found her there, hurt and devastated at what her husband had done. He used his magic to heal her fresh wounds and he comforted her. She spent the night with him there in the orchard and went back the next morning to an empty home. Her husband had left to go out and make sales, and she was alone. Each night she went back to meet Jalen in the orchard, and they soon fell in love. Jalen couldn't bring her to live with him, though he wished he could, all fairies are forbidden from associating with humans, he would have been banished from his home for such a risk of exposure. Eventually, he impregnated her, not knowing that such a thing was even possible. Alice's father suspected the child wasn't his from the very beginning, but as he used his wife whenever he pleased, there was no proving that. He resented Alice from the moment she was born. She favored her mother, but had nothing in common with him.

His suspicions were confirmed when Alice began to predict the future, and again when her sister Cynthia was born. He knew she must have been a changeling. As time worn on, and with each prediction Alice made, he grew more and more resentful, of both Alice, and her mother. He confided his worries to a barmaid one night, taking pity on him she brought him home with her, and so began their affair.

Alice's mother never spoke a word of her lover to anyone, and she never even hinted to Alice the truth about her parentage. She was afraid for her daughter and her lover. She had long since quit meeting him in the orchard, for fear of Mr. Brandon finding out. But he would check on her periodically, and so he watched his only child grow up from afar. He dreamed of one day taking her away with him, after witnessing the injustice that was dealt her by her mother's husband. He refused to think of him as her father, he was her father, and one day she would know it. He was going make sure of that.

When Mr. Brandon started forming a plan, with his mistress, to rid himself of his wife and her illegitimate child, Jalen found his lover and begged her to run away with him. He wanted her and Alice to come live with him, never mind the consequence of being banished, he would start over anew. Kay, Alice's mother, wouldn't leave, though she very much wanted too. She couldn't leave Cynthia, who was Mr. Brandon's child.

Jalen warned Kay of what Mr. Brandon was planning but she didn't believe him at first. She thought he was only telling her that to get her to leave with him, until Alice warned her of the very same thing. She waited for Jalen to come back so she could apologize for not believing him, and so they could finally start their new life together, but he didn't come back.

Finally, she left one night in the buggy to seek him out, leaving Alice at home with her little sister. She was run off the road. Though she didn't know it, both Alice and Jalen were trying to reach her in time, but neither made it. Alice eventually went to confide in her aunt and uncle. Jalen, however, in his grief, stayed under the bridge near where Kay had been killed, consumed with misery. Finally, anger motivated him to move, he had to save Alice, as he had seen Mr. Brandon was coming for her next.

He was too late though. The town marshal already had Alice locked away in an asylum. Jalen knew that a vampire was hunting Alice, but he couldn't get into the asylum to save her. There was another vampire working there as a groundskeeper. Pixie blood is especially desirable to vampires and Jalen had to stay far enough away so that his scent wouldn't be picked up by the tracker, as Alice's had been. Jalen had a vision of Alice being bitten by the vampire that worked at the asylum, and not knowing he was trying to save her, he thought her dead. Many years later, he came back to Biloxi, after having a vision of Alice getting married. He looked for her, and eventually found her, far from Biloxi, but he was afraid, as she was vampire. She didn't look like other vampires, with their red eyes, but he had never before seen a pixie turned into a vampire. He knew it was only possible because she wasn't a full-blooded pixie. Otherwise, the venom would've killed her, as he originally assumed it had.

The Volturi became aware of a pixie that was able to foresee the future (not aware that all pixies have this ability) during their search for Joham in South America. It was Jalen's brother, Sindri who the Volturi were after and he saw Alice in Aro's future. Sindri was one of the few who knew of Jalen's romance with a human and so he warned Jalen that Alice was in danger. Jalen, afraid despite his brothers reassurances that Alice and her family were good, was afraid to go and warn his long-lost daughter.

Raizia, however, Sindri's daughter (and Jalen's niece) took it upon herself to find Alice. Raizia is known as somewhat of a daredevil among the other pixies. Really, she is just intrigued by other mythical creatures and has always begged her elders to allow her to study them. She saw Jalen's refusal to heed Sindri's advice as the perfect opportunity to meet her cousin, whom she had always secretly longed to meet. Alice being a vampire did not frighten her in the least, much like Alice, she was always excited to make a friend, especially such a rare friend. She also thought it would be good to have some vampires on their side.

So, secretly she left home, telling only her father, Sindri, where she was going. He was afraid for her, but also hopeful that this would help heal the still-open wound in his brother's soul and allow him to begin to forgive himself. Finding a shapeshifter running through the forest was an exciting surprise to her. He knew of Alice, and it was with his help that she found her cousin.

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"Wow." That was all I could say. That seemed to be all anyone could say. We all sat staring at Alice as she finished. Jasper held her to him throughout her explanation. I know Alice was happy to have some answers to the mystery that was her human life but all this new information just brought about more questions, different questions. Perhaps most important, and least relevant, to Alice's past, was Charlie. Where did he fit into this equation?

"What about Charlie?" I asked, breaking the silence. Everyone was dumbfounded, they slowly turned their faces towards me but their eyes were still far, far away.

"Charlie..." I repeated, getting their attention this time. Alice looked at me, pain dominating her face. "Alice..." I said in response to the tortured expression on her face. "What is it?"

"Bella... the Volturi... they're after him. Raizia explained that they had to find and protect Charlie, for all our sakes." Alice answered me, hesitantly.

"What do you mean 'for all our sakes'?" Edward asked her.

Alice answered him, brow furrowed like his, "I explained that the Volturi was seeking talent to match our own and... well... Aro saw that Charlie was... Similar to Bella." A growl erupted from my lips as a sob came from Renesmee. Not my dad. Not my dad. No.

"So, wait a minute Alice, are you saying that the pixies have Charlie?" Carlisle asked. I sat perfectly still though mentally I was reeling.

"No..." Alice answered him, "They're looking for him."

So, then someone did get to Charlie before the pixies and suddenly it hit me. "Oh." I realized, that scent was not at all pixie... It was a hybrid vampire.

A/N: I am sorry it took so long to get this chapter up. As some of you know already, school is back in session and so that has of course taken top priority but I will not abandon this story! I was a bit skeptical of posting this chapter because this is really the turning point in the story and I am not quite sure how it's being received. So, if you have a moment, I would really appreciate being left a review to let me know what you think so far, love it, hate it, or otherwise.

Also, I do not own the characters or The Twilight Saga. No copyright infringement intended.