Blackhaven18: O.O I'm soooooo sorry! As for my reason as to why this is so late? Three words: I got stuck. I won't lie, this is mainly a filler chapter... and I hate filler chapters, but I needed to skip over a few months. Next chapter will allow me to get back on track, I hope.
Disclaimer: Flames will be used to heat my coffee, I own nothing.
Song choice: Really Bad Analogy
By: One less Reason
Chapter 10: One less Reason
Being a veteran of the Civil war in 1861, Jasper Hale had witnessed many things in his human lifespan and even more as one of the undead. While his parents were a contributing factor in his upbringing, his fighting techniques and strategic attitude was based purely on his military training.
From the very beginning of his military career he was taught to dispatch the enemy quickly and efficiently. There was only one time in his life when he witnessed a soldier who chose to not follow his orders… too many had died that night.
As it is now, over a hundred years later, he continues to watch over his new family in silence, choosing instead to observe his surroundings for possible enemies and the like, rather than bringing attention to himself.
Jasper had taken the role of strategist in their little wayward group and had fallen into the niche amazingly well because of his previous life. Survival was always as the forefront of his mind, not just for himself, but for his family as well.
He was able to figure out quickly that all humans were mind numbingly predictable everywhere they went. They would flock around his family and he, needing to get closer… It was, he supposed, due to the abilities of being what they were. They were designed to draw their prey in with their 'pretty' features and overall mysteriousness from not mingling with the others.'
Due to his precautions they have been able to successfully avoid any possible dangers and anything unexpected… That is until they met one, Nate Riven.
Never once in his life had Jasper met someone like the teenager, he was an absolute and complete… enigma. One he would see trying to make an effort to appear as normal as possible and would most of the time succeed, if someone wasn't watching closely as he was.
Nate reacted to situations differently from other mortals they had seen; even Bella had yet to confuse him in such a way…
Flashback:
"Is something the matter Nate?" Bella asked when she caught him looking at Alice for the twentieth time that day from his notebook.
He blinked owlishly in confusion when the entire Cullen family looked back at the two, knowing he had been caught. Instead of answering though he sighed and after a few moments snapped his fingers in conclusion.
He looked at Alice, "You don't See things… do you?" He asked and reiterated when he saw the family's gob smacked expressions, "Like making predictions or-"
"We knew what you meant man, we're just wondering how you knew," Emmett said and Nate chuckled.
"That's for me to know Emmett..."
"…And for us to find out?" The brawny vampire finished the common phrase when Nate paused, but the blond only chuckled and continued to draw and write in the book he was holding.
End flashback:
Strangely enough even with the secrecy the blond seemed to exude, Jasper felt a sort of kinship with Nate. Both were products of a war, all the signs leading to his conclusion were in the open.
It was there in his fluid movement, how his gaze was always flitting to and from people in the area, looking for anything unusual, how he never let his guard down, even when it seemed to all others' he had. He could even hear a vague sound of metal clinking together from the pouches he was so adamant in carrying with him…
Nate had kept a tight lid on just what he was capable of but it wasn't until an incident that took place just outside the small Port Angeles mall.
Even to this day Emmett would spontaneously laugh when something happened that reminded him it. It was the day Nate had accompanied the Cullen family. As it turns out, Esme could be pretty persuasive when she wanted to be. Once she had heard he needed to pick up a few things it was agreed they would all go together…
Flashback:
"Well, lookee here boys. We got ourselves a few dames," A fat man and his cronies leered as they neared the mall entrance. "We'll show you a real good time if you come with us." Nate glared at the group.
"Just ignore them, it's not worth it," Esme muttered and pulled on Nate's hand to bring him along.
"What'chu staring at boy? Don't tell me you want some too?" The man erupted in belly shaking laughs and Esme had to pull harder on Nate's hand.
Once they left the group the tension immediately left and everyone was as chipper as before.
"Oh, I can't wait! We need to get you some more clothes Nate. You can't always walk around in that mess you seem to like wearing and you're in luck! I helped Bella pick out some of her best outfits." Alice chirped as everyone made they're way inside and Nate saw the sympathetic looks being shot his way.
Especially by Bella.
He chuckled, "Sorry pixie, but I'm not here for clothes that are easily shredded. No matter how fashionable they are," He looked away as she pouted, "I'm not falling for that either. Good try though!" He moved out of her reach when she tried to make a grab for him and started towards a building across from the mall, thankful they were in public where she couldn't do much.
"Fine! Jeez, you try and help a guy…" She muttered as Nate's form became a mere dot to human vision.
Once inside the family had split up, each going their own separate ways and decided once they were done they would meet back at the car.
Within an hour the family had come back together, Alice skipping, while her husband carried the vast bags with her purchases and placed them in the back of their car.
"Where's Nate? You don't think he got lost do you?" She asked once she reached the rest of her family, sans Edward and Bella.
As soon as the words left her mouth they heard a sharp whistle from across the way and saw the large man from before, along with his cronies, chasing the blond as he ran parallel to the highway, a plastic bag clutched tightly in his grip.
Jasper and Emmett moved to aid the blond, but stopped when Alice shook her head a bright smile decorating her face.
"He can handle this one on his own." She answered and looked back to watch the show in glee.
Rosalie scoffed, "It's that tub of lard again," she hissed, "I swear the standards in this city have plummeted." Both Emmett and Jasper growled in agreement.
They noticed that whatever Nate said back to the man once they cornered him had caused him to turn a rather fetching shade of puce… and then he reached for his bat.
"He wouldn't dare!" Esme growled out when she saw him pull it from his jacket it and raise it up above the blond…
It was at that point that Nate ducked beneath the fencing and out of their line of sight, before reappearing behind the man as the bat came down. The older man stumbled forward when he hit nothing but air and Nate didn't give him the chance to recuperate before his foot landed hard on the man's ass with a loud smack. He fell into the fencing, busting it open with his girth, as the others' came to the scene.
Seeing them, Nate grinned and expertly hopped over the railing as they approached. The Cullen's knew this area well enough to know that below Nate was a thirty foot drop, but he didn't seem deterred by the fact.
The others' slowed seeing the maniacal look the blond was now sporting, thinking he might have been suicidal and was going to jump to the ground below them. Nate never was one to disappoint and he did just that.
Gasps rang out from those in the parking lot that noticed the group and had been watching since, as he jumped and perched himself onto one of the metal beams acting as support to a few buildings below them.
He gave a cheery wave and ran along it with amazing balance before leaping to a beam lower down and from there to the roof of a small bakery.
By now he was still a good ten feet from the ground and the people below looked on in amazement and some in slight hysterics when he didn't stop and made the last jump, landing at the bottom with a slight roll to take the impact off from his feet.
Nate's head jerked up when that infernal whistle sounded seeing the fat man on his tail once again. It seemed like Jumbo wasn't as dumb as he looked, he figured out about the maintenance ladder pretty quickly and made good use of it.
Nate jogged in the opposite direction, allowing the others to close the distance before actually running across a few of the railings on a wheelchair ramp. Now he was a good ten feet below them.
He watched as his attackers paused and began to run around the entirety of the system, keeping their gaze on the blond.
Nate grinned when they were a few feet from catching him and ran back across the railing to the point they started from. He sighed when all four cronies caught back up to him and tsked' at how out of shape they were.
"Really boys, is that all you have? Frankly I'm disappointed and after all that talk…" He reprimanded when the fat one ran at him with a yell, the bat still in his grip.
Nate easily grabbed the man's hand and twisted the object from his meaty fist, before bringing his knee up into the man's expansive stomach… He went down like the ogre he was the Cullen's noticed and Alice clapped jovially.
The other three paled significantly when a blue gaze turned to face them and looked as if they wanted to run, but were glued to the spot. The older one pulled out a switchblade once he regained motion and the others' circled him, preventing escape.
"… You just don't learn do you?" Nate murmured and sunk down into an unfamiliar position, waiting.
All three ran forward simultaneously and Nate did a quick leg sweep that brought the first down and used the remaining momentum to flip his body out of the way of the oncoming knife.
He easily brought a foot up that dislodged the knife and sent it into the air above them, while Nate did a back spin kick that smashed the man into the brick wall behind him and knocked him out cold.
By this time the man still recovering from his impact to the ground from the leg sweep groaned and opened his eyes just in time to see the knife barreling towards him. Nate smirked at the squeal the man gave off upon seeing it and watched as it embedded itself into the ground a mere centimeter from his head.
He passed out when Nate delivered a blow to the side of his head the next moment.
As luck would have it the last man decided whatever they wanted from the blond wasn't worth the trouble anymore and started to run. The police sirens in the distance came to a halt as two men in tan uniforms looked over the scene and the other that was running down the sidewalk as if the devil was after him.
"Someone's going to have to go get him." One muttered and was about to get back into the car.
"Allow me gentlemen." Nate said and picked up a hefty, aluminum trash can lid.
He tested the weight lightly and finding it satisfactory slung it in the direction of the running man. With precision aim the lid sailed over the distance between them and collided with the back of the man's neck, officially putting him out of commission.
Emmett could be heard across the way howling with laughter and nearly doubling over at the mess as the rest of the family walked over to them to make sure Nate wasn't arrested.
He was released after a brief chat and a few more eyewitness accounts. Once awake the fat man started yelling at the blond to which Nate replied with a glare that silenced him.
"Oh, and Lard Ass?" Nate called out as the large man was handcuffed, "You owe some friends of mine an apology. Don't make this any harder than it needs to be."
"S-Sorry for l-leering at y-you," He stuttered out at Rosalie, Alice and Esme before getting into the vehicle.
"As cool as that was, what was it they wanted?" Emmett couldn't help but ask, the plastic bag Nate was holding close to his body.
The blond just handed the bag over wordlessly to allow the brawny vampire access and he immediately began to rummage through it. "A wad of paper? This is what you were protecting?" He snorted and handed it back.
"Not just any paper. It's specially treated rice paper that's a little thicker and more durable than others'. I thought I wouldn't be able to find it anywhere. There was no way I'd let those fools' get their grimy hands on this."
"What was that you did?" Jasper had asked as Edward and Bella joined them, ignoring his brother's confused expression.
Edward's eyes widened comically when Emmett replayed the entire thing back for him in his mind and he gave Nate a look of slight awe.
For a moment Jasper noticed a brief panicked look enter the blonde's eyes at the question, but it was gone before anyone could question it. "… You ever heard of Parkour?(1)"
Besides the fact that Nate could hold his own in a fight, he also seemed adept at conjuring and wearing many masks that hid his real emotions. While there was genuine happiness there was always an underlying torrent of negative emotions that swamped the good.
The blond had given him a concerned look when he found out Jasper was an empathic. That was also the day Nate's emotions just vanished when the vampire came into the vicinity, scaring Jasper to no end.
It was as if he vanished completely and when he asked Nate only replied: 'you were in pain because of my thoughtlessness… you're a good friend of mine and I didn't want to see you hurting.'
He never did reiterate exactly how he shielded his emotions so efficiently...
There was also the little problem of Edward not being able to read Nate's mind just as he couldn't read Bella's. Though his brother couldn't hear anything he often told them how different the two were.
Bella was an invisible and completely impenetrable fortress that blocked her every thought, as if she wasn't even there, while Nate's thoughts were merely 'shrouded' by a wall or a veil.
He could tell without a doubt there was something there, just something he couldn't reach.
Jasper would often catch his 'little' brother staring at Nate with an expression of… longing it seemed, when he thought the others' weren't watching.
There was something more between them than the two were saying and while it was hidden well, there were signs two other's of the family had picked up on.
Whenever Alice had seen Edward she would sigh and shake her head, which led Jasper to believe she already knew and was only respecting their privacy. It was a little different when Rosalie found out.
At first she denied it thinking she must have just been imagining things, but when the actions increased and she threatened to burn all of Alice's clothing she became apart of their little group.
It wasn't until Nate and Edward's fight that the three's suspicions of their past became concrete.
Flashback:
Jasper was leaning against the house, watching as Emmett explained to Nate how one played a video game after hearing the blond had no idea what it was.
"Hold up, so I control my player with a game controller and I try to 'kick your ass' in this fighting game," Emmett nodded, "What's the point in that when I can kick your ass right now?" Nate asked with a completely innocent face and Emmett responded with a booming laughter.
"You're a funny guy! Now seriously..."
Edward was at the time watching the interaction between the two, as usual, but emotions of jealously rolled off him when Emmett slung his massive arm over Nate's shoulders in a huddle like formation.
Once Emmett had declared Nate as being 'deprived of the finer things in life as a child' and their conversation had ended. The blond had grabbed the small baseball near
Edward.
He yelled for Emmett to go long and in a burst of speed Emmett was twenty feet away grinning like a madman as he made taunting gestures. He didn't catch the sly look as it crossed Nate's features, but Jasper sure did.
"Why are you here?" Edward had asked his tone only a little ways away from seething.
"…Carlisle wanted to go over a few things… I thought you knew that already," was the blonde's answer.
"No… Why are you here with us? You're work is done, but you're playing with Emmett."
Nate saw his point and shrugged, "Dunno, I guess I just like hanging out with you and your family. Bedside's Emmett wouldn't let me leave when I asked what a 'console' was. "
"… You shouldn't want to hang out with me-" Edward tried, but Nate's eyes narrowed at the attempt.
"Who are you to tell me who I can or can't hang out with?!" Nate growled out, cutting him off before he could continue..
"Would you just shut up for one moment?!" Edward hissed back and barreled on, "You shouldn't want to hang out with me… I'm nothing but a monster!" He snapped and faced dulled cerulean eyes, before they filled to the brim with contempt and Nate smirked.
With a sardonic laugh Nate replied, "Edward, you have no idea what a monster truly is… It's not a term you should be throwing around lightly."
"Oh, and you do?" Nate shrugged again and watched as Edward walked away from him. "I'm done trying to warn you."
Nate turned towards Emmett again, looking ready to wipe that smug look of the brawny vampire's face, but not before stiffening at the phrase Edward uttered next. Never once had Jasper seen Nate shake with such… unrepressed rage.
It was something he shouldn't have heard, being as far away as he was, but judging by the blonde's pale pallor, he did..
"I wish I never fell in love with you…"
Jasper was vaguely aware of the click in Emmett's jaw as it fell open, his wife's look of pity as she watched from the deck above them, no doubt aware of this before it even took place, Rosalie's aghast expression as it morphed to one of disgust aimed at her brother.
He watched as a Nate's gaze turned to face them, looking as if he was a frightened animal, ready to bolt at a moment's notice.
Nate figured it out. That three of the Cullen family; no, four including Emmett now, knew.
Just how they figured it out, or how long they knew he obviously didn't know, but it didn't change their knowledge.
Both Edward and Nate had thought they were well guarded and they were… Jasper could vaguely see the blond trying to figure out where he went wrong.
It seemed as if Edward's relationship with Nate was a mistake to him, Jasper figured that much out.
A snapping of a twig in the woods nearby caught their attention and they looked to see a large mass heading towards them, a flash of russet colored fur and the smell of wet dog informed them of who it was… and boy did he look pissed.
No one stopped the wolf, knowing that what he was about to do was well deserved.
'Huge mistake Edward.' Jasper thought as his brother continued to walk in the opposite direction, 'Never turn your back on anyone.'
Hearing his siblings and Jasper's lingering thought he turned around just as a huge mass slammed into his chest, knocking the wind from him.
For once he was glad he couldn't breathe because he knew he'd be hard pressed to get another lungful after that hit.
Edward's body seemed to collapse around the hit and he was flung backwards into the one of the trees behind him, snapping it in half.
Panting slightly, Jacob walked back over to Nate, nudging his large muzzle against the blonde's limp hand and whining when e reached his friend. Nate was still shaking lightly and nodded before heading back over to his vehicle, while Jacob shifted behind a few bushes and pulled on a pair of black sweatpants.
Alice was the first to reach Edward still shocked by the sudden attack.
"That was just a warning Cullen, next time you won't be so lucky." Jacob stated and joined Nate in the car before it took off.
"Are you alright?" Alice asked as the other's joined them and she grabbed Edward's hand to pull him up.
"Yeah, man. You were hit pretty hard." Emmett added in and watched as Edward pulled off his jacket and undid a few shirt buttons.
He pulled it open and immediately a white object hit the ground below them. Rosalie bent down to grab the baseball and held it up. The ball seemed to be glowing with a light iridescent blue and the smell burned their noses.
"That… was what knocked the wind out of me…" Edward wheezed, finally getting his voice back.
All the vampires' shared a look of confusion…
End flashback:
(1) n. A sport or athletic activity in which the participant seeks to move quickly and fluidly through an area, often an urban locale, by surmounting obstacles such as walls and railings and leaping across open spaces, as in a stairwell or between buildings.
Courtesy of Dictionary . com
Other than that, there's vids on Youtube about it. Check it out if you have time. Definitely some of the craziest stunts I've ever seen.
~TBC~