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Song choice: Pages

Band: There For Tomorrow

Chapter 18: Pages

Edward sighed and ran a hand through his mussed hair as he spared a quick glance at the prone figure in the bed before continuing. He easily moved throughout the room designed specifically by Alice in the Cullen household in what was now an engraved routine; opening the curtains to allow in the suns rays, replacing the wilted flowers on the table... Until there was nothing more for him to do. He stood at the bedside, well away from the window, unsure of what he could possibly do next and after some deliberation slid into the chair behind him.

He sat there for hours slightly hunched over in his usual place, his head resting in his palms in a weary fashion, unmoving.

Six months...

Six months had passed since Nate had been discharged from the hospital in Port Angelous had been moved to the Cullen household. Though, this still wasn't adding the first few he spent in their care under intense observation, which made it closer to ten months. All in all, the action had needed quite a bit of persuading and string pulling from both Carlisle and some of Jasper's own reference's, but neither had been deterred and eventually held out long enough to pull through. While all this was taking place the blond continued to stay delved deep in his state of unawareness of the world around him and showed no signs of waking any time soon- if at all, according to the medical officials-, but Edward continued to wait patiently.

After all, he could wait forever if needed.

Shifting slightly, he stood from his chair to pull it closer to the bed, before sitting back down and starting to speak. He spoke of recent events involving the rest of the Cullen clan, of Nate's other friends, the pack and of anything else he was sure the blond would want to know about if he was able to ask. Edward sometimes found it strange that he could talk for hours on end of one of Emmett's childish pranks, when before he would have been bored out of his mind. Even now he could imagine Nate completely engrossed in the tale, adding commentary when Emmett paused and God forbid, giving the brawny vampire tips. Hell, the two were so alike in that department it was actually scary.

He chuckled slightly at the thought and continued to count the number of times the large machine on the left side of Nate continued to beep and let out a 'whoosing' noise. Even now he was still being forced to breathe by the aide of that machine...

Two thousand seven hundred fifty four...

Two thousand seven hundred fifty five...

Two thousand seven hundred fifty six...

After a long while Edward eventually let out a long sigh and looked at Nate's prone body, thinking back to the letter given to him.

'-If you're that curious as to what it is I do, what it is I am, just think about it. 'Look underneath the underneath' as one of my mentor's once told me. I'm sure you'll figure it out in no time because I sure as hell know I left enough clues lying around. Happy hunting.-'

''Think about it' huh?' He thought.

And he did. Every single day and the closest he came was, of course, Japanese history. Considering the blond's Asian origins, his fighting skills, and tricky, extremely well thought out traps- deemed as 'pranks' by Nate- he was only able to draw a couple of conclusions. One hailing from Japanese lore, the tale of kitsune's and their ability to take human form to trick others had immediately been shoved to the back of his mind. As much as Nate reminded him of the furry creature he was sure Nate wasn't a fox...

Or was he?

The shifters on the reservation certainly had an ability remarkably similar to it. Who's to say there weren't others' with a different animal? There was also the fact that Nate had been accepted so quickly among them and seemed to be a... brethren of sorts. Again he sighed, remembering his pixie-like sister's constant barrage of questions, most of which he refused to answer and instead smiled mischievously. This being one of the only questions he heard the blond answer, he quickly stored it to the back of his mind for later use. Nate clearly stated that his ability was not in any way derived from the pack's shifting lineage and the only thing they shared was their more animalistic natures.

This left one thing, but even that was lacking a few aspects. Though it at least hit a few more marks then the myths he'd pulled up on his computer and was much more realistic. Nate was a ninja. It explained the weaponry he managed to catch a glimpse of, his hand to hand fighting techniques and overall stealthiness, but it did nothing to explain his increased speed, strength, or that scent of icy power that sometimes wafted over him when provoked. Things just weren't adding up the way they should...

"-ward?" Hearing the sound of his sister's voice from the floor below and rustling following he stilled and tilted his head to catch more.

"Yes, Alice?" He responded softly.

Emmett's loud, slightly awed, exclamations and more rustling followed and Edward sighed, wondering exactly what he could have gotten into this time.

"Mmmm, I think you're going to want to see this." She said after careful deliberation and as he started to descend to the lower floors her reprimanding Emmett for digging through whatever they brought with them early.

He arrived in the living room just as Emmett began to reach back into one of the box's only to have his hand smacked by a vigilant Alice, who was now glowering at him. Rosalie, Jasper, Esme, and Carlisle watched the scene with amused expressions. The littlest vampire's features quickly switched to a blinding smile upon seeing him.

"There you are, you're not going to believe what we found."

"Oh, man. It's crazy some of the things Nate has squirreled away down there... I wonder if he can use them all." He grinned at Edward's confused expression and gestured to the boxes. "Alice and I, as per your request, went to check out Nate's place. Y'know, to see if there was anything that would give him away?" He nodded quickly, seemingly on the verge of a sugar fit. "And we hit the mother load, man!"

Ignoring Emmett's wild gestures Alice took over, "What he means to say is when we looked over Nate's home there was close to no change from when we were there last. We were about to leave when Emmett pointed out the shed in the back of the house, the one that looks like its about to fall apart? Anyway, I was ready to just call it a day, but Emmett practically begged me to 'check it out', so we did."

Emmett's gaze whipped to the rest of the occupants in the room, "He has this like... whole warehouse hidden underneath the floor boards."

Alice sighed, "It's not that huge, Emmett."

Emmett snorted in response, "He has enough weapons down there to knock off a few brigades, Alice." His topaz eyes gained a mischievous glint to them, "and I think I may have seen a few explosives..."

"E-Explosives? Oh, dear." Esme's worried voice sounded, thinking just what such a sweet child would need high grade explosives for.

"Yeah, there was a lot of other things I saw but didn't recognize too." Emmett added in and grabbed a few frames. "We also found some photo's that we thought you all might like to see."

The first one that reached Edward's outstretched hand was a simple group photo of elementary student's and their teacher standing in front of what looked to be their school. Nearly everyone else was facing the camera, all except a familiar blond who seemed to be trying to sneak off and as such the camera captured a side view. Nate couldn't have been any older then seven in this picture... There were also a few others where he was shown with various people from the school photo. Each one showed him laughing and smiling, toying with weapons as if they weren't dangerous, razor sharp, projectiles that could easily skewer someone... but then they changed.

All the photos his siblings had grabbed were following a trend, where in each one the blond was a little older, a little more intricate until the photo's suddenly leaped from thirteen years of age to fifteen, an entire two year gap missing.

'...this must have been the time he spent with my family and I.' He realized and grabbed the next few photos.

The one's from age fifteen onward were darker than the ones before them and had a more sinister air about them. Gone were the group photo's of happy, smiling friends playing some silly game and what was left was a war hardened individual. Each one consisted mainly of 'surprise photos', looking when a name was called and the camera going off. One such showed Nate after he just showered clad in only a pair of coal black drawstring pants, sitting at the edge of a bed with one leg extended and the other curled underneath it. He was peeking out from underneath a towel covering a good portion of his features, blue eyes regarding the person who took the picture with what could only be perfectly practiced stoic features. Chilling blue eyes stared out at him completely devoid of any emotions... the eyes of the dead. Unseeing. There really weren't any words that described it.

Edward really didn't think he'd ever seen such eyes on a person before...

Emmett's snort brought him back to reality and he was handed another with a slight look of disbelief on his features, "See if you can 'Find Wally.'" He said the coined phrase and pointed at it.

Edward looked down with slight confusion and a crimson colored toad looked back, it presented such an odd picture he couldn't help the light laughter that forced its way from his throat. It was dressed in an odd bluish top, looking more like a small robe than anything else, and had a large wooden pipe hanging from its mouth, but upon closer inspection he noticed the trees beneath it- looking like nothing more than splinters in comparison.

"A little closer." Emmett goaded.

He raked his eyes over the picture again, looking for anything he might have missed and just barely caught a glimpse of a speck of orange settled comfortably between it's large eyes. "What the..."

"He's found him, Alice." The brawny vampire grinned as the others looked over Edward's shoulder.

Rosalie glanced at it and after a few moments said, "It could have been doctored."

"It's a Polaroid Rosie, trust me we checked." Emmett answered. "Now the question is, just who is Nate's warty friend?"

"Then maybe it's a statue, Emmett." Rosalie reasoned, "It's scientifically impossible for such a creature to exist in today's world and even if it did in the past I'm sure there would be some sort of record of it. Bones, anything."

"Yeah, but these scientists are finding new things everyday it seems. So, maybe they missed something." Emmett returned and she sniffed.

"Even so that still doesn't explain why he's sitting on one, looking quite at home. That thing looks like it could squash him without a second thought."

Emmett grinned, "So maybe he was in it for the thrill? For an adrenaline rush?"

"Enough you two, we aren't going to get anywhere by arguing." Carlisle interrupted the heated debate and reached into the box to pull out a few rolled up pieces of what looked to be poster board, unfurling it and placing it onto the table. "Well, what do we have here?"

It looked to be a map of a large continent littered with printed kanji that denoted each area, areas were circled and numbered with more of the same writing in Nate's penmanship.

"Jeez, he has so many freaking maps and it's all of the same area." Emmett mumbled after a few moments, and pulled more out. "Climate, resource, physical, political, road, and topographic maps, ugh, my head's swimming seeing all this." He blindly grabbed for one of them, squinting at it. "Elemental Nations..." He murmured slowly, as if unsure and his family's eyes widened slightly.

"You can read this Em?" Alice questioned and he shrugged.

"A little," He grinned, "I've been teaching myself, still having trouble on pronunciation, but..."

"It's been his way of coping with this, he's been forcing me to learn it too. Though he's been sticking more to the curses and derogatory statement's." Rosalie interrupted with the slight quirking of her lips.

"Damn straight, now when the brat calls me something in Japanese I'll know what it is."

"That's a good idea, I think I'm going to do that too," Alice piped in.

"Hmmm... anyone know an 'Elemental Nations' continent, because last I checked there only seven." Emmett continued, glancing back at the maps and then moving onto some hand written documents. "Some of this stuff seems to be too intricate to have been made up..."

"...That is a little strange..." Jasper murmured. "Have you been able to read anything else Emmett?"

"Yeah, I was able to pick up a few words. Let's see, there's something about jutsu's? I think they're different techniques and then there's some medical references." He looked thoughtful for a moment. "He also keeps making references to a certain word, Shinobi." Edward stiffened.

"Are you sure it mean 'shinobi'?" He suddenly questioned, "You're not mixing anything up?"

"Yeah, I'm positive, why?"

"Because the word 'shinobi'... means ninja." He continued at their inquisitive looks. "Nate never told me exactly what his job was, however he did say I would be able to figure it out by thinking about it and going by his Japanese origin, his skills in martial arts, and tactical defenses I did a little research."

"Yeah... yeah I could see that, but then why doesn't he wear like all black and carry a sword?" Emmett grumbled.

Jasper rolled up one of the maps, "That's just western ideology, Emmett. In all honesty though, even if he is one it still doesn't explain a few things."

Edward sighed, "I know, trust me I know."

"Alright, so, apparently Nate's a bad ass ninja hailing from the elemental nations... Which apparently has giant frogs... Yeah, this chat had officially hit the 'Outer Limit' zone." Emmett couldn't help but add in a last dig before everything was placed back in the boxes and everyone vacated the room to think.

Once again back in Nate's room, Edward lifted his head when the imperceptible sound of the bedroom door creaked open and glanced up to see Carlisle enter the room, golden topaz eyes met and Edward could faintly make out a flash of guilt before it was washed away with a small smile.

"Hello, Edward... I trust everything has been well today?"

His son nodded in answer, his eyes softening just ever so slightly, "Yes, earlier I replaced his flowers and we worked on some range of motion technique's."

"Good, that's good."

A sudden awkward silence descended over the room, "Was there something you wanted?" He questioned, Carlisle seemingly fighting a battle within himself.

"Has..." He started off and sighed, a long dreary one that seemed to convey a great weight. "Have you read the letter Nate left to you yet?" He started off instead.

Edward flinched violently, but nodded. The letter. That damn letter. How could so much grief be bundled into a simple letter? And the worst part of it was... was that Nate never once blamed him.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

'-My soul is stained Edward, just as my hands are stained with blood and it's entirely my fault for ending up the way I have. When you died... I gave up. I honestly didn't care if I lived or died and I know I sure did a hell of a lot to achieve the latter, no one came close though and for that I'm grateful, because if they had... I never would have seen you again. Even under the... awkward circumstances that we did.

I'm ashamed that even now you know so little about the life I've led. That counts as lying right? Lying by... omission, I think the word was? And I can't help but think of the relationship we had. Can I even call it that? Considering how much of a stranger I was? I mean, you didn't even know I was capable of breaking you in half at the time...'

'-Please, just know I'll always love you.'

Even now it hurt, the very thought that Nate more than likely sitting alone in his living room, writing diligently at his coffee table...

"Edward you read his letter to you, didn't you?" Carlisle's voice sounded again, breaking him from his reverie.

"Yes, I have." A sudden awkward silence descended over the room, until a fleeting thought Carlisle had been trying to hide caught Edward's attention.

Carlisle's eyes widened at the sudden clarity in Edward's eyes that was quickly morphing into anger and tried to appease the other vampire, "Now Edward-"

He gained a low, feral growl in return for his efforts, "You're not coming near him." It was said in a low scathing tone, and he was instantly on the defensive.

"Please, I'm only trying to find out my patients' wishes. Nothing more..." The 'at this point' went unsaid.

Edward thought back to the rest of the letter, knowing deep down what Carlisle was asking for and he felt a great weight pressed down on his chest at the thought. "He said he didn't want to live a 'half-life'... and that if he show any signs of waking..."

"To let him go," Carlisle finished, suddenly feeling his age. "Edward, he wouldn't want to live his life this way. To be chained to a body that refuses to wake."

"I know that... but he could still wake up. There have been cases where people have awoken after years, please Carlisle." The despondent tone was nearly heartbreaking. "I-I can't just give up on him. I did that once. I can't do it again."

"I understand, I was only making sure you were aware." Carlisle responded softly.

The room was once again plunged into the same awkward silence, only broken by the beeping equipment, until Carlisle silently slipped from the room.

Edward looked out at the horizon, just as the sun dipped below the horizon and sighed as the familiar fiery glow basked the area outside.

'Twilight once again.' He mused silently and began to prepare the room for the oncoming darkness.

The past is but the beginning of a beginning, and all that is and has been is but the twilight of the dawn.

-H.G. Wells

Blackhaven18: There... Way passed the date I set for myself, but it's finally done...

Next part will be out soon... keep an eye out for it.