Hello all, welcome to chapter 22. For the ones upset about the last chapter and don't want Nessie (or reenie depending on whos team youre on) there for long, don't fret. Just bear with me for two more chapters from her POV. I want you to full experience what it's like for her to be there, how she feels and how she is reacted to. I want you to really experience it, because you have to understand how hard her upcoming choices are going to be.

Chapter 22: Metamorphosis

"Are you ready for this?" Carlisle asked Phil for a third time since we left Jennah.

We were just in the caves a few miles away. Close enough to run back if need be, and far enough away to mask the screams that would accompany his transformation.

He nodded, coming hell or high water he was becoming a vampire.

They were pleased to see him when I brought him, Jasper and Emmett both cracking a joke about his physical changes. But Phil was in no joking mood. They listened sadly as he told them everything that happened to bring them here. About Asima and Kyle being leopards.

He listened to us bring him up to speed about everything that caused the wave. How Ness was missing, how werewolves abducted her, and how the way it was looking, we were going to have to join the Volturi for help.

Then he asked Carlisle for the biggest favor anyone could ask of him. To turn him into a vampire.

Esme tried to sympathize, to tell him that even though he was hurting there were other options than giving up his life.

He politely disagreed, telling us that Asima and Kyle were all he had left, that it was his job to look after them, and he couldn't protect them as a human.

Edward tried to reassure him that they were safe here, that we wouldn't let any harmed come to them, and I promised they were in the best of hands with Sami, Rami and Jabril, but he was adamant. Then I saw the promise he made to Kiya and I understood it all.

"Promise me that you'll never leave them, that you'll do what it takes to make that happen..."

His last promise to her was that he'd become a vampire. When Carlisle saw that his mind was made up he looked to me. He informed them that he made the offer to turn Phillip years ago, and I made him promise that he wouldn't under any circumstances.

That wasn't a fair move, to once again put his humanity in my hands. A decision I couldn't make right away. Phil was thirty one. Still young but not as young as he was before. I thought about everything his emotional mind overlooked. The cons of eternity that only an immortal could understand. I weighed the pros, once he could control his vampire side, how good it would feel to have him around. That his children— His children? Once I thought about the twins it was obvious. His intentions were wrong before.

The first time he wanted to turn, it was to be with me forever. If I had made the choice to turn him then and things panned out the way they did I would have never forgiven myself, but now. He was doing it for Asima and Kyle. How could I deny him that?

I set him up at our house, and let him spend some time with the twins, since there was no telling how long he would have to be away before he could see them again. When the morning came, I ran him to the caves with Carlisle to start the process, the sooner it was over the better because we still had Ness to save and clock was counting down whether we liked it or not.

Phil's change, the new leopards, saving Ness, and killing the werewolves was just something we had to do all at the same time. "Alright, well let's begin."

Before Carlisle could do anything Phil grabbed my hand, and I could feel the fear he'd been trying to push down all day. "Don't let me hurt anyone."

"I promise." I nodded not taking my eyes off of his, it was the last time I'd see their hazel tint.

Carlisle's warning entered my mind. I'm not going to warn him when I do it, it'll be easier that way.

I didn't need to respond, he knew I heard him. He stood at the entrance of the cave staring out into the sand, giving us as much privacy as possible. "Don't worry about Asima and Kyle. They'll be taken care of until you're able to come back."

He nodded, but didn't let go of my hand. "Thank you."

"Don't worry about it." I shrugged trying to be brave for both of us. I didn't know what he would be like as a vampire, and the fear of the unknown was deadly in this case.

He looked down at the ground, taking a seat on the large flat rock. "I never got to tell you I was sorry. For pushing you away. I just—"

"You did what you thought was best for you family." I pardoned. "How can I hold that against you?"

I could feel his shame, "All the same I—"

Carlisle zipped past us striking his carotid artery with perfect accuracy, forcing himself to the other side of the cave and away from the other wound.

"Ahh!" Phillip screamed, and I held him firm on the rock feeling his pain wanting to collapse right next to him. I look in the corner at Carlisle breathing heavily fighting the urges until the bite sealed itself up.

Once he was sure he was under control he looked at me, "Let's go." He ordered roughly.

"Make it stop, make it stop!" Phil screamed, and my knees buckled making me fall. His hand welded to mine. How could I leave him in this much pain?

"Asima let's go." Carlisle repeated, more himself this time.

I shook my head as best I could, my eyes blurring from involuntary tears. He screamed squeezing my hand making me release a cry of my own.

Carlisle sighed, "Asima, you've absorbed Jasper's empathic abilities, you can't stay here. It'll be torture."

Burning wracked thorough me and I panted deep breaths trying to influence him. His screams weren't as bad then. After a minute I already felt like I was holding breath for a thousand years. I had to let go, and the ear spitting screams returned. "I'm not leaving him!"

Carlisle sighed, "I can't stay with you. Hearing his heart is reminding me of the taste. I have to go."

I understood, I knew what I was asking was going to be hard for him, hell practically impossible for any other vampire I knew. I had so much I needed to tell him. I needed to tell him to go to Volterra, and explain the problem, that we needed them to fight, but all I could get out was. "VOL-VOLTERRA!"

He blurred away, no longer being able to stand it, and I hoped he'd figure it out from there.

Phil continued to scream, and every pain ripped through slow and fast at the same time. It could feel it, the red hot magma slowly inching its way to my heart, burning every piece of me on its way. No one should have to go through this. I took several deep breaths and when I felt strong enough, I tried to push my influence onto him.

His blood curdling screams turned to agonized grunts, and he didn't let go of my hand. He was sweat drenched and sticky. It wasn't helping much, but I fought to hold it for as long as I could—forty-five seconds. That's all I got, before screams ripped from both of us.

"Are you crazy!?" Someone screamed from the cave entrance. I really couldn't tell, my ears ringing from the blinding pain.

A set of strong hands pulled me up before I could protest unwrenching Phil's grip from mine. We were leaving the cave, and for a second I didn't it fight—it relishing in the relief. But when I caught my breath, regathered my strength, and noticed the distance between Phil and I was getting greater I started to protest.

I heard Edward's voice nearby. "I'll carry her back, give her to me so that you can phase, Seth."

"No, let me down!" I demanded wriggling out of my husband's arms.

"Asima, you obviously aren't thinking clearly. You need to come back to Jennah, now." My best friend's dad insisted, sounding like a parent— something I hadn't heard him do in forever—reprimanding.

I shook my head, "I'm going back. I'm not going to leave him there. He needs me."

"Asima, you're an empath. I'm not going to let you sit through three days of torture." Seth dictated.

Edward added his two cents. "You spending three days incapacitated isn't going to help us get Renesmee back."

"You don't need me to go to Volterra," I promised. "Take a small group, and by the time you get back we'll be done here."

"I'm not letting you stay here," Seth refused, his eyes wet from frustration.

I wiped them away, "You have to, he needs me."

My husband shook his head, the green line that traced him practically pulsing from anger. "Esme or one of the others would be more than willing to—"

"No, he needs me. I can't leave him. I left him when he needed me before." I admitted looking longingly back in the direction of the cave.

Seth took my hand, pulling me close to him. He kissed the top of my head before pulling away, "What happened with him—the twins becoming wolves, the Merit, him choosing to be a vampire, none of this is your fault."

"You don't have to be a martyr," Edward agreed. "Not everyone's plight is your plight."

"How is it not my fault?" I argued. "I left him alone, I stopped checking on him!"

"Because he asked you to," Edward reminded. "It was his choice to make, not yours. You and Nessie did what any friend should. You respected his wishes and gave him up to live in peace."

"So let's go back home. We can send Esme, or someone to back to stay with him— hell I'll wait with him if it'll make you feel better— but don't do this to yourself." His brown eyes were begging me to come home with him. To choose the easy way out.

I shook my head and Edward gave up, throwing his hands in the air. "I swear you can be so masochistic at times. Why do you always have to be so ruled by humanity?"

My eyes widened at the pot calling the kettle black, but didn't throw it back in his face. "Because right now Phil is in that cave losing his."

Seth ran his hand through his hair taking two steps back from me and phased. Anger pushing him into wolf form and taking off back for Jennah. "I'm sorry!" I called behind him really bothered that I hurt him. He was my everything, I just needed him to understand this was something I had to do.

"I'm sorry," I repeated turning back to Edward this time.

Edward shook his head but didn't say all of the opinions flowing through his mind at the time. "Carlisle, Bella and I are leaving for Volterra tonight. We're leaving Jasper and Emmett behind in case you need help with Phil. He is going to be a newborn after all."

I nodded in understanding. "Take one of the phones—in case there's an issue."

"Alice doesn't foresee any issues with our trip, but of course she can't see their decision until they make it." He informed looking back towards Jennah.

"Go, I'll be here."

He shook his head but left all the same. Good luck.

I waited for him to disappear before I turned to head back to the cave. I still had half a mile to go when I was hit with a wave of my best friend's agony. His screams echoed through me, and as much as my body pulled me to go in the opposite direction, I pushed myself forward to be with him. I think I collapsed outside the entrance completely overwhelmed, and I'm not sure where I got the strength from, but before I could change my mind I sprinted by his side, linking my hand with his.

He popped a few blood vessels in his eyes in my absence, and instantly I regretted leaving for the little time I did leave. I took another stab at influencing him again. It helped, but only slightly. "I'm here Phil. I'm not leaving." I promised when I felt it slipping again.

The gratitude he couldn't say echoed in his thoughts, but we were both too affected to even try. The burn traveled to his heart and was slowly starting to travel outwards, our right arm searing under the veins. Give me strength!

—

I paced back and forth in front of him for the last few minutes of his transition. It had been a daunting three days to say the least, the cooling of a complete conversion spreading just as slowly as the original fire that started the shift.

When the coolness consumed him he shut his eyes, exhausted from the past few days, and I didn't interrupt knowing it was the last time he's get anything close to rest. His heart was flying, faster than Ness—accelerating—leading up to the time when it would eventually stop completely.

I froze when I heard it—well, didn't hear it. Complete silence.

Turning around very, very slowly I called to him just as carefully. "Phil..." Jasper warned me that it was imperative that I didn't make any sudden movements.

His eyes shot open, but he didn't move. Just staring up at the top of the cave, lying on the rock. I was about to call his name again but he sat up on his own, staring down at the ground now. "Yeah..."

"Are you okay..." I know it was a stupid question to ask, but I didn't have anything else to say.

He looked up at me, his eyes a burning red that reminded me of his transition. "Am I?"

Phil waved his hands in front of him touching his arm, noticing the difference. Of course he wasn't fine, he was a vampire. He wasn't physically the same Phil, everything about this was wrong to me, it wasn't what I was used to. I chose my words carefully though. "You seem okay. Can you walk?"

He put his feet on the ground and slowly stood up. He lifted his foot to take a step and was across the cave before I could blink. He stared at me wide eyed, shocked at the movement. "Holy shit!"

"Yeah, the control takes a bit of getting used to," I admitted managing to smile the first time since he'd been bitten. I saw a hint of the old Phil in his reaction. He tried to take another step and blurred to the other side, this time a tad slower. "You're getting it." I nodded trying to encourage him, but I obviously wasn't fooling him.

He laughed, "I must really suck." He laughed again, the laugh soon replaced by a growl. "My throat hurts."

That was the next thing we had to do according to Jasper's instructions. "I'm supposed to take you hunting. Are you ready?" He nodded, anxious at the thought of food but hesitated before moving. "Don't worry, I won't let you hurt anyone." I promised again.

"Alright, I trust you," He surrendered, walking slowly towards the entrance. He waggled his eyebrows dramatically at the ability to control the speed. I giggled and shook my head watching him walk into the high noon sun.

Phil lit up like a diamond and he stared at himself casting rays over the sands. I gave him a minute but his hunger didn't distract him for long. "Where do I go?"

I pointed south, "Jennah is that way, but we're definitely not going there. We're going to go north. I'll follow and tell you when to stop."

He eyed me warily, but took off running all the same. I kept him shielded and maintained a safe distance trying my best to keep his survival instincts from viewing me as a threat. We ran for about an hour just on the borders of leaving Saudi Arabia.

"Stop!" I yelled hurrying up to him, making sure to approach on the side. I put my hands on my knees trying to catch my breath. After dealing with the physical stress of his change I was spent.

He turned around, his fiery eyes disappointed. "Why did we stop?"

"Can't you smell that?" I questioned jerking my head to the west. About a mile from here a small coalition of cheetahs were crowded around a watering hole.

The smell caught him, and he took off without a word. He didn't ask me for tip or pointers like I expected him to. In fact I don't think he had much control over it at all. When I felt it was safe I followed after him, watching him from a safe enough distance.

I don't know how he could rationally process enough to kill the four male cats to make sure they didn't get away but there they lay. His wild mind making it hard for him to choose which one to feed from. He blurred back and forth between them all taking a little of each one, staking claim.

When he realized opening them up was wasting the blood he threw a drained carcass in frustration sending the hundred and forty pounds a good sixty feet. "Looks like you still have that throwing arm." I joked trying to bring his temper down, walking up to him when I felt safe.

"The blood is cold," He frowned breathing heavily, his shirt covered in blood.

I could empathize on that one, cold blood was the worst. "Yeah, I know. You would have fared better killing and draining one rather than trying to get them all at once. Restraint is the key."

"Kill one, feed, then kill another..." He repeated to himself thoughtfully.

I listened to him store the tidbit into his infinite archive of a mind, while simultaneously wondering if he could find something more to eat. I laughed, "We passed a herd of camels on the way in. There's about thirty or forty of those. And lucky for us their dumb, so you might actually get your fill before you scare them away."

Phil took another sniff of the air, his nose pointing the way. He frowned and shook his head, "They stink, Asima."

There way my Phil. "Yeah, everything pretty much stinks at first. You'll get used to it."

He smelled his shirt, offended. "I don't stink."

"No, you don't, but you have your own distinct smell." I informed. "No two vampires smell the same."

He thought about that, "You don't stink," He noted.

I laughed, "I have my own distinct smell you just didn't notice all weak human nosed."

"I thought you smelled nice then," He disagreed trying to recall some memory that was fading. "But now, you smell different."

The growl in his chest made my head snap up, "Phil...No..." But he was too far gone. His knees bent slightly leaning on the ball of his foot, his eyes glazed, his mouth filled with venom.

Jasper said to never make any rash movements but now wasn't exactly the time for slow movements either. I turned on my heels a ripped off towards the south and he sprung after me. I was small and fast, but he had thirty years' worth of human blood and newborn strength fueling each stride so it didn't take more than a few seconds to clip the back of my legs tackling me to the sand.

"Phil! No!" I slid myself between his legs quickly, but he recovered just as fast grabbing my foot before I could get back up.

Phil had checked out. I rolled on my side before he could pin me abandoning my sneaker to break free, only for him to grab my ankle and yank me into snapping range. Putting all of his weight on my lower half, he had me pinned and I turned my upper body left and right to avoid giving him access to my neck.

"Stop!" I screamed using my forearm to cover my face, his teeth crushing into my radius. "Ahh! Phil! You're hurting me!"

Venom flooded my arm making me scream, and my eyes blurred out of focus for a few seconds—not something you need when being attacked by a ravenous vampire. But surprisingly it snapped him out of his trance. His eyes widened recognizing me, making the connection of what was happening. "Asima?" He whispered frozen on top of me.

"Get, off of me!" I demanded angrily and he blurred ten feet away sitting in the sand.

His rapidly processing mind wondering what to say to make it better, how he couldn't stop and remind himself that it was me, and still the underlying thought of what was the best way to get to my blood. "Asima..."

"Don't say anything to me right now," I ordered putting a small shield on him so that he wouldn't be tempted to attack me again, or worse catch the smell of something else and run off. He was stronger and faster than me and a new vampire on the loose was all I needed.

My arm was on fire and there was no way to get it out now that my arm had closed back up. I had no choice but to endure the pain until it faded. Luckily my exposure to venom a millennium ago kept it from being as painful as transformation and lasting nowhere near as long.

After another ten minutes the pain faded but I was still fuming. "You have got to learn control!"

"I'm sorry..." he whispered staring down at the sand.

I stopped my pacing and turned on my heels to face him. "You're sorry? Everything you do from this point on is permanent, sorry won't fix it."

"You just smelled really good...and then...I don't know what happened," He admitted, venom pooling in his mouth at the memory.

I tried to calm myself down, "Look Phil, I know I smell nice, but you have to fight that. If you can't handle me how are you ever going to handle being around Ciyan and Phillip, or better yet Asima and Kyle?"

His eyes widened at the thought. "You're not going to die are you?"

I sat next to him, but didn't drop his bubble, "No I'm not going to die, but if you bite one of them they very well might. You remember the story I told you about my brothers?"

He recalled the memory as best as his changing mind could and shuddered at the thought. "I'm so sorry." He repeated, this time it sounded like a sob. I didn't recognize it right away without the tears.

I brought my knees up to my chin and wrapped my arms around them. I was still angry, but realized I couldn't be. I helped make him this way, and it was my job as a friend to straighten him out. "Look Phil, I'm not going to lie. Right now, there is a force in you that is more powerful than everything you used to be. Hunger. But you are still in there, and you can fight all of the instincts that the Cullen's and I fight every day."

"Will it always be this hard?" He grimaced noticing that during his rapid thinking that his throat was hurting.

I didn't want to lie. "Some days will be easier, but then there will be those other days— those days when you're between feedings when a human will pass you, and you recognize that you have an endless supply of blood around you. Those days, you just have to remind yourself what you did all of this for."

"My teeth scarred your arm," He noted jerking his head to the back of my arm.

I turned to inspect it, sure enough two crescent marks were etched two or three inches from my elbow. I tried to keep my tone light about it, "I told you, everything's permanent now." We both didn't say anything, so I forced myself up, clapping my hands together, and "Okay, let's get you satiated."

"Camels?" He groaned, for a second sounding like a boy that didn't want to eat his vegetables.

I dropped his shield, so that he could smell what was around him, putting one up around myself so that he didn't get another whiff of me. "Okay, follow your nose."

With another sigh he took off towards the herd. I stayed away for the most part, letting him glutton himself on as many as he wanted. Surprised that he was actually able to stay fairly clean. When he was finished we headed back to the cave.

He tensed when we smelled unfamiliar scents as we approached, a snarl ripping through him. "Phil..." I cautioned pushing myself to approach before he could. He stopped when he noticed what I was going. "Get used to those scents, they're your friends."

"The Cullen's?" He walked into the cave behind me staring wide eyed at Jasper, Emmett and Esme. "Oh, Esme sorry I—"

Esme waved him off, "its nothing don't worry about it, and you're new after all."

Jasper assessed his moods but didn't say anything. Emmett stood beside her, grinning like a Cheshire cat with his arms crossed. His massive biceps in full view. "Looks like I don't get to pick on you for being weak anymore. I swear I'm going to find one human friend that doesn't want to be a vampire."

"We came to see how you were adjusting?" Jasper informed walking around him, but not getting close enough to spook him.

"Everything seems to be the way you said," I reported, "The thirst, he's adjusting his speeds quite well, his thought process is overwhelming him a bit, but other than that he seems fine."

Jasper nodded, "Well that is to be expected, humans aren't used to processing more than one thing at a time."

Emmett rolled his eyes, "Way to make him sound like a patient bro."

Jasper ignored him, "How did the hunt go?"

"There were—a f—few bumps." I admitted watching Phil shift uncomfortably.

"He ate a human?" Emmett asked looking over at me, but shrugged walking over to Phil and clapping a hand on his back. "No worries man, it happens to the best of us."

"Emmett," Esme scolded but turned to Phil to sympathize. "What my son is trying to say in his callous as ever way is that, no one is judging you dear."

"I didn't!" Phil snapped, flashing angry at Emmett's hand on his arm.

Jasper quickly calmed him down but caught a glance of the teeth marks on the back of my arm. "He turned on you."

"It's my fault, I should have stayed down wind." I argued not wanting to make him feel bad.

Emmett threw his hands in the air, "Why does everyone insist on taking their new vampires out alone?"

"Years of newborn experience, but no 'I can handle it Jazz', 'just tell me what to do Jazz', 'I'm an empath too'" Jasper agreed with him, doing the best impersonation of my voice making me glare at him.

A snicker burst from Phil and I shot my eyes at him, "That does kinda sound like you." He defended himself. I wasn't amused so he apologized, "Sorry."

"You should have at least taken Emmett with you." Esme lectured, her mind shuddering at the possibilities of what could have happened. "Next time one of the boys goes too."

Emmett grinned flexing his arms, "You need a little muscle behind you."

"Didn't Bella beat you arm wrestling her first few weeks as a vamp?" Phil asked making me snicker this time and Jasper crack a smile.

Emmett pointed a finger at him, "That was because she was new— and—and— Hey, careful what you say, I can take your arm off now and not feel bad in the slightest."

A flash of heat erupted from Phil and Jasper quickly calmed it back down. "Stop provoking the newborn."

"Is there any news on the leopard front?" I distracted looking at Esme.

She nodded lighting up at the memory, "Oh Asima and Kyle are adjusting fine according to Jabril. We got to see them today. Kyle called me Mrs. Cuwen, it was adorable."

Phil smiled at the thought of his kids. "Do I get to see them?"

"Not until you're able to handle it." Jasper refused. Phil angered at the thought of not being able to see his kids and this time Jasper didn't adjust it. "You may be upset, but you'll thank us for it later." And slowly but surely his anger faded after a few sets of struggled breaths. "That's a start." He encouraged.

"Any news on the Ness front?" I continued.

Emmett reported that one, "They're on their way back, and Volturi is fully on board. We're going to head there in a few days, plan it out, were not attacking without a force behind us."

"Good." I agreed, thankful that everything was going right for once.

Phil was listening, "Do I at least get to help with that?"

"Hell yeah, we need your newborn strength on our side." Emmett volunteered without thinking. The three of us looked at him in disbelief. "What, we can't really leave him in Jennah unsupervised can we?"

He had a point but going into a fight as a raw new born could get him killed.

"Asima, I have to help somewhere. I can't just stay in this cave forever." Phil defended.

I sighed, "If you can get it under control enough to be safe to travel with, we'll see what we can do. If you can't then we'll figure something else out."

"You're not coming back to Jennah yet are you?" Esme gathered when I tiredly sat on the rock.

I shook my head, "Not until he can."

Esme let out a sigh sitting down a backpack, "I figured as much, so I brought you some clothes. You look tired, get some rest."

I needed to keep an eye on Phil, and Phil didn't sleep. "I'm okay Esme."

"Emmett will stay and keep Phil company while you rest up for the night and come home in the morning." Esme dictated. He looked like he wanted to argue about being on newborn watch but knew better to do so.

I nodded grateful for the break. "Thanks."

Esme patted my head, "Oh that's what family's for dear."

Esme headed out and Jasper stopped in the entrance before following, "I'll be back in the morning to take him on a proper hunt and teach him the basics."

I nodded and laid back on the rock when he left. "Will you two stay out of trouble if I close my eyes for a bit?"

"Me? Trouble?" Emmett asked a bit too innocently, but I trusted him to have it covered, or at least wake me if there's a problem.

As I drifted off I could hear Phil and Em talking in the corner. "I wanna be good at this...Okay Em, teach me the ways of being a vamp."

"I thought you'd never ask newborn," Em chuckled...

Okay, so the next chapter fyi will be from Ness's point of view. Then 24 will be from hers as well most likely. I all depends on who's shouting at me. ch 24 or 25 though I promise something will change. Let me know what you think.