Disclaimer: so sorry I got a day job so writing might take a bit longer than usual. If I was Stephenie Meyer I wouldn't need a job to have the time to do things I wanted... wait... if work takes time why do I need to work to have time?

Disclaimer Deuce: Check my Profile for a new poster for Arthur and his knights.

Mike's POV

I spent all waking hours training and practicing. Every day I could feel myself getting stronger, faster... tougher. There was one thing I was putting off. It was dealing with the world outside of this small village. I loved to learn how to fight, different styles, different techniques, all of them, they all fascinated me... but I couldn't let that distract me. Besides my training I'd been charged with moving water from the well... for everyone in the village, up and down steps with heavy buckets of water. I could feel the strain on my muscles, and every morning the burn reminding me that I was human again. At first I wasn't sure but I bled, slept, ate, burned, and felt like a human. It was a relief and a point of fear. I relished being alive, feeling cold before getting warm, sleep, everything... but what I feared was being found... and I realized I still had my power. While doing martial arts I could feel my energy, it was never physically visible but I could feel it in everything I did.

Self worth... real worth in what I do, in who I am aside from the outside world. What is it? How do you say you're worth something unless some one tells you that? Aren't you worth what people who know you tell you? If someone leaves you does that make you worth any less? Doesn't it? No it doesn't? Should it? No. Then why do I feel like it does?

I breathed in deeply and pushed away from me with breath then gathered back in. I take pride in my martial arts and musical talent, I've always taken pride in the fact that I keep up with people half my size. Isn't that determined by outside forces again? Aren't we splitting hairs now? So Women are drawn to confidence but put off by cockiness. But doesn't confidence come from being good at something or previous success and cockiness come from insecurity posing as confidence? How do I act confident without being cocky?

Is that what Zuri wants? I thought this was about you? Aren't you trying to fix me? Or am I trying to fix you? What's the difference? Who am I? I am me. Thanks. Don't try to complicate it... I'm not a monster or a mouse, but in between, sometimes one sometimes the other. Where does that leave me? Who am I?

"Dear Zuri,

Hey sorry I disappeared, I just kept flying.

I'm not running... I'm just trying to find

myself. No... that's not it... I'm trying to

make me. no... maybe that's not right

either... so much has changed in my life

it's sometimes hard to know who is me

anymore. Everything has changed so

much, heck even my hand writing is nice

now. My hand writing was horrible before.

But my handwriting is the least of my

concerns. I want to write more to you

but I know this is being read by Felix and

Demetri and who knows who else, hi

Felix, hi Demetri. For you I tell you not

to come after me. I'll come back when I

do... if you come after me I'll just leave

and we all know you can't catch me if I

don't want to be caught. I'm sorry if you're

mad at me Zuri. I'm still trying to find

what I'm looking for, but it's not because

you told me to look... but because you

showed me there is more to me than I know.

I'll come back to you... I swear.

Michael Iverson"

Gawain's POV

I looked down at my makeshift weapons. I'd attached a sharpened elbow bone to two sticks making two small hand axes, I also carried the knife I used to make these blades, as well as two more short blades in case of trouble, until a better way was found to kill vampires this would have to suffice.

Next to me was Lancelot, who had gone with a simpler approach and had two blades each a foot long fashioned from Femurs.

Everyone thought me strange for making so many weapons when we were getting research done to make better weapons, I didn't want to be ill-equipped no matter how soon it would be. I'd also tried my hand at tracking vampires, even now Lancelot and I were following two vampires traveling together across the South East of the U.S. We'd followed them to a small alcove. I stopped at the entrance seeing the obvious openings for a trap. Lancelot saw them too but grinned at my apprehension.

"Come on now Gawain, try and tell me you're not looking forward to this." He said grinning. I laughed quietly. Following him in as he led. We traversed the dank cave until we came to a large opening. A small hole in the cave no larger than a foot let moonlight in. The Vampire who led us here walked forward, he was smiling.

"Welcome to my trap." he said proud of himself.

"I don't know Gawain, do you feel trapped?" Lancelot asked me.

"No... I feel pretty good." I answered. As I finished my sentence five more vampires appeared from darkened areas of the cave. I smiled.

"Since there are six of you here now I'd like to talk about something." The laughed evilly at me.

"No can we have a moment to talk before we fight?" The one we had followed laughed at the idea.

"To beg your lives like pathetic dogs?"

"No... not quite..." I said.

"We had something slightly different in mind." Lancelot said smiling.

"If you give up now, we'll bring you back with us, if you're strong you might be useful to us, if you're too strong you'll be killed immediately... if you're weak, well we'll torture you to death... but think about it! If you give up now, you might live to be our lapdogs." I said framing the situation. They laughed again.

The first one lunged at Lancelot. He feigned losing his stepping falling backwards. He drove his blade in to the vampires chest as he closed the gap he gave a quick cut and the vampire was under us, with his spine cut in the middle effectively making him useless. I turned and threw the first of my hand axes and watched it bury itself in between the vampire's eyes.

One more came charging at me and leap through the air. I passed my hand axe from my left hand to my right and pulled one of my daggers out stabbing him through the heart as he flew at me. I pushed his weight off me and hacked off a chunk of his neck then witch a second chop took his head clear off. I heard a screech and then the sound of skin being cut... like nails on a chalkboard.

I spun to deal with one of the last two but he struck my right arm. I dropped my axe and took a step back. He led with a straight punch. I barely got my left arm with the dagger in it up to block it as I side stepped. Threw an uppercut inside his still punching arm catching him right under his chin. I heard a ripping behind me as I saw the vampire fall flat on to his back. Before he could recover I slipped the dagger in to my right hand and dropped to one knee stabbing my dagger in to his left eye socket. He twitched for a moment then stopped.

"Make sure to decapitate them before taking your weapons out." I reminded Lancelot behind me. He snorted at the idea.

"I've already beheaded mine, you're behind." He said starting a fire behind me.

"Burn the heads... bag the bodies."

Embry's POV

The truth was I didn't remember anything the first time I 'halfshifted' that's what they called it... the truth was there was nothing half about it besides half losing my mind. I'd remembered colors from the last two times I'd halfshifted but nothing more. I became an unstable monster destroying everything and everyone in sight. Themba still believed I was in there but I didn't. She liked to romanticize it with some story of how I wouldn't hurt her. This isn't some Disney bullshit. I'm not "Beast" waiting for my "Belle" I'm just a monster with no control, the kind of monster that will kill people. Unfortunately I needed to continue being that monster. I needed to conquer the monster.
There was another very real reason to try and control my beast... It didn't kill me. I might have no control over my actions but halfshifting wasn't killing me very slowly... every... single... time. I wasn't stupid. I knew every time I shifted I was killing myself slowly but there were times when it was necessary... Maybe... just maybe if I could master half shifting I'd never need to shift again... maybe I'd never succumb to the vampiric poison. You're fooling yourself, you'll just delay the inevitable.

The truth in my heart of hearts was that there was nothing more chilling and panic inducing then the fact that I was dying and there was nothing I could do about it. I would never admit it to anyone else, in fact until I was forced to confront my morality I wouldn't even admit it to myself, now knowing that I was slowly dying all I could think of is how I should have lived better. I wasn't afraid of dying in a battle, nor a freak accident, no man in the world gave me pause to fear death... but the slow inevitability that with each day the poison took a bit more of me and I would never recover scared me in to my own silent panic attacks. How pathetic, the great Embry Call Alpha among all shifters and nightmare of vampires has panic attacks... how ironic.

Acceptance? Fuck you. I reject death. I reject the premise that it's my time, I reject the idea that it's right, and most of all I fear it. I wish I had Mike's faith in life after death. Truthfully I'd always wanted to believe but there was some nagging thing I could never put my finger on... the more I learned the more I wanted to believe but ever the skeptic I couldn't push past what I could see, smell, taste, hear, and feel. Perhaps a psychotic level of fear was my punishment for not believing for being a skeptic, but I wasn't stupid enough to stop phasing.

I had decided long ago that I would continue protecting the world... what else would I do? Stop shifting? Nearly everyone I cared about was super human and not aging anymore. Not to mention that if I stopped I might be assassinated by the very Volturi I worked for. They saw my power when I fought Felix and kept up with him. It wouldn't be hard to rationalize it to the vampire population they were already wary of our kind. No... If no other reason for my safety, I needed to stay super human... But that wasn't the only reason.

I wasn't naïve enough to believe the world was going to be okay without me. How very self important of you. I still wasn't convinced Xavier was dead... he was far too confident and I'd made the mistake of assuming he was dead before.

We were currently hunting down a shapeshifter, I wasn't sent out because my... disinclined nature from shifting. Ilsa, Troy, Abed, Ramon, and Murphy the brother of the teleporter were currently hunting him down hoping to end this whole problem before it got out of hand.

And if all that wasn't weird enough I was really developing strong feelings for Themba. When the hell was the proper time to tell someone you're dying? Do I even tell her? I don't know... This is my secret, my burden... I don't want people to treat me like a victim, like a dying man... I just want to live while I'm alive. Wait, really? Bon Jovi? No... this is my secret... maybe I'll tell her when I get more sick... as long as I can hide it I will.

Just them Themba walked in the room. She looked stunning as usual. Her smile lit up the room. I felt my heart lift.

"Hey sexy." she called to me. I blushed slightly grinning. I stopped for a moment and looked over my shoulder for someone.

"Who? There's no one but me left in the room." I said smiling. I turned my back to her once again looking for who she was talking about, putting my hand above my forehead to block the sun that was obviously not in the room. I felt her arms around me and then she slid around my side under my arm. I dropped my arm naturally around her shoulders looking down to her she got up on her toes and met me for a kiss. It wasn't rushed, it wasn't forced. It was gentle as a hello. I pulled her tighter to with me with one arm. I wanted to say something but didn't know how I wanted to say it. Instead I just kissed her hair, breathing in the smell of her.

"I missed you." she said as if taking the words I was thinking but couldn't say. I smiled and kissed her again. I stopped when I heard someone coming. Felix didn't even look in the room he just talked knowing we were listening.

"Come to the main hall... something went wrong." Felix wasn't clear in his message but the message was clear. Themba came along and We went straight to the hall. Murphy was standing with his arm across his body heaving.

"One more time Murphy explain it all." He nodded still gripping his body, he was cut all over but there seemed to be a large wound across his entire stomach he was covering with his arm. He removed his arm which was caked in his own blood.

"We found him... we found shifter... He cut down Ramon before we could even move. Troy and Abed died quickly as well. I managed to get my arms around him and he was fighting me off with a blade but Ilsa managed to get his throat. He cut her head off and I managed to twist his off even though I was nearly gone... he's gone... the shifter is gone." he said.

"One problem done, but he wasn't working alone he worked with some people with a Ukrainian accent. Murphy shook his head.

"I think he just turned them... He was alone." Aro nodded. Andrea ran across the room and hugged Murphy. He smiled.

"Don't worry sis, I'm safe."

I hope you enjoyed that chapter. My Poster person Laurazuleta (I might have spelt that wrong) has made a poster for Arthur and his knights, I hope you enjoy it. If you enjoy it review, if you don't enjoy it review. If you read it... review. Remember high fives, comments, rolls of twenty dollar bills and knucks. Catch you on the flip side.