I am afraid I won't be able to finish my story before I leave Thursday to Trinidad and Tobago for three weeks. But this chapter will give you many answers and when I am there I will write the rest. I thank you all, special thanks to Alicia, Lourdes and TriGemini, for your support, it really helped me with writing the story.
Master of time
Edward was staring at his Bella. He had her back, she was alive and well. Their race against the clock had not been in vain. She was turning towards him, calling his name. He stretched out his hand further in her direction, inviting her to join him, to be at his side. Her beautiful face stared at him, her eyes gleaming with the recognition of his soul towards her own.
'Come back to me, Bella.' He whispered.
She had turned her back completely towards Coraline and took a step in his direction. The relief he felt was everything. She took another step but it seemed to go so slowly that he believed he was seeing things in slow motion instead of real time. Behind Bella he saw a silvery flash. Suddenly alarm held his breath and he gasped. Bella's eyes flew open in surprise, when a scream of agony left her lips. Edward rushed forward, running with everything he had.
'No!' He yelled.
Words echoed in his mind, the other child will be the means to either turn her or destroy her.
Bella's mouth was opened in a silent gasp and he saw her fell forward in the grass. He was at her side a moment later, but it was too late. Out of her back stuck a silver knife and blood coloured the ground red. He pulled out the knife and turned her around to see her face.
'Bella, no!' He begged, seeing her white face. 'Don't leave me, don't you dare leave me!'
She tried to breathe, he could see her struggle. It hurt him more than everything he ever felt in his life. Her eyes flickered and the sparkle he had loved from the first moment he saw her left her eyes. Her heartbeat, the heartbeat he could feel anywhere, that was the sole purpose of his ability to hear, grew fainter, until he couldn't hear it anymore. She was dying right in front of his eyes. He screamed and he begged. He kept her heart moving and he even bit her many times, everything to keep her alive. There was nothing.
Her heart wouldn't beat anymore and it never would again. She was dead. He had lost her.
The pain was excruciating. Agony filled his lungs as he watched her dead face. He shook her one last time, praying for his nightmare to end, only to get nothing in return.
He grew silent, stoic. The world, his family, his enemies, nothing interested him anymore. His eyes were blind for everything besides her white face, her broken body. He pressed her body into his, catching her lingering scent. He sat like that for hours, days, years, time had no meaning anymore. Nothing had meaning.
He prayed for someone to take his life, to end his misery. He wouldn't live without her, he couldn't. He was giving up and he didn't care.
Slowly he felt the life being sucked out of his body. He did nothing to stop it, he even embraced it. His end lingered. Blissful nothingness would take him and he wanted it. He had lost his soul mate, the greatest of all loves and with it he had lost his will to live.
'Edward! Edward!'
Her calls were useless. He couldn't see her or hear her. Coraline's ability was strong and certain.
'He is dying.' Jasper said alarmed. 'If we don't do something fast, it will be too late.'
'How can he be dying? He is a vampire.' Emmett asked.
'I am not sure, but I can feel it. He is losing his will to live. I will try to help him, but I can only stall.'
Edward wasn't the only one dying. Around them many vampires were as close as Edward or even worse. Jasper held on to Edward with his entire gift.
'We have to kill, Coraline. She can't kill Edward if she is dead herself.' Emmett suggested, looking threateningly towards Coraline.
It was a way. Coraline couldn't defend herself from them. Her powers didn't work on the rest of the Cullens. Coraline seemed to realize that possibility the exact same moment, because one by one she released the vampires around them. Carlisle stopped Emmett's advance in the direction of Coraline when many vampires made a large circle with them in the middle. They were surrounded.
Bella slowly rose from Edward's side, looking in the faces Aro and Maria. A quick count confirmed what her heart already knew, there were too many of them. This was a battle they could never win. She stood there tensed and concentrated, thinking of a way to save her family from annihilation. This was the moment in the future, where they were all going to die. Bella knew it. She had tried to prevent it, but it was to no avail. Jasper was fighting for Edward's life and the rest of them wouldn't have much longer. Loud growling startled her and she looked behind the circle of vampires.
It took Bella a moment to understand what was happening when some vampires turned around to defend their backs against something coming from the trees. Bella could see more than a dozen werewolves surround the vampires that were surrounding them. They had all come to help her.
'They were close all along, but I had asked them to keep a distance, so I could see better in your future. It was the only way to successfully track you down fast enough.' Alice whispered to her.
Although it improved their chances, there were still more than twice as many enemies, not to mention Aro with Jane, Alec and Coraline. Bella couldn't see how they could win this battle. The faces of her family were grim, but determined and there was no mistaking the intention of the growling wolves. They all meant to fight and even if they would win, Bella knew there was no way they would all survive. She stared to Edward's fading life and knew he was the first to die. She couldn't stand it, but even self-sacrificing would not be an answer now. Aro and Maria would still kill everyone.
The only thing left to do was stand and fight. She began to think fast. She had gained some information about herself. She turned towards her memory and heard the words the man called Rafe said again. What had he told her mother?
'She holds past, present and future. She holds time itself.'
She remembered every word and thought about her abilities. She saw the future just like Alice, but that ability wouldn't help her now. She already knew the future and didn't want to be reminded of the outcome of this battle. The past had helped her in many ways, but there was no time for the past to help her now. The answer had to lie in the present.
But she had no power over the present or did she? The answer came to her in a flash. Her ability to freeze. She had always assumed it was something different, but she suddenly understood where that ability came from. She wasn't really freezing that person, she was holding the present. In a small form she was freezing time itself. Understanding her power gave her a strange new control over it. She suddenly saw the frames of time around her. Each person was occupying his own line of time, standing in a moment of the present.
'Jasper! Step away from Edward!' She called.
Jasper looked at her surprised, but she knew he trusted her. He stepped away and let go of his ability. Bella immediately held Edward in the present, freezing him in the moment between life and death. She could preserve his life and she would do so forever if it was necessary.
Freezing Edward saved him for now, but it didn't save them. Their enemies were preparing to attack. She looked at each of them, seeing the frames of time they were currently occupying. She couldn't freeze all of them, could she? Already she felt a drain in her energy from holding Edward's frame.
She remembered the shield she placed on her entire family and how it affected her. It had nearly cost her life and she was no good to them dead. She understood that her shield and her regeneration's abilities came from the power of good, as Coraline's ability to induce fear came from the power of evil. Her ability of time came from something else, from who she was. She didn't know the answer to that question or at least didn't understand it, but she was suddenly sure of the separation in her power.
She closed her eyes for a moment, feeling her essence become fully who it was meant to be. When she opened her eyes, she could not only see time she could feel it. All around her she could feel the fabric of time. She breathed in deeply and let her senses take in the knowledge of every little detail. It all made sense to her now. How she subconsciously knew facts about the ones close to her, like how she knew the song Esme sang for her son even before dreaming of Esme's past. Time held all knowledge and she was the master of time.
'Alec, Jane!' Aro called, suddenly alarmed.
Maybe he could sense the change in Bella, but Bella was ready for them. Alec and Jane used their power and Bella could feel the fabric of time change around them with their abilities. She took one step forward and held up her hand.
'Stop!' She commanded.
Time answered her command without hesitation and Alec and Jane froze forever held in that moment. In the background she heard the stunned gasps of her family.
'What the hell?!' Emmett asked shocked.
'Amazing!' Carlisle whispered.
The wolves had grown silent in awe. Aro's face contracted in shock. He understood his mistake now. He had let her towards her path of power before gaining control over her and he would pay the price for that mistake. Maria's vampires were next. They jumped forward, attacking multiple sides of the wolves or the Cullens. Bella simply shook her head and one by one the vampires were stopped in their tracks. Some even levitated in air, stopped in the middle of their jump. She froze all of them, even Aro and Maria until only Coraline was left.
'I can't believe what I am seeing.' Alice said breathless.
'Bella, are you alright?' Jasper asked.
She nodded, keeping her focus on their last enemy left standing.
She investigated Coraline with her newfound senses. She tried but she couldn't hold her. Coraline didn't have her power over time, but she was a part of her. In body Coraline was the same. Time held no power over Bella, therefore time also held no power over Coraline.
They stood against each other, two sides of the same coin, but Coraline now stood alone. The Cullens and the wolves were on Bella's side. Still she was hesitant to let them simply destroy Coraline. Her instincts told her it could be dangerous. Her mother had separated them for a reason. Would Coraline's death really be an answer?
'What are we waiting for?' Emmett called. 'Let's take her out!'
'No wait!' She called to Emmett.
'Stop using your powers on Edward!' Bella ordered Coraline.
Coraline's eyes narrowed, but she complied, knowing it was of no use now that she was outnumbered and outpowered with the Cullens on her front and the wolves on her back. Bella in her turn released Edward from her hold on time. She turned towards him to see him look up to her.
Her heart bounced with the love she felt for him and every inch of her body tickled with the anticipation of their reunion. He jumped up and with movements faster than her eyes could follow, he held her in his arms, pressing her face in his chest, his lips in her hair.
'If this is heaven, I will take it.' He whispered in her ear.
'You are still very much alive, Edward.' She chuckled, giddy with the relief she felt now that she was back in his arms. 'In a way at least.'
He laughed and breathed in her scent, pressing her closer to his body.
His arms around her and his lips on her skin meant everything to her. She thought she would never be able to feel those things again. They had a future and she couldn't be happier. She placed her arms around his neck and pulled him even closer, kissing his cheek and letting her happiness overwhelm her.
Bella could feel the hands and kisses of the rest of her family. They hugged Edward and joined in the euphoria of having each other safely together again.
'Welcome back, son.' Carlisle said relieved.
'I hate to interrupt our reunion, but we still have to deal with that.' Rosalie pointed towards Coraline and the frozen vampires.
Bella didn't want to leave the blissful feelings of being with Edward and her family again, but she knew Rosalie was right. Their problems were not over. She needed to know everything, who she was and how she could make sure Coraline would never hurt anyone ever again. But how?
The only one with all the answers was Coraline's creator, Bella's real mother.