Everyday Moments Of Perfection

A/N: Hey y'all! I'm in a good mood today, so I decided to type up the battle scene from Eclipse that I promised. :) Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter.

Anyway, here goes. The battle at the end of Eclipse, from the AJ point of view.

Edward was sitting out of the battle. Alice wouldn't admit it, but that fact made her nervous. She felt a little sick as she realised that she blamed Bella for it, and she tried to push those feelings down, but she just couldn't, and sadness built in her as she realised that if any of her family got hurt, a small part of her would blame Bella for persuading Edward not to join in the battle, and possibly preventing whatever hurt was caused.

Alice shook her head. She couldn't think that way. It was dangerous. As Jasper had often told her, envisioning defeat was often the cause of defeat. Besides, they had the werewolves on their side, which was something Alice never thought would happen in all her years of existing. She heard their wolfprints, thumping like a heartbeat in the distance to her sensitive hearing. Carlisle repeated, "Get ready, everyone."

It hit Alice as soon as she turned her head to the west. The scent of newborns, with the heat and power of human blood coursing through their veins. Alice saw Jasper growl, an instinctual reaction, as he smelled it too, and he stood closer to her, whipping his head to search for any other sources of danger.

They emerged from the foliage, blurs of speed to any human sight. But Alice could make out every facet of their faces, hungry for a fight, almost frothing at the mouth in their anticipation and excitement. But something was holding them back. Alice didn't know what, or why. They looked a little anxious, but the Cullens were not the cause. The dilemma frustrated Alice. Usually, she would just have a little peek into their futures—hopefully seeing their smouldering piles of ashes—but this time she couldn't. She was blinded, unable to foresee the ending of this battle, and it sent butterflies whirling in her stomach. Giant, spiky butterflies pounding at her insides with hammers.

Suddenly, something flickered on every newborn's face, and they turned angry, their eyes glittering with a deadly sheen. Alice smelled them before she saw them. The werewolves had arrived, but Jacob and Seth were not with them. They had stayed with Bella and Edward. Alice saw the large, black wolf growl, and the others came to stand beside the Cullens. Alice could sense the authority the black wolf held over the others—their Alpha, Sam.

Alice sensed a blur that was a newborn practically flying past her left side. They're fast, she found herself thinking. But not as fast as me.

With a wicked smirk, Alice lashed out to the side, punching the vampire through the chest; where his heart would be were he still human. She thrust her arm upwards, causing the vampire's head to drop off and roll on the ground like a sadistic football. Alice saw Jasper look grimly at the vampire, with a fierce glint in his eye that Alice had been forced to attack the vampire, and he had not covered for her. Jasper pulled a disposable lighter from his pocket and threw it, lit, onto the vampire's dismembered pieces. The vampire instantly caught alight.

That seemed to cause a reaction with the other newborns, and they leapt out, each one going straight for a different member of the Cullens or the Pack, and tackling them. Alice's foe punched her in the face, provoking an angry growl from Jasper, who kicked out at him while wresting his own enemy from him. Alice became a blur of speed, running around the vampire, disorientating him before she kicked him, hard, in the stomach, making him fly across the clearing and smash a tree to pieces with his flying body. Alice was about to run after him, when Jasper appeared from nowhere, having already dispatched of his newborn. He swiftly and ruthlessly relieved the vampire of his head, arms and legs, and as Alice turned, she caught the raging fire reflected in Jasper's hard, tawny eyes.

Alice yelled over to him, "Jasper, behind you!"

It was irrational, she knew, he was probably well aware of the vampire running towards him, but Alice had always been irrational when it came to Jasper. He turned at once, so fast Alice almost it, his face that of a feared predator, completely inhuman. Even Alice had to admit that the back of her neck went cold at his expression, and she knew him better than anyone. She smiled, imagining the terror that just his expression was wreaking on the newborns. Of course, Jasper took the newborn out with no trouble at all, he had so much experience at it… but that was something Alice didn't want to think about. Abruptly, Alice felt a pair of arms grab her from behind. She turned, kicking out, but the newborn caught her leg in a burst of human blood-fuelled strength. He flipped her over and she shrieked with indignation, reaching forward and grabbing the arm that held her, twisting it with all her strength until it was ripped from his body with a sickening tearing noise.

Jasper roared as the newborn reached with his other arm and grabbed Alice's leg, trying to dismember her. He leapt into the sky, fierce as Alice had ever seen him, and landed on the newborn's back. He kicked the newborn's head and made him loosen his grip on Alice, who took the chance while he was distracted and punched him in the stomach, while throwing an open lighter at him.

Once the newborn was ashes, Jasper turned to Alice, a feral look on his features as he assessed her for any damage. Alice placed a soothing hand on his shoulder and was about to say, "I'm fine," when she caught a glance of a newborn, holding a broken tree trunk aloft and heading for Jasper. She frowned, jumped over Jasper's shoulder and attacked.

~oOo~

Jasper lost himself in the battle. He let himself be controlled solely by his instincts, let the fighting machine inside take over, let the monster tell his limbs what to do, how to destroy the enemy. He roared, his body almost scorching with rage as he saw a newborn attacking Alice. His Alice. No one touched her.

He jumped high into the air, seeing red as the vampire tried to twist Alice's leg off. Jasper had never been so furious as he was right now, and he attacked the newborn ruthlessly with all his strength.

After the newborn was gone, Jasper felt some of himself returning from the point of blind rage, and he turned to assure himself Alice was not hurt. She opened her mouth, Jasper could sense the reassurance on her lips, but she stopped. For a tenth of a second, Jasper panicked and thought that she had been injured in some way, but then he saw her eyes harden, and his lover jumped over him. Jasper twisted around to see her leap for a newborn carrying a tree trunk. She barrelled at him, knocking him out from under the tree, which fell to the ground with a deafening thump.

Jasper saw the faintest glint of blind insanity in Alice's eyes at the newborn who had tried to attack him, and knew she was in danger of getting herself hurt in her emotive rage.

He pounced on the newborn from behind, even as Alice tore his head from his torso, flinging it to the ground so hard that Jasper heard the dry-hardened earth crack slightly. The newborn lumbered forward, not knowing where he was going without his head. However, before Alice could do anything else, he found it, reattaching it with a horrible squelching sound. He leapt at Jasper, who was so preoccupied with Alice, he didn't lunge out of the way fast enough. The vampire bit into Jasper's flesh and Alice cried out in fury.

Alice turned, and in her ire, picked up a large boulder that Emmett would have struggled with, hurling it the newborn's way. Jasper leapt out of the way as the newborn flew past him, a boulder against his chest, and slammed against the rock face, cracking the grey rock beneath and making little stones of quicksilver rock fly everywhere. Alice stepped towards the vampire out of the dust cloud that had whirled up during the attack, the image of Tempestes, Roman goddess of the storm. Right then, her arms were raised, looking as if the dust storm had emanated from her fingers. She jumped onto the newborn, paralysed by the rocks, and lit him on fire, staring with daggers for eyes until his entire body had been consumed, and lay as ashes in the dusk that swept over the clearing as night came.

Minutes passed and the vampires and werewolves started to move as one being, coming together to defeat the newborns, whose strategy was mostly 'kill anything you see'. The Cullens were cleverer, and it was beginning to show in their fighting. Also, they were constantly covering one another, whereas the newborns were just looking out for themselves. They may be a small army, but in truth, they were isolated. That made it even easier.

Jasper and Alice moved as one being, completely in tune with one another. Their arms and legs moved in complete synchronicity, they were two halves of the same person, taking each newborn out with calculated precision and grace.

That was, until someone faltered.

Jacob Black came out of nowhere, dashing down the trail, grinning from ear-to-ear. He was so consumed by some emotion—Jasper felt his extreme pleasure and lust—that he didn't notice the newborn that barrelled towards him. Alice thought, for a second, he was going to die. But then he turned, his face determined about something, and swerved out of the way, phasing instantly. He growled, and Alice sighed. Cocky.

They battled until all the newborns were dead. Alice sighed, watching the piles of ashes smoulder. Jasper looked at her from the other side of the clearing, and began to walk towards her. That was when they heard the yelp. The Cullens heads' all jerked towards the sound in unison, followed by the werewolves' cocked heads. The Pack recognised the yelp, and Jasper sensed panic in their emotions as they watched the scene through their pack-mate's eyes. Jacob dashed towards the sound, followed by the rest of the Pack and the Cullens. Alice and Jasper took up the back, watching carefully for any other newborns.

They all watched in horror as Jacob took on the newborn that Leah had stupidly attacked by himself. The newborn tossed him aside, crushing him with his marble arms, and the Cullens heard the sickening crunch of his bones breaking. Carlisle tried to rush over to him, but the newborn blocked his path. Every one of the Cullens growled defensively when the newborn moved to strike him, and instantly rushed forward. Emmett and Rosalie took him out, strength with dexterity, working in perfect harmony. Carlisle picked Jacob up, much to the chagrin of the Pack and carried him back to the clearing. Alice and Jasper stood in a protective crouch in front of their father-figure and the injured wolf as they saw a young vampire crouched in the clearing. She was alone, her eyes with panic. Jasper started forward but the newborn gasped, "I surrender. Victoria is dead!"

Carlisle lay a free hand on Jasper's shoulder. "Guard her until the rest get back."

Jasper looked wary, but Carlisle reasoned, "She has surrendered. We cannot kill without reason."

Jasper nodded, stepping forward. The newborn recoiled, seeing the scars that lined his body, an instinctual reaction to the terrifying vampire standing before her. They waited for minutes that seemed like years, until eventually they heard the sound of a human, a vampire and a wolf, trekking the path down to the clearing. They were unhurt. The whole group seemed to let out a breath of relief at that realisation. Carlisle had done a preliminary examination of Jacob and found that he would be okay, it would just take a while, and with the return of Bella, Edward and Seth, they were all safe. Victoria was dead, the newborn—Jasper had found out her name was Bree—had told them so. Edward had killed her, and the last remaining newborn, whose name Bree kept babbling; Riley. All the newborns had been taken care of.

It was over.

They were all alive.

Jasper and Alice embraced, their eyes burning.

She's safe.

He's safe.

That was all that mattered.

Right, well, I hope you liked my version of the Eclipse battle! I'm thinking of writing a proper, chaptered AxJ story. Which is stupid and foolish, yes, I know, brain, since I already have quite a few stories on the go, but I just can't help it. My muse is strange, and when he plays the music, I must dance for reasons unknown. Anyway, I'm interested to know what the reaction would be if I were to write a chaptered AxJ story, since I won't take it on if no one wants me to. Anyway, I'm just thinking about it at this stage, though I do have a few ideas for some.

Also, I'd love to chat to you guys over at my forum, 'The Society of Vampire Ducks'. Take a look, anyway. Just click on the link from my profile that says, 'My Forums'. I'll make a thread for you guys to come over and chat. Hehe, I just realised that the acronym for my story is EMOP. Hehe. That'll be in the thread title – probably be called 'EMOP chat thread'. I might start up a few Twilight challenges if there's enough people. This site needs a few decent AxJ challenges. :)

Anyway, come and have a look-see. ;)

Raven. X