Chapter Six - Major Shock

After Edward left, I tasted the emotional climate of the remaining family members. There was so much anger, grief, and disappointment pouring from them that I didn't even want to be around them. The only one who stood out was Rosalie. She was feeling justified and strangely grimly satisfied. She approved of the decision Edward had made, which was odd, because I knew how much she didn't want to move away from Forks. I knew she didn't like having Bella around all the time, but I thought it was because she was jealous of her relationship with all of us and didn't like sharing the spotlight, as well as the threat of exposure Bella represented. Despite all her misgivings, she did care about Bella, though she fought those feelings as hard as she could. It was the main reason why she and Emmett had gone to Africa over the summer, so she wouldn't keep getting more and more attached to the human.

However, Bella's continued humanity was against vampire law and if the Volturi discovered we had ignored the law, we could all be put to death. Leaving her behind with not only knowledge, but likely a grudge to bear after being dumped and abandoned, would only worsen our sentence if discovered. Forget simply being torn apart and burned to ash. No, for such a crime, willingly and knowingly executed, we would all be tortured mercilessly before finally being granted the relief of death. As a result, I couldn't understand how Rosalie could be happy with this turn of events, with Edward's illegal, immoral, and delusional plan. Perhaps she was intending to take matters into her own hands like I was? I'd have to talk with her and the others while Edward was away, but first, I needed to deal with a certain deceptive female.

"Alice, come for a run with me. You and I need to talk," I requested politely, my voice calm and even. There was no need to advertise my anger or suspicion to the rest of the family.

Alice scowled and me and huffed, placing her hands on her hips and glaring. "I need to start packing now, Jasper. We can talk later. You need to start boxing up your things."

I raised my eyebrows at her blatant dismissal and disrespect in front of the others. That was completely unacceptable behavior of any female mate. I doubted even Rosalie would diss Emmett like that in front of witnesses, and she clearly wore the pants in that relationship. "Let me rephrase. Come with me now, Alice," I ordered, the authority resonating in my voice.

She snarled, "Fine. Let's go."

She raced out of the house, not waiting for me, and expecting me to trail behind her like a little puppy, begging for affection and a treat. I smirked to myself. I'd follow her for now, but as soon as we were out of earshot, she was going to get a wake-up call. Everyone avoided looking in my direction as I headed out the door after my wife. I could feel discomfort from all of them at the way Alice treated me. I had always ignored their feelings before, but now they just added fuel to my fire.

Several miles into the forest, I gave free reign to the Major and took a backseat to watch him take action. It's good to be free again, the Major purred in our mind. You should have let me set her straight decades ago, instead of turning into this weak little pussy who can't even dress himself. I never thought you'd let yourself become so whipped. Didn't you learn anything from the way Maria treated you? Alice is just as bad, using you for her own purposes, hiding things from you, telling you what to do, and only fucking you when she wants to give you a reward for 'good behavior'. I gave a mental shrug. He was right. I had let myself become another woman's puppet, though I hadn't had to kill or torture anybody for it. Well, other than myself, that is.

Acting purely on instinct, the Major pounced on Alice, knocking her to the ground. She was shocked and stared at me with eyes and mouth wide open. "Jazz? What the hell? Why, how did you do that?"

I growled at her, venom dripping from my canines. "That's Major to you, girlie! I'm not putting up with your bullshit any longer! You will treat me with the respect I deserve!"

Her mouth opened and closed a few times before she shook off her fear and growled up at me from where I had her pinned on the ground. "Jasper! What the hell is wrong with you? How dare you treat me like this?"

Her offense was palpable. I snarled and demanded, "Now, why don't you start by telling me why you're feeling so guilty, hmmm?"

Her guilt built again inside her, before she tried to toss it aside. She turned her head so she wouldn't have to look at me and whispered, "I don't know."

"Bullshit," I disagreed, watching her indifferently. "I can keep holdin' ya here all day, girlie."

Never once in all our decades together had I raised a hand against her or protested anything she had done to me, so this was quite a shock for her.

"Jazz, please! Why are you doing this?" she begged.

My eyebrows drew together in anger. "Because my wife is lying to me and keeping secrets from me. You are feeling things you shouldn't be and are being blackmailed by our brother about something. I want answers, and I will get them, one way or another."

I sent her my 'truth serum' emotional cocktail, designed specifically to make anyone spill their deepest, darkest secrets. It included feelings of needing to confide, trust, obedience, truthfulness, and a few others. I'd never met a vampire yet who could resist and refuse to tell me anything and everything I wanted to know. "Why are you feeling so guilty, Alice?"

I could see the internal struggle in her eyes, but she eventually gave in, speaking as if the information was being dragged out of her without her permission. I smirked, as that was essentially the case indeed.

"I knew she would get a paper cut. I saw it in a vision of the party," she admitted.

"What?" I roared, and then realized we were all fools that none of us had considered that yet. Of course, now it made perfect sense. Getting a paper cut didn't involve making a decision anymore than the weather did. It was a physical response to a given stimuli. The moment Alice made the decision to wrap the present, she would have seen the outcome. If not then, then certainly the moment she made the decision to hand the wrapped gift to Bella. That would have given her plenty of time to act to prevent the cut from occurring. "Why? Why did you allow it to happen?" I demanded, feeling betrayed.

"You weren't supposed to attack, Jasper! You ruined it!" she sobbed. "It was supposed to be Edward. She got the cut, and Edward lost control and bit her. We pulled him off of her and dragged him out of the house. By the time he regained control of his mental faculties, Bella had already begun the change, and since he bit her neck, the venom had already reached her heart and it was too late to stop it. She was supposed to be changed, just like she wanted! Not injured and then abandoned! Why did you attack her?"

I scowled. "Well, if you had just let me hunt like I wanted, I wouldn't have lost control. I warned you I needed to be full to be safe around Bella with all of you there, didn't I? Tell me, Alice. In your vision, were my eyes bright gold or the same color they were last night?"

Her eyes rolled up into her head as she checked the two images against one another. She gasped, and I felt her shock and recognition. "Bright gold," she whispered, though her emotional state told me she hadn't grasped the true significance of that yet.

I growled. "You've been blaming me, but it's your fault. If you hadn't stopped me from hunting, hadn't insisted on having my help all day, I would have been full, and your vision would have occurred the way you expected. However, because you left me partially thirsty, I wasn't able to fight off all the bloodlust when the time came and lost control of myself. It's your fault the vision didn't come true. It was your decision that changed the future. You ruined everything, not me."

I felt the shame fill her as she realized the truth. "I'm sorry, Jasper. I shouldn't have blamed you." I smiled, she was learning. I started to comment, but stopped as her eyes glazed over into another vision. I waited patiently for her to come out of it, and then questioned her as to what she'd seen. "Edward isn't going to stay the night with Bella tonight. He'll be packing up his room instead. She's working this afternoon after school as well, so he'll be coming home to check on our progress to make sure we're all ready to go."

I frowned. I still wanted to talk to the family without Edward's presence, before anybody left. Knowing Rose and Emmett, as soon as Edward came back they'd leave, trying to get away from him, so there wouldn't be another chance if we didn't go back now.

"We need to head back to the house," I announced, stepping away from Alice to allow her to get to her feet. "I'll find out more of your secrets later. That's both a threat and a promise."

Alice hung her head and nodded, not daring to look in my direction. Turning my back on her, I ran back to the house, hearing her footsteps as she followed shortly behind me.

AN: Anyone surprised by Alice's choices? Seems pretty in character to me - hiding a vision and trying to control the outcome of the future to be the one she deems best, making all the decisions and manipulating everybody else's actions, without consulting with anyone or considering how the others might feel about it. Not evil, just immature and misguided - like Eddie boy. Both seem to have a God complex, in which they believe they know what is best for others, better than anyone else, including the people whose lives are being affected by their choices and decisions. They've been right often enough to develop a cockiness about it and receive too much trust, deference, and responsibility for their actual maturity level. Carlisle treats them like adults and equals, not realizing their emotional immaturity and sheltered lifestyle leads them to make irrational choices and decisions that are based on their emotional reaction to the situation, rather than a logical, reasoned argument weighing all the pros and cons of various courses of action.