Disclaimer: I do not own twilight or any of its characters.

(A/N: Ahhhh I'm sorry! This chapter has taken so long to write! Got a bit stuck with it, and then got distracted with many work related things and then fanfiction went all bizarre for a week and a half and wouldn't let many people post anything... Anyway, I won't delay you all any longer… here's chapter 8. Ellie xx)

Beautifully Blind

He was truly beautiful. His face was immaculately symmetrical, but his features were soft, with warm eyes making him appear wonderfully approachable. His olive toned skin was extremely similar to the immortal standing protectively in front of him, though his was flushed at his cheeks. He was tall and had a similar physique to Jasper, though the difference in their durability was obvious. Nahuel's skin was supple with no hint of the solidity that came hand in hand for our kind. His shoulders were raising and his heart was beating fast. I wondered whether it was because he had fled his home in a hurry, or if he was anxious about our small confrontation. He was standing behind his aunt, though it was obvious he did not want to be there. She was holding him there, both of her hands reaching behind her making sure her nephew would not step forwards into our direct path – that we would have to get through her if we did actually intend to get to him.

She had obviously stopped – her instinct to protect her nephew had overridden her want to get away and her nephew's tie to her had stopped him from continuing alone. They both stood there, both willing to fight for the other.

Neither Jasper nor Kachiri were mimicking their stances. I was sure that Jasper was controlling the emotions around him, making sure that this would not lead to any form of confrontation. Kachiri stood in the middle of us both, her face completely in shock. If Renesmee was anything to go by then Nahuel must share similar features to his own father – and therefore Kachiri's former friend. I wondered if she felt as though she was looking at him again for the first time in hundreds of years.

I however, well I couldn't see anything now. I had no idea what was going to happen to any of us. I should have been concerned – not for our safety, but because we may end up having to use force to get our own way. But I did not feel this way… I felt completely and utterly ecstatic! I couldn't help but allow my face to form a smile. A small chuckle even escaped my lips.

Both pairs of eyes that were concentrating so hard on Jasper's face flashed to mine.

"I can't believe it." I breathed. "We did it. We actually did it Jasper." I said, tuning my head to him now.

Huilen growled viciously, her eyes were wild with confusion and worry, flickering in all directions. "Qué? Qué usted quiere?" She hissed. "What do you want from us?"

I smiled again, now at her, and took a conscious step forward. "Huilen…"

She stepped back hastily - three times the distance that I had progressed - pushing Nahuel with her. "How do you know my name?" She spoke in a strangely accented English. "I have never met you before in my existence."

"I know your name because I know you, Huilen. It is true that we have never met, but we were destined to meet. You are not new to this life, so you must know that there are members of our kind who hold exceptional abilities?"

She paused, still unsure, but nodded in reply.

"I can see the future, Huilen. That is how we found you, because I knew where you would be."

Her dark eyebrows started to close together, denting her forehead.

"… But your nephew, Nahuel… I cannot see him or his future, nor can I see any of our futures now we are involved with him. He's a very special being."

"I do not understand." She replied.

"We know that you want to protect him." Jasper said softly. "We know that he is an extremely important part of your life, and that you would do anything for him. We should know." He smiled. "We have a niece of our own you see."

Nahuel's eyes opened wide. His mouth parted slightly. "A niece?" His voice rang like a thousand grand bells though he spoke as softly as feather falling through the wind.

"Nahuel!" Huilen warned. "No es seguro!"

He ignored her warning, raising a hand to stop her talking. "You know who I am…" He pointed his chin towards me. "Then do you know what I am?"

I nodded. "As Jasper said, we have our own."

"Then your niece is a vampire-human hybrid, like me?" He asked.

Hearing him say it nearly brought my stone frame crashing down to the earth. Instead, I just nodded again. "My brother – though we are not related by blood – impregnated a human. And our wonderful niece was born. Her name is Renesmee, and - "

"And what has this got to do with us?" Huilen chipped in harshly.

"You have worked hard to keep your identity a secret, and we appreciate that, but we need your help." Kachiri said sympathetically.

"The Volturi have found out about our niece. They were told that she is an immortal child – though she is not, of course. They are coming for her, coming for all my family, with no intention of stopping to find that they are wrong. But we have more on our side then they realise. However, it will not be enough. They will find any excuse that they need to." I stepped closer to them, only a few steps away from them now. "We need you to help us, because you are the only people who could save us, you are the only people who can give them no more excuses."

Huilen scoffed roughly. "You want us to go with you? To face the Volturi? After a century and a half of hiding, of protecting the only thing I hold precious to me? You want me to walk him to the beasts who would surely take him from me?"

I did not understand her disapproval. As soon as we found her our future became clear. By finding them we had selected the one and only path to our salvation… but Huilen was adamant that she would not come with us… and I didn't see how we were going to persuade her otherwise. "You will be safe!" I begged. "We have great power on our sides. With your testimony they will not even attack!"

"Our… testimony?" Nahuel asked, hesitantly.

"Alice has seen that the final reason the Volturi will use – the only excuse that they will have left – is that they can not trust what Renesmee will become. That by letting her live, they will be putting our entire species in danger of being exposed."

"But that is untrue!" Nahuel bellowed.

I exhaled. "We know." And we did know now. Looking at him was like looking at Nessie's future. I hardly had time to understand what his existence meant for her. All the worrying over what would happen to her. The darkest side of me honestly thought that her accelerated growth would lead to nothing but an early grave. But she would live forever – as long as we would – forever a youthful being, able to fit in to society more easily than we ever could.

"So you need me to show them what she will become? That she does not pose a threat of exposure." He assumed.

I nodded.

"No. Absolutely not." Huilen roared.

"Huilen!" Nahuel silenced. "You heard what this Alice has said. If we go with them then we will save everyone, and no one will be harmed… but if we don't…" He turned to me. "Then your family will die, Alice? Your niece, Renesmee, will die?"

"As well as their friends who have agreed to help them." Kachiri sighed, looking at her feet. "My sisters, for one."

"I'm very sorry." Huilen said honestly. "But it has nothing to do with us." She moaned. "Nahuel grew quickly. Perhaps if you kept away from them for long enough then you will have no problem."

"She's only a few months old." Jasper highlighted. "Perhaps the appearance of a five year old – though she may have grown more since the time we have been away… We would all be running for a long time. An impossible task as I'm sure you know all too well."

"She is just a child, Huilen!" Nahuel cried.

"Please…" I begged. "Think back to what you would have done to protect Nahuel when he was that age, when he was unable to protect himself."

"I would have done anything." She spoke strongly, her eyes wide with determination. "And I still will. Which is the exact reason that I cannot let him help you. I will not let him put his life in danger."

"But we will not be in danger!" Nahuel screamed, taking me by complete surprise… I was just about to say the same thing. "Think about it Huilen!" He continued. "These people will return to fight for their family, but if what I have heard about this Volturi is correct then they will not let someone with Alice's ability die at their hands."

I swallowed the ball that had become stuck in my throat as Nahuel continued on his rant.

"Their leader, he will read her thoughts, he will see where we are, and he will find us if he wishes too. Would you rather face your enemy head on, or have to watch your back for the next millennia?"

Huilen's eyes looked painfully dry. An obvious sheen of dried venom was covering them. She blinked it away and slowly moved her head between Nahuel and the three of us. "I'm sorry Nahuel, but it would be going against everything that I promised your mother."

Nobody spoke then. Nobody had anything more to say. Not for now anyway. I didn't know what to do. I was completely clueless.

Huilen exhaled loudly and turned her back on us, stepping away slowly, no faster than a human walking briskly. But Nahuel did not follow her as I expected.

He turned back to us, wiping a tear from his right eye with the back of his hand. "I owe her so much." He said after a while. "I owe her my life, and more. It hurts me so much to upset her like this. But this is… unbearable. The idea of such a young child being hunted down and persecuted – exterminated – when there is no need… " He sighed and ran his hands over his hair. He was silent for a minute, perhaps longer. His lips parted every now and again as if he were about to speak. He continually licked his lips as his eyes flickered at an image in his mind. "How long do we have?" He whispered finally.

"A week." Jasper said.

Nahuel's sharp intake of breath was not missed by any of us.

"A week to get where?" He asked.

"North-West America." I answered. "Seven thousand miles."

His forehead creased, obviously trying to calculate how long it would take him. "I will go and speak to her now then." He smiled ironically and then ran off following the path that Huilen had just made in her unhurried exit.

I wanted to follow him. I wanted to pick him up and throw him over my shoulders, carrying him all the way to Aro. If I was honest the only thing stopping me was Jasper's hand which he had slid into mine.

"Let him speak to her, Alice" He whispered. "His words are honest. He has no intention of deceiving us… nor does he have any intention of letting us leave without him. He's honestly worried for Renesmee. I think he feels as though it is his duty to protect her. Perhaps it is because he's finally found someone – or knows of someone – who is like him… for the first time ever, he doesn't feel different." He smiled. "I don't know…"

Jasper's words made everything fall into place. It was always going to be his decision that would save us. His pure heart was always there, and was always going to choose the right path, the path to our rescue – the path to the truth.

"Does your Renesmee look like Edward?" Kachiri asked all of a sudden, still staring off into the thick jungle and wearing exactly the same expression that she's had for the last few minutes.

I laughed innocently. "A spitting image."

"Though there is a lot of Bella in her too." Jasper added.

"A trait of the species then, I suppose." She breathed. "It took me by surprise. I knew we were looking for his son and I had prepared my self for such… but obviously not enough." She scoffed. "Huilen stopped to stand her ground as soon as they were in our sight. I was unfazed by it, I was waiting for it… but Nahuel stopped too – not wanting to leave her, I guess – and I was suddenly thrown back in time. For all I knew I was looking directly at Joham. That was, until I saw Nauhel's warmth and softness." She sighed heavily. "Uncanny." She was silent for a few seconds before the shook her head and turned to face us finally. "So what do we do now?" Kachiri asked.

"We wait." I grinned.

"Do we have time to wait?" She added.

Not really, but I couldn't help but have faith in Nahuel. This was his destiny – I could just never see it. Besides, it should only take about five days to get home. Perhaps six if we continued at this speed. "We have time… and we have Nahuel." I smiled. "That's what matters the most."

We waited until morning. The fresh sunlight was bright and shone heavily on our small group sending a thousand beams of light bouncing off on to the trees surrounding us. Not one of us had made a sound, we had not even moved. But the soft and steady footprints heading this way had us all in motion.

"Nahuel, Huilen!" I cried, welcoming them back. "What have you decided?"

"I thought you could see the future?" Nahuel joked.

I pulled a funny face, as I would if it was Edward or Emmett who were teasing me.

"It seems that my nephew is stronger than I had ever presumed." Huilen declared, ignoring her grinning nephew. "I have never been so proud of him and have never seen anyone display so much courage. He wishes to go with you… to see the girl, to save her. But I will not let him go alone, so you will have both of us accompany you."

My breath caught in my throat and stuttered as I exhaled. "Thank you, Huilen."

"It is not me that needs to be thanked." She looked across proudly to her nephew.

She was right. This marvellous being was my knight in shining armour. I walked towards him with my arms out straight in front of me. They looked so pale and so small next to his as I wrapped them around his dimly glowing body. "There are not enough words in the world to thank you enough, Nahuel. Now I owe you my family's life… and more."

"We have six days to get home, Alice. I suggest we leave now." Jasper said from behind me. "Kachiri, which way is the quickest way to the Pacific?"

Jasper was apparently planning to head home straight up the west coast. The easiest and most direct route, we would have to find a car as soon as we got to California though.

"Due west from here. A few hours perhaps..." She looked over to Nahuel. "Longer maybe."

I didn't know what issues Nahuel would present in respect of his speed. He had slowed down Huilen while we were chasing them, but he did not seem too fazed by our tight schedule when we briefly discussed it earlier. I tired not to worry, but words that I had heard before, but had not yet been said reverberated in my mind.

"But we can't stop!" My voice cried to Jasper "We don't have enough time!" I remembered the frustration I felt just seeing the vision and unfortunately I had a feeling it would still happen.

We were all running despite this, though we were all much slower than I had hoped. Forty, maybe pushing fifty miles an hour. The awkwardness was hanging over us, but despite this nobody said anything. The only sound accompanying us was Nahuel's hard breathing and rapid heart.

Huilen ran along side Kachiri ahead of us as they both had an immaculate knowledge of the area. But I also suspected that Huilen saw a lot of herself in Kachiri and found comfort with that.

"Alice…" Jasper whispered quietly two and a half hours into our journey home. "This is going to happen, isn't it? The future you have seen? It will happen?"

"You know I can't really see anything now Jasper…" I tried to explain, though I didn't really mind at the moment because my lack of vision was due to the addition of the one thing we have fought to find.

"I need to know Alice…" He spoke seriously. "I need to know whether I am letting you return to our family, or letting you run straight in to a trap." I saw his eyes flash towards me, though his face remained still, making sure our fellow group members were still unaware of our conversation. "If there is any sign of doubt then I'm stopping you here. Kachiri will just have to take Nahuel and Huilen to Forks her self."

I laughed to myself. "Like I'd actually tell you if there was."

But he wasn't laughing. "That's what I'm afraid of."

"Jazz… I can't see anything anymore… but I have already seen that our family will be safe… that the Volturi will leave with their tails between their legs." I tried to justify.

"And you are sure that their reason to do so will be because we show them Nahuel?"

"Nothing else would explain it. Nothing else would explain the things I have seen. The decision to find him in the first place and their decision to join us forged our path… just because I can't see anything now doesn't mean that it won't happen."

"I'll never trust anyone as much as I trust you, Alice. So don't make me a fool." He smiled dryly.

I grinned widely. "We're going to beat them, Jasper." I nodded my head towards Nahuel, also running in front of us. "He's going to beat them."

Kachiri and Huilen began a discussion between the two of them, obviously something that Nahuel did not want to be a part of, so he dropped back and ran along side me and Jasper.

"What's wrong?" Jasper asked.

"They are talking about Joham." He replied bitterly.

"Your father." I added, understandingly.

Nahuel scoffed. "Define father."

Both Jasper and I smiled supportively. We both knew very well that it is not just similar genes and DNA that makes a man a father.

"Tell me, before – when you spoke of your brother – you said that he is not a biological sibling… then why do you refer to him as such?"

"Because that is how we see him." I answered simply. "He is a part of our family."

"Your family?" He questioned. "Yes, you mentioned that before as well. Do you mean the two of you, your brother and Renesmee? Or are there are more of you?"

"Carlisle is our father." Jasper chipped in. "He knows Kachiri and her two sisters well. He turned our mother, Esme and our siblings."

"Siblings?" He asked, emphasising the plural.

Jasper nodded. "Edward, Bella, Emmett and Rosalie."

"Your family." It was not a query – just a statement.

Jasper's soft expression changed into one of confusion as he studied Nahuel's emotions. I wondered what had sparked the apparent change.

"What is it that you are regretting, Nahuel?" Jasper asked him gently.

Nahuel looked at Jasper unsurely.

I laughed. "Jasper's gift is empathy. He knows how you are feeling."

Nahuel's eyes bulged in surprise.

"You're very conflicted all of a sudden, feeling many things, though regret seems to be the greatest." Jasper concluded.

Nahuel was silent for a few moments – well, as silent as he could be.

"I have some sisters of my own." He finally admitted. "Three in fact."

I couldn't stop my mouth from falling open.

"I don't know where they are. They roam with Joham. They decided to stay with him."

"What do you mean by 'they decided'? He gave them an option?" I asked, completely shocked by this new revelation. Our little Renesmee was not unique at all. Apparently Joham really had learned to control himself well enough to breed his small army of hybrids.

"He gave us all an option. But unlike me, they didn't have a wonderful aunt to remind them of what a monster he is." He spoke passionately.

Both Kachiri and Huilen's heads looked back towards us, both very much aware of what Nahuel was saying.

He ignored their glances and took a deep breath to calm himself down. "Regret, you said. I regret leaving my sisters in his hands, but the only thing I feel when I think of him is hate."

"Are they the only hybrids you are aware of?" I asked, trying to change the subject.

He nodded. "Matcha, Tuia and Boro… and now Renesmee." He smiled. "Will you tell me about her?"

Both Huilen and Kachiri dropped back, only a few steps in front of us now.

"She's beautiful – so much like her mother and father." I began.

"Intelligent too." Jasper added. "Progressing, learning and growing so quickly."

"Loving and caring." I continued. "With the sweetest heart."

"And the greatest appeal."

"Sounds familiar." Huilen smiled. "Though it has been a long time since I considered Nahuel sweet."

An assortment of laughter rang out between all of us.

"What is her diet?" Nahuel asked. "What is yours? I have never seen such a shade of eyes."

"Animal, is it not?" Huilen guessed. "We sometimes feed from our fellow predators, especially in areas where a human is hard to come across."

"And Renesmee?" Nahuel added.

"Carlisle tried to feed her human baby formula once. But she didn't like it at all. She used to drink donated human blood while she was a young infant, but she soon learnt to hunt with us."

"We have human acquaintances, so she had to get used to it really. She can resist human blood as well as the rest of us can." Jasper said.

Huilen scoffed. "A family, human friends, donated blood, a voluntary animal diet and a young hybrid child roaming around… not quite the conventional coven."

"And it is that which has got us all in this trouble." Jasper sighed.

"Though we wouldn't change it for the world." I almost sang.

The whole atmosphere changed, uplifting us all. It was only a few more hours before I picked up the salty scent of the Pacific Ocean. We were making good time.

We ran north along the coast for a while, ensuring we found a secluded spot, but it didn't take too long. The light rocky cliffs were the beginning of our direct route home.

Kachiri smiled and sprinted to the edge, wasting no time at all. She sprang into the air and then disappeared beyond it, leaving only a sound of a soft splash in her wake.

I held back, waiting for Huilen and Nahuel to jump before me, but they both came to a sudden stop.

"Wait!" Nahuel called, but too late for Kachiri to hear. He rotated quickly, facing me and Jasper. "How long are we swimming for?"

"It'll be a four, maybe even a five day swim." I apologised. What was he worried about, the lack of entertainment? Maybe he hadn't fed in a while?

"We're swimming all the way to California?" He gasped.

"We can feed as soon as we get there if that's what you're concerned about." I soothed.

"It's not the food he's worrying about." Huilen sighed.

"I don't understand." I questioned.

"I'm sorry Alice. I thought you might have had something waiting here for us." Nahuel said.

Damn my blindness! I had no idea what they were talking about! "We don't need anything. We'll just swim underwater. We won't be spotted… I promise." I protested.

"You might not be… but I will."

"Why?" I said, though I couldn't help but assume what he was going to say next.

"Because I need to breath, Alice."