All the separate lives that have been forced together by Aro's plan are now colliding. This chapter is a hectic ride through simultaneous timelines of several characters...so buckle up...

Here's a reminder of where we left off with Edward in Chapter 13:

Then the last scene played before him of Bella leaving him that morning, her expression of mixture of anger and sadness.

"I never had a chance to ask for forgiveness..."

The vision slowly and painfully faded to black.

"No!" he yelled, refusing to accept the finality the nothingness was forcing upon him.

"I will not accept this! This isn't over...it's not how it was supposed to end!"

By the sheer force of his will, the colors returned and swirled, taking on new shapes, different places, changed faces...

"It's not over. It's not over."


Chapter 15 - Northern Lights

Every time I close my eyes, I can touch the colors around me
Suddenly I realize everything I thought was impossible is here
And my heart sings in a world so incredible
And everything burns much brighter


"Please God, watch over him," Alice prayed as she threw her and Jasper's clothing into suitcases while at the same time attempting to contact Carlisle and Esme. She had just abruptly ended the conversation with Ranger Takas. She searched, and thankfully found the officer had heeded her pleas to leave Edward until her arrival.

Her packing served to distract her while Jasper made flight arrangements to New Hampshire.

Alice knew something had gone terribly wrong with Bella, and Edward would undoubtedly need the support of his family. She would be first in line to do or be whatever he needed. Other than Jasper, Edward was the only other being she truly felt comfortable with. Their unusual gifts set them apart, even among other gifted vampires. When Alice joined the family, instead of feeling violated by Edward's intrusive gift, she welcomed his mind into hers. She was able to share unpleasant memories with him that she never had the courage or ability to verbalize. She trusted him from the beginning, believing he would protect her inner most struggles, moments of vulnerability, and secret regrets. In their own way, they developed a special connection and distinct intimacy. She would be there for him now, come hell or high water.

Unfortunately, the Cullen couples were apart from each other, taking much needed vacations after Bella and Edward had left for Dartmouth. Carlisle and Esme headed for their retreat at Isle Esme, while Rose and Emmett took off for Denali to be with extended family. Alice and Jasper ventured on a pilgrimage to Texas for the 145th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War.

Alice cursed the ill timing of their travel as she flung her phone onto the hotel bed in frustration. She didn't relish the thought of handling this crisis without Carlisle, but she would do whatever was needed until his arrival.

"I can't get through to Carlisle or Esme!"

Jasper entered the room, only to be caught in the jerking riptide of her emotions. He quickly had already given up trying to settle them; she was just too adept at evading his abilities. Alice was buzzing around the room, frantically packing everything- even the hotel towels and complimentary toiletries. Jasper feared she'd start pulling the pictures off the walls if he didn't distract her.

"Give me every detail. What exactly did you see?" he said, hoping beyond hope to find a flaw in Alice's vision.

"Bella and Edward were fighting. And then she was gone! She just blinked out of sight. No one's future has Bella in it. I can't find her anywhere. Jasper, she doesn't exist!" Her eyes stared off for a second as she cast out a broad net, searching the future again. "And now I can't find Edward either! We have to hurry!"

When she began muttering Bella was dead, Jasper grabbed her, pinned her arms to her side, and spoke deliberately, "There may be some rational explanation. Let's not jump to worst case scenarios. I got us a flight that leaves in just over one hour. Let's go now."

Alice snagged her phone off the bed, and they left for the airport, their baggage forgotten.

(*~*)

As soon as Logan, Gianna, and Dominic boarded the small private jet, Logan secured the door. He gave the cockpit door one firm rap, and the plane began to taxi down the runway.

Logan dumped Dominic on the floor. Gianna ran to kneel next to him. There were faint red trails streaking his face where the rain had failed to wash all his blood away. Gianna felt sick to her stomach as she thought about the pummeling Dominic must have endured. With a twist of her head, she located Isabella, strapped into a seat, her head bobbing around as the plane taxied down the pot-holed runway.

"Drug him." Logan commanded as he hovered over Gianna and Dominic.

"He's already unconscious."

"And it wasn't easy getting him that way. What the hell is he made of?" Logan commented as he examined the knuckles of his stone fist.

"Flesh and blood obviously," Gianna barked back.

She could feel the adrenaline rush coursing through her body. She knew she was taking a great risk by getting mouthy with a vampire, but she didn't care.

Logan sneered and turned away as the plane shifted as it took to the air. Gianna struggled to maintain her balance.

When Logan returned, he thrust a needle and a small vial of the drug she used to knock out Isabella toward her. She quickly considered her options, realizing that keeping Dominic sedated would most likely protect him from further injury. Gianna took the items from Logan with shaking hands, and withdrew a dose of the clear liquid, measuring it carefully.

"Double it!" Logan directed coldly.

"This is the dose I was instructed use! Anymore could be deadly."

"He's twice her size and strong as an ox. He certainly has the stench of one, and from what I was told, is as large as one in that other form. Do as I said."

Gianna reluctantly agreed with Logan's reasoning - a small plane was no place for a large, enraged wolf.

She pulled the plunger on the needle back a bit further before withdrawing it from the vial and sinking it into the flesh of Dominic's large upper thigh. For the first time since she was an untainted child, she prayed.

Logan appeared amused as he watched as Gianna wipe Dominic's face with the hem of her wet shirt. She attempted to move him to a seat, but could barely slide him six inches across the floor. Gianna became enraged at Logan's indifference.

"If he gets hurt on this flight, it's on you!" She reprimanded him.

"Sit down and shut up," was his terse response.

Fuming, Gianna headed for the only seat available - next to Isabella. She moved toward it awkwardly as turbulence buffeted the small jet. She reached her seat, but before buckling up, she repositioned Isabella's head to protect it from the jarring movements of the plane.

In silence, she sat and watched the changing shadows as the luxurious plane carried them closer and closer to Volterra. Dread filled and overflowed every part of her until exhaustion won. Resigned to her imprisonment on the airplane, she slipped into the welcome arms of sleep...for to dream is to find escape from the reality one is unwilling...or unable...to accept.

(~*~)

"Eddie? Where are you?" Bella's sweet voice sang out.

Edward, dressed only in his pajama bottoms, smiled widely as he watched his wife creep around the island counter in the kitchen. The early morning sunlight streamed through the windows bathing everything in the room in a surreal glow.

He looked around him. Yes, this is how it should be. Just as he always wished it would be.

Bella caught his eye. She beamed, and he knew she was feeling the exact same way. He watched as her hands moved to her swelling belly. Caught in the moment of shared bliss, neither Bella nor Edward saw the toddler-shaped missile heading straight for Bella.

"Oh!" Bella exclaimed as tiny arms suddenly wrapped around her legs. "Eddie! I was supposed to find you, dear. That's the point of hide and seek."

"I got tired of waiting, mommy," he whined as he looked up at her with pouty brown eyes. But as typical with toddlers, he was quickly distracted by another thought. "Is the baby up? Can I feel?"

Edward continued to lean against the kitchen wall sipping his cup of morning joe as Bella took Eddie's small hand and they settled into the overstuffed couch. Eddie cuddled up to his mother, placing his ear to her round midsection.

"Can I hear the baby yet, mommy?"

"No, not yet," Bella laughed and tousled his mop of reddish-brown hair.

"Is the baby a brother or a sister?"

..."It's a girl!" The doctor announced as the nurse whisked the wailing newborn to the waiting scale.

Edward excitedly followed, wanting a better look at his daughter. Daddy's little girl.

"Is she okay?" Bella questioned from behind him as the doctor continued to tend to her.

In response, the nurse handed Edward a tightly wrapped bundle. He gazed at her little pink face.

"She's perfect. Just like her mama."

"I love you, Edward."

Tears welled in his eyes, but he didn't care. The nurses and doctors were all too preoccupied to notice. He let the wet drops roll freely down his cheeks and onto his daughter's pink receiving blanket. He couldn't believe how lucky he was - a son and a daughter! Both a wondrous gifts from the woman he was blessed to call his wife.

"You are my life, Bella."

...The chill of an early autumn gust across the bleachers encouraged Bella to cuddle closer to Edward.

"Only time for one more play! I hope they pass the ball to Eddie," Bella chattered as she watched the young football players break from their huddle.

However, Edward wasn't really listening. He was too enraptured with his little girl cheering on the sidelines while her big brother played on the field. He couldn't believe she was already seven years old. Where had the time gone? It seemed like yesterday she sprouted her first tooth, took her first step, and boarded the bus for her first day at kindergarten.

Edward felt his throat tighten. Life was good.

"Edward?"

He naturally turned to Bella, but she was still engrossed in the action on the ball field. Perplexed, he looked around. Who had called his name?

"Edward!" The voice increased in volume and boomed over everything, as if God himself was calling to him.

An ominous feeling crept up from his gut. From somewhere deep inside him, somewhere lost and forgotten, Edward knew he had to resist the pull of the voice...

He moved to latch onto Bella's arm, but his hands moved through her as if she were made of smoke.

"Bella!"

"Edward! Snap out of it!" The voice became clearer as everyone in Edward's world began to fade away.

"No!" he shouted out, but the voice did not stop...

"Edward, please."

Fear gripped him. "Stop! Don't. Don't say it!"

"Edward, it's me. It's Alice."

"Nooooo!"

In a blinding flash of white, Alice's face became visible, just inches from his wide-eyed gaze. Everything else that he had tried so desperately to cling to had vanished.

Then it hit him with the force of a speeding train - this was his reality.

"Why?" he wailed at Alice. "Why couldn't you just leave me alone? You ruined everything!"

Alice blinked several times, quickly glancing at Jasper to ascertain if he had a better understanding of Edward's disjointed ramblings.

"He's extremely agitated," Jasper responded, his muscles tensing in response to the potentially volatile emotion.

Alice rolled her eyes and huffed before giving Jasper an obvious "no shit" glance.

Jasper focused on Edward's emotional state, he ached from the crushing weight of Edward's reawaking and realization he had lost his mate. Jasper understood it must be driving him insane on the inside. He sought to relieve Edward of the emotional strain. If not eliminate the load, maybe ease it a bit.

"No!" Edward reprimanded his brother. "No, Jasper, it's my fault. It's my burden to bear. She's gone and I was supposed to be her protector. I refused to change her, so it was my responsibility to protect her. Instead, I instigated this outcome. My fault. All my fault."

"Edward, it's not your fault!" Alice's voice rose in volume, as she was all too familiar with Edward's penchant for carrying the sins of the world on his shoulders. She knew where his path could lead. "There's nothing you could have done. It was an accident."

"And what about you?" Edward's spiraling emotions took aim at Alice. "Why didn't you see this coming?"

"Because it was an accident. It just...happened. I'm so sorry."

Edward closed his eyes. The world he created in his head would be enough to sustain him. Bella was his life, and without her, he didn't want to exist. He sought to recreate it - his children, his home, his happiness... "Go away. Leave me."

Jasper intervened. "Edward, come with us. Let us help you - me, Alice, Carlisle, Esme - we're your family, and we'll grieve and heal together."

The noise outside his head kept Edward from finding his way back to Bella. His eyes sprang open and focused on Jasper. "Heal and go back to what? The miserable, purposeless life I had before Bella? I think not."

"We love you, Edward. Don't push us away," Alice pleaded.

Edward moved his eyes to Alice; she shivered at the flat deadness in them. His tone was just as flat as his eyes. "I hear it, you know. Your grief for Bella. All your questions. Your pity. Do you expect me to live with that coming from everyone in the family? Heal when I have to share in all that grief and sympathy every minute of every day? No. What will help is if everyone leaves me alone with my own thoughts."

Alice moved closer. "It's not just about you, Edward. We have to plan a service for Bella. We need to tell Charlie, Renee..."

"So I can listen to their grief? Their accusations? Bella lives in here." Edward put his index finger to his temple. "I know she isn't dead. I still feel her. She's here in this house with me. I won't leave her."

"I know you are in shock. I understand, but you can't just check out." Alice was now on her knees before her brother.

"To hell I can't! The Fates cursed me with this life, first taking all that was human from me. I thought Bella was their penance to me, but it was just a ploy to see how far I could truly fall. I won't be fate's plaything anymore. I'm removing myself from the equation."

"What about the police? Alice was able to put them off, but they won't wait long," Jasper added logically, yet he worried about Edward's ability in his current state of mind to maintain his human guise in front of an investigator.

Edward closed his eyes and mind.

"Edward!" Alice called sternly.

"Can you see?" Jasper asked her.

"No." She still searched one more time. "He's made no choices, well, other than this." Alice leaned back on her heels. "Edward, we won't leave you, and you can't..."

Suddenly, Jasper saw his wife's eyes glaze over. He felt her surprise followed by horror and disbelief. As he had learned over the decades, he waited to hear what she had seen. When Alice's eyes refocused, she looked defeated. She swallowed hard and turned to her husband.

"He has decided to remain here - with Bella's memory. All our attempts to forcibly remove him at best fail, and at worst, end disastrously in our exposure." Alice looked grief stricken, as if she had been betrayed. "He does this on purpose."

"We need to get Carlisle and Esme here. He'll listen to them," Jasper rationalized, wanting to deny what Alice just revealed.

"I don't think he will."

Jasper grew impatient with their impasse. Spinning their wheels with a resigned, comatose vampire was getting them nowhere. "Continue to try to reach Carlisle. I'm going to speak with the police...or we will be exposed when they come looking for answers."

Jasper touched Alice gently on the cheek before leaving.

Alice smiled weakly as Jasper's scent faded with his departure. She understood that in his way he was protecting Edward and the family he loved. She silently was comforted by his ability to be strong and do what needed to be done, despite his needs. Alice knew he needed time to grieve Bella's death and their apparent loss of a brother as well; instead, he went to handle the situation with the police, and give her time to mourn.

She moved to join her sibling, and while Edward sought to bring Bella back to life in his mind, Alice curled up next to him and sobbed into his still shoulder.

When Jasper returned three hours later, he felt as worn as Alice looked. She still sat next to Edward, clutching a framed wedding photo of Bella and Edward. She had worn away a corner of the frame, worrying it smooth with her thumb.

Edward's vacant eyes were now open, but it was clear he was not in touch with reality.

Alice's eyes moved back and forth in time with her thumb, searching. Jasper understood she was looking for something she missed, something ahead...anything.

Jasper sat down next to her.

"Any luck reaching Carlisle and Esme?"

Her anxious movements ceased.

"No. I did contact Gustav. He's taking a boat out to the island."

"What message did you send with him?"

"That they need to contact me immediately - and come home even sooner." Alice sighed. "How is Edward?"

"Blissfully unaware." Jasper wrapped an arm around his wife and pulled her close. "Don't blame yourself."

"I miss her. I always thought...eventually...we'd have forever to be friends and sisters."

"Do you think it was just a terrible accident and nothing more?"

Alice heard the suspicion in the skilled military officer's voice. "What do you mean?"

"Cars just don't blow up and burn as intensely as this. Alice, there was almost nothing left of the car or its contents. There was no way to positively identify...Bella."

Alice winced and shivered. Jasper continued, but his tone was gentler.

"She knew too much, and Edward did violate the Volturi's edict."

"No. No, I've been watching them."

"And you've seen nothing? Nothing at all?"

"No."

"Then what about the wolves? Could they be involved? I know you can't see their futures, and Jacob was so distraught at the wedding. Maybe that has turned into bitterness?"

"Jacob?" Alice breathed in disbelief. Then she shook her head. "Jacob hated Edward for what he believed Edward would do to her, but he always did what he thought was best for Bella. He'd never murder her!"

"Maybe not, unless he thought death was better than existence as a vampire..."

Alice's stomach lurched and she looked at Edward to see if he had registered any of their conversation. He was still in his petrified state.

"Once Carlisle and Esme arrive, you and I will pay a visit to the reservation," Jasper declared.

"Unannounced? On Quileute lands?"

"Element of surprise. Divide and conquer. I can sense lies more easily if they don't have time to prepare."

"Emmett and Rose?" Alice questioned.

"Might be wise for them to come as well. No matter what, we will need back up."

Though having purpose gave them a spark of anticipation, it was short lived, and Alice hung her head. "When we go, I could then speak to Charlie about Bella. It would be best if the news came from me."

Jasper could feel Alice's grief and anxiety rising like a wall of water being held back by a rotting damn. He didn't hesitate wrap his other arm around her.

"Why?" she mumbled into Jasper's chest. "They so loved each other. I always believed love found a way. How could I have been so wrong?"

Jasper didn't have an answer, but he was damn sure he was going to find one. If there was one thing he learned from Maria, there was always more to a story than what appeared on the surface.


A/N: Thank you so much for reading! Thank you to RowanMoon, Ashling92 and RosaBella75 - my international team of awesome women!

Just a quick reminder: Alice's gift is blocked not only by the proximity of shape-shifters, but also by their involvement with the future including decisions that might be made. Keep that in mind!

Your comments, questions and reviews energize me!