AN: I've had many reviews asking me to turn Bella, I promise it will happen in this chapter. I've been in a rush to post this so I haven't been able to respond to any reviews. I promise I'll get back to you ASAP. I won't be able to update for a few days because of real life business.

Thanks for your patience, I know it's taken a lot to get to this point and I appreciate that you've all waited very patiently as I've laid the foundations for the rest of the story. There is a lot of stuff to come in this story. Some parts of this chapter may be uncomfortable to read and I'm really sorry if it upsets anyone.

S. Meyer owns twilight.

CHAPTER 16

BPOV

Rose had called the day after we spoke on the phone, Esme and Carlisle had been invited to Denali at the end of the month. Peter suspected Caius had stepped in to assist. The plan had changed, Rose and Emmett would head our way under the guise of another honeymoon and Esme and Carlisle would head to Denali with Alice. Tanya and Irena had arranged to take Alice shopping in Anchorage, a new boutique had opened up, it was a perfect distraction.

It was the last day of the month and we were waiting at the airport. Peter, Char and dad had gone to a reenactment for the day to give J and I space to explain to Emmett what had been going on. We were sitting in the driver's section of the limo we'd hired, waiting for them to arrive. We'd paid a guy in a business suit to stand in the arrivals with a sign labeled McCarty.

I saw the business man lead Rose and Em our way, he opened the door for them. Rose handed the guy a couple of hundred dollar bills for his help. We'd kept the screen up between us and them, not only did it shield us from their view, but it also kept our scent confined. I could hear Em trying to get more information about his "surprise." She'd finally shut him up by kissing him. As they made out in the back J's eyes darkened and he cringed, I touched his arm and he turned and smiled, shaking his head to indicate he was okay.

The limo bounced down the dirt road to our property, Emmett was asking about the local wildlife "do they have bears here? Do the seasons change? Is it even cold in winter?" His questions exploded out of him quicker and quicker, J smiled at his brother. My chest hurt a little, I'd missed Em so much. J turned to me and mouthed 'soon.'

As soon as the limo stopped Em opened the door and stilled, he'd smelled our scent "what the fuck's going on?" He growled, Rose tried to pacify him "it's okay Em, it's the surprise."
"She's here? We can see her?" He didn't sound angry now, he sounded so excited. J took that moment to get out "what am I? Chopped liver?" Em rushed towards him, hugging him like his life depended on it.

"Holy shit man, I missed you. What's been happening? Where's Belly?" I got out of the car "I'm here Em." His head snapped over to me, his and Rose's eyes widened as she saw my piercing, tattoo and stripey hair, "holy shit" she whispered. J came over to me and put arm around me, kissing my cheek "WHAT THE FUCK?" Emmett's voice echoed around the valley, he looked towards a grinning Rose "you knew?" She nodded, "there's been a lot of shit going on Em."

We headed inside. "Start talking." Em demanded when we sat down in the lounge room. Rose stood up and started to debrief "Em, you know things at home have been fucked up for a really long time-"
"No shit, Rose. Details." Pete, Char and dad arrived then, hours earlier than expected. "Let me explain" Pete started. "I have a gift, it gives me a connection to the spirits of my ancestors. The community I lived in were guardians; some were protectors and some were healers. When J turned me I was training to be a protector, my training turned into a gift and I have become a guardian of fate. It can see some of what is going to happen in the future, but it's different to Alice, her gift is based on decisions. My gift shows the absolute future.

"The reason why you've been out of the loop is because my gift told me it wasn't time for you to know. The fewer people in the know the fewer people we have to watch. Fate happens effortlessly, we're unaware of it happening most of the time. Awareness can cause complications.

"Rose is the only one in the Cullens who know what's truly going on, she was close enough to J to help. Their scars were similar, Em. You know firsthand how that affects the person you love-" Em turned to Rose "you could have told me-"She shook her head and cut him off. "Em, you know me. I can't share a secret that isn't mine to spill-" J interrupted her. "It was my fault Em, I was ashamed-" Em cut him off "I get it man, I do. But, you could have trusted me. You know I'd support you."
"I do. I've heard how you help Rose and it's helped me."

Peter interrupted Emmett and J, "the reason why no one told you what was going on or what had happened in J's past is due to my gift, you would have acted differently and fought for him, no matter what fate needed you to do. Rose and he were already close having been designated twins, it didn't look suspicious if they spent hours together. Everything else that's happened has been arranged between us and the Major, Jasper wasn't even in the know-"
"You mean only the Major knew?" Em shrieked, Pete nodded "J's been healing the last few months, a couple of weeks ago Charlie completed the healing process."

Em peered at dad "you look different Chief Swan"
"I'm not Chief anymore Emmett, just Charlie."
"What did he mean when he said you healed Jazz?"
"I'm a descendant of Pete's, Bells and I have similar powers to the community Pete grew up in. I'm a healer, part of the supernatural like the wolf pack of La Push. Bella's a protector and her powers will fully develop when she becomes a vampire."

"So... you know about us?" Em said, he looked a little scared. Dad smirked "I knew about you before Bells did." Em was frozen in shock next to an amused Rose. "What about the Volturi?" Em was worried. I shrugged and turned to Pete as he started to explain "they know, we have an in with them." He tried to brush it off, but Em looked pissed off, he wasn't going to be left in the dark about this one. He glared at Pete, but it was J who explained "Char and I are decedents of Caius. A couple of the guard and Caius headed to clean up the south after we escaped, we ran into them and they took us to Volterra. Marcus saw our familial bond to Caius and now we work freelance for them."

"Did you know this, Rose?" Em asked his mate, she nodded, "I couldn't say anything. Anytime I tried Pete would message me" she got her phone out of her bag and pressed a few buttons. "See?" She showed us her text message inbox, the screen was full of texts from "The Irritating One" all of them said the same thing "not yet." Peter grunted "the Irritating One? Way to show the love." She shrugged "it fits. You've been so cryptic over the years and it was irritating that you wouldn't let me tell Em."

Small groups of conversation started as we caught Emmett up. Dad and I started giving each other shit over our confrontations with vampires; "Dad, you're the one who tried to shoot a damn nomad!"
"Oh please, Bells. At least I had back up, I was just giving Billy's wolf time to attack-"
"You had no idea he was a wolf!"
"Hey, you're the one who went mano a mano with that James vamp and tried to use pepper spray-"
"You gave it to me-"
"- for use against humans-" Pete put his hands up "quit it, you two. You were both adorably naive when going against vampires. You're lucky we were keeping an eye out." We looked around, we'd gathered an audience. I hadn't realized we were talking so loud. Emmett looked like he was caught between amusement and shock. The conversation started up again as everyone finished telling Emmett what had been happening over the last few decades.

Rose came over to me while Em talked with the others, "I love the new look." She said. "Thanks, I felt like a change."
"It suits you. I love the tattoo." I looked down to my bicep, I'd chosen to wear a tank top today. "Thanks, one of the wolves did it. The elder that trained Charlie helped design it."
"You were inked by a werewolf?!" Em's head whipped towards me "dude, that's bad arse!" J patted his back "you were right Em, she's the coolest human ever." I turned to dad "wasn't your tattoo done by a wolf as well?" He nodded, "Jared's dad did it after I tried to shoot the vamp. I spoke to Theresa, one of the men in the tribe is going to design a tattoo to add to the wolf one and freshen it up a little. I'll get Jared to do the work, he did a great job on yours."

"Hell yeah! You guys are the coolest humans, Eddie boy would shit himself if he saw you two now!" Em crowed at us, "hang on, how did Ed not find out that you knew what we are, Charlie?" Dad shrugged "Uncle Pete told me to guard my thoughts. I had some fun with it though" I looked at him curiously we'd never really discussed what he thought about around Edward, he smirked as he told us his evil plan "I mostly focused on my memories of you when you were little, specifically changing your diaper."

Em laughed "that would have done it, he hated nudity and anything associated with it." Dad cringed "I hadn't thought about that, I just wanted him to infantilize her and get him to keep his distance."
"Don't worry dad, he probably avoided your thoughts. Hang on! Did you know he stayed in my room at night?" Dad looked shocked "he what?!"
"As soon as I moved to Forks and met him at school he watched me sleep every night."
"Shit, just as well Pete warned me. I received a letter from him a week before the Cullens moved to town. He said I had to guard my thoughts at all times, I spoke to Harry who arranged for Sue's sister to visit, her sister was part of a neighboring tribe and they had a few specialties of their own to guard against vampires, she taught me focusing techniques. She also brought her daughter, Emily, with her and that was when Sam imprinted on her. Leah was crushed, she was dating Sam at the time."
"I didn't know Emily and Leah were cousins." I said. "Yeah, Leah was bitter for a while afterwards but they reconnected after Emily got her scars." Dad explained.

"Poor Leah, poor Emily. I'm glad it worked out in the end, but I can understand why many of the tribe hated the Cullens." I said, so many choices had been taken away from the Quileutes. "What do you mean?" Rose asked. I explained. "When vampires are close it triggers the wolf gene to activate, only the wolves imprint. If they hadn't connected with the wolf spirit Sam and Leah would still be together."
"Damn, by just being there we changed so many lives. We took away their choice." Rose looked upset "you didn't know Rose, none of you did. It happened because it needed to happen, it was fate." Pete explained.

We separated soon afterward, but Rose's reaction caused a question to bloom in my mind. J was helping me move my stuff into his room, we had decided to turn my room into Charlie's room. I headed back down stairs. Rose was watching Pete and Em play pool "can we go somewhere and talk privately?" I asked her. She nodded and we headed outside to my car and drove to town.

When we were ten minutes away Rose turned to me "it'll be safe to talk now." I nodded and began; "I have a question; when I was with Edward I asked him why you hated me. He said you were jealous of my humanity. Were you?" She shook her head "not at all. Edward likes to think he knows everything because he reads minds, but there's a lot more to a person than the thoughts in the front of their mind. His gift has a weakness, it can't tap into the subconscious or background thoughts.

"Em and I would constantly think about sex to block him. I was a foolproof way to keep him out of our thoughts."
"Why?" I asked. Her face looked serious "think about when he was turned. It was a very repressed, conservative time, Bella. Women were seen as weak, pitiful creatures who's only purpose in life was babies. We were little more than incubators. To Edward the idea of sex being pleasurable was unthinkable. He hasn't matured at all, probably because he was spoiled as a human and as a vampire. It didn't help that his final human moments involved him seeing his parents die, withering from an illness that crossed social economic lines. I think losing his parents made him twist the values they taught him."

That made sense. I nodded and she continued "Carlisle continued to indulge him, he'd been so lonely and was desperate to keep Edward in his life. When Carlisle changed Esme and fell in love with her she was in a deep depression, she'd been beaten down by her human husband and lost her son. It took time before she'd become intimate with Carlisle, so she had too long to get to know Edward and not enough time to get to know herself. She never had a chance to recover from her human life. Edward needed a mother and she stepped up to the role, complying with Edward's views on gender roles. Carlisle allowed it assuming Edward understood the modern world better.

"Then I came along. I was raised in the roaring 1920s to wealthy parents who celebrated decadence while the rest of the population struggled to survive. The depression had hit hard, but never affected my family and I. While my parents blamed the poor for their lot in life they had a less conservative view on pleasure."

She paused "I came into this life based on the poor decisions of others and a lack of control over my own destiny. Things were really rocky between me and the others, but especially Edward. He had this idea of how women should behave and I didn't fit that mold. I was angry and bitter over how I'd come into this life, but what he never understood is that I love being a vampire. In this form I have true power over myself. When I met Emmett I learnt about love and how freeing it truly was.

"I was so sick of Edward's judgments of my thoughts that we devised a way to make him avoid us. We thought about our intimacy and it worked. Now, looking back on Edward's view of sex solely being for procreation he assumed we were 'obsessed with fornication' as a surrogacy for the reproduction our bodies weren't capable of. Thus, he thought that you being of child bearing age and ability that I 'must be jealous for something impossible for our kind.'"
"Wow. It continues to surprise me just how shitty a person he is." I said. Rose grew quiet, giving me time to consider everything she'd told me.

"Do you mind me asking what lead to you being turned?" I asked. She shrugged "sure, but please don't pity me. Remember what I told you about my parents and their plan for my future?" I nodded "They had set me up for a life they believed to be successful; marriage, kids, education, wealth... I was to have it all, but it would be a gilded cage. I'd become comfortable in my position in life, so I accepted the plan not knowing there was a choice. You see, in the upper echelons of society marriage was a business merger, not a romantic ideal. Reality taught me about the need for choice in the hardest way possible.

"I hadn't been engaged long when I visited a friend of mine. She was poor, but married for love. I saw the meaning her life had and was envious of her ability to choose. Her husband was a kind man and he always showed me the respect afforded to my wealth. When I walked home after visiting them one night I encountered my fiancé. He gorged himself on any of the pleasures the world had to offer, he saw me as another outlet for his pleasure. He and his friends were inebriated. I say that not to excuse their actions, but to explain why he dropped his mask so easily. They attacked me, brutalized me, used me and left me dying; broken, bloody and covered in their muck.

"All of my naivety died that night, I'd hoped to grow to love him and wanted to make my parents proud. He'd stripped me of that and made me realize that life was never meant for me, I never would have found the happiness I have now. Carlisle smelled the blood and took me back to his house, he turned me. Esme took it upon her to care for me, she cleaned me up and redressed me in much more conservative clothes. I appreciated that at the time, I hated my beauty because of how it was used; my parents used it to network themselves to a higher rank in society, my fiancé used it for his own pleasure and others saw it as a barricade. I was a trinket and little else. Hiding myself in conservative dress made me feel safe. Esme and I grew close and she helped me heal, but Edward would block any attempts I made to help her. He thought I was a corrupting influence."

I thought for a few minutes. "Rose, actions have consequences, you've experienced a lot of pain but it made you stronger. I can respect that. One of the things Peter told me was that Alice had fucked with fate and she would face the consequences of that. I believe Carlisle and Edward are headed the same way; Carlisle for his compliance and Edward for his arrogance. Did the others ever tell you how Peter, Char and I emailed each other after the family left Forks?" She shook her head, I explained "he lead me to heal myself from the abandonment. Edward had been cruel; telling me I was just a distraction and I wasn't good enough for me. The fact that everyone left on top of that hurt me greatly." She tried to interrupt and apologize "quit it Rose, I'm not telling you to hurt you or to get sympathy. I'm telling you this so you understand what lead me to this point.

"Peter helped me realize how smothering and controlling Edward was, that ours was a relationship built on obsession, not love. In one email he asked me to think back over the time I spent with the whole family. I'll admit I wanted to slap you for how you acted, I can't guarantee I won't when I'm turned, but I remembered how each of you were treated. Carlisle was a puppet, Esme was a door mat, Edward and Alice were the true coven leaders and they did anything they could to keep that power. I hated how Em was seen as the comic relief and his intelligence was underrated, but I was stuck on Jasper. I knew nothing about him, but got angry that he'd never been given the chance to speak up, I realized he and I were both the weak links of the family; my human form was my weakness and his was his bloodlust. I surmised that J's considered failure was a product of manipulation and insecurity rather than a lack of control."

Rose smiled, "one of the things I did notice about you from the beginning was your keen sense of observation. It always surprised me how you never noticed Edward's true demeanor. Thank you for being honest."
"As I said Rose, it was a relationship built by obsession, not love."
"I see that now. Thanks for giving me a chance to get to know you." I shrugged "no problem. I know you truly care for J and that means a lot." She smiled "so how did you two get to know each other?"
"Peter had J write letters to himself. Jasper and the Major had never been able to communicate so with Pete and Char's assistance the two wrote to each other. It started them healing. When the barrier between his two personalities started to heal they could communicate without needing to swap their control over his body. Pete sent me those letters; it taught me a lot about J. He's amazing." I sighed "How did Alice not see what was going on?" Rose asked.

I grinned; my uncle was a mad genius. I explained how the Wolves had helped. "Pete said her powers are blocked by the wolves. In the first email from them he told me to form an alliance with the La Push tribe. I doubt she's seen anything about us since then, Pete's pretty sneaky I'm sure everything he plans has something involving the pack so any decision he makes won't be seen by her." She nodded "smart. When did you meet up with J, Pete and Char?"
"When my dad's mentor had taught him everything she could, she called Pete from my phone and told him to come and collect us. They drove up in Pete's truck and Char's sedan and were allowed on the Res. Some of the pack had already met Pete and Char, they fought together recently. Victoria and Laurent came after me, so we all made a plan and Pete, Char and the wolves trapped them and killed them off. A tentative trust grew, it probably helped that Peter was our ancestor and had been part of a tribe as a human."
"He's Native American?" I nodded "his father was a white master who forced himself on his mother, Pete was born with Albinism inherited from his father."

We continued to talk, occasionally stopping to stretch our legs and do a little shopping. An easy camaraderie formed, I think it surprised both of us how easy it was to talk to each other. We'd both formed a no bullshit attitude born out of failed relationships. We headed back home so I could eat dinner with Charlie. My phone started to vibrate, but before I could answer I saw a flash of red eyes and a hard body connected with the car. I was pinned in, crumpled metal trapping me. Rose ripped through the roof and blurred towards a pale figure. They fought their movements were faster than I could see. Blood gushed from my head, left arm and left thigh. The body had connected with my side of the car.

Pete, J and Emmett arrived just in time. Another five vampires were headed our way. J and Pete took care of them, body parts flying in all directions. Emmett rushed to help Rose; the vampire that had started the attack had his teeth firmly embedded in her arm and was trying to rip it off. Once it was taken care of Rose yelled at Em to help me, he gently rolled the metal back from my body and lifted me from the remains of my car, he wasn't breathing. I heard Pete yell something and J flew towards me, checking me over. "I need to change you, are you okay with that?" He asked. I nodded, black spots started to appear in my vision as I felt his teeth break through the skin on my neck. I felt the feeling of ice cold venom flow into my veins and before long the pain erupted.