Author's note: so I'm going to try and update twice a week from now on. I apologize in advance if a second update doesn't come every week but I promise to try and get them to you :) reviews are always welcome. Enjoy!

Emmett was at war with the perfect opponent. Matched evenly, to the smallest detail. They knew each other well, he and his demon. But apparently his weakness, was its strong point. Her voice had nearly unraveled him but his resolve shattered like fine china tossed through a wood chipper when he heard the door open. He moved silently as it opened. Watching. He stood in the shadows and emerald depths, ones that had haunted him, met his almost immediately. It was different looking at her, and looking at her when she could look back. Her skin had been so soft, her eyes uncannily bright and bottomless. Anala had reached for him and Emmett had lost his nerve.

Despite what he had already known there was something about hearing it aloud that made it harsher. "I died." I died. Anala died. This must've been what it's like when someone says they're about to be sick. Emmett had known, seen the aftermath. But her confirmation made his heart hurt. It was quiet, the silence carried heavily. Nolan was looking at his sister and she looked back at him softly. It had always seemed like Nolan was the stronger of the two but looking at them now Emmett realized that wasn't it at all. His strength came from his sister. Anala had always been his strength.

Nolan looked distraught.

"I should have been there," he whispered. Her hand reached out and touched his arm.

"Nolan—"

Their eyes met again and his voice hardened. "I should have been there. I should have gotten you out. That was supposed to be me."

"I wasn't going to let him take you Nolan. There was nothing you could have done."

"But there was!"

"There wasn't." she told him gently. "You didn't remember enough to face Carus and walk away alive. It would have happened anyway and I accepted that. I didn't want to be saved Nolan."

What did that mean? She didn't want to be saved? Emmett had seen that horror show in the lower level of the bastion, the blood, and the chains. The cage. Her uncle was a monster who wanted to control her, to commit unspeakable atrocities and she didn't want to be saved from that. Why? Emmett knew she couldn't have wanted that, to live as that.

"Anala?" she looked to Edward, who was frowning as he watched her. "Are you saying you wanted to die?"

The question hung in still air. Emmett felt his heart sink. Anala's brows drew together. "No! No, I didn't want to die." Her eyes dropped. "But I had to."

"I don't understand." Nolan wasn't the only one.

She hesitated, pulling her hand out of her brother's. Her heart picked up slightly, her breathing hitching a bit, disrupting the regular pattern. Something flashed across Nolan's face and Emmett frowned, taking half a step forward. Nolan's voice was quiet, but clear. "What? Anala, what is it?"

"I knew." It was like a blow to Emmett's chest.

Nolan's next words were slow, deliberate. "You knew you were going to die?"

Clear tears welled in her eyes, making them shine. Anala nodded. "I knew."

She knew? She knew?! Anala had known she was going to . . . "how long?"

Eyes were on him but the only ones he focused on were identical pools of green, he took another step forward. "How long, Anala?"

Her pink tongue peeked out, wetting her lower lip. "I saw it when Iria was helping us regain our memories. It was mostly jumbled, I didn't really know what I was looking at so I didn't say anything. It wasn't until Carus that I knew for sure."

"Carus? Why Carus?" she looked to her brother, breaking the contact between them.

"He wanted my power, to control it. He'd been planning it for a long time and he originally thought he'd get us both, but I didn't let him. I couldn't." she looked out the glass doors. "There was a process he needed to do. He needed me to tap into that power, access it. I didn't know how, it isn't exactly something controllable. So he forced it. I thought it had been weeks but it must've only been a day or two until I heard them, the spirits. I was going to die. But it was a long time coming, I didn't remember but I think I always knew, somewhere inside." She wrung her hands. "I've known for a long time. I saw it four years before the last battle."

Nolan stood. "That long? You knew for that long Anala?! Why didn't you say anything? You should have told me!"

"Why?" she looked up at him. "So you could stop it?"

"Yes—!"

"There was no stopping it."

"How can you say—?"

Anala stood. "Think Nolan. I was marked before birth as the Oracle. I can't control what happens and seeing your own death is unheard of. I saw my death, I saw that it would happen, had to happen. How do you change something you have no control over? If I had told you, you would have stopped at nothing to change it."

Nolan moved quickly, he grabbed Anala and had her by the arms, eyes glaring heatedly. "Of course I would have—"

"You would have died for nothing." She looked at him. "Nolan you are the last of our line who can lead our people, who has the power that keeps our race alive. You bear that mark. If I died, another oracle would have eventually come into existence and I didn't want to spend what was left of my life putting something like that on your shoulders. I didn't know we would be captured. I didn't know how or why Carus did all that he did and I didn't know when it would happen, I just knew that I would die and accepted my fate."

Nolan's expression shifted and his arms dropped slowly. "Until you forgot it."

She nodded. "Until I forgot it."

Anger churned and bubbled deep in the pit of Emmett's being. After everything, she hadn't said a fucking word. He could have helped, he could've have saved her and avoided all of it. She never said a thing. Why? Because of Fate? Fuck that. She didn't even give them, give him, the chance to try. Didn't even fight back. She knew that entire time and said . . . nothing. "That's fucking bullshit." Anala looked at him, eyes pained and Emmett ignored the tug on his heart, too angry, on the verge of going postal. "That's bullshit and you know it. You could have said something, we would have helped but you were fucking selfish, too busy being a goddamn martyr to fight for your own life!"

She stepped towards him and stopped when he growled involuntarily through gritted teeth. Even to him the sound was menacing. "Emmett—"

"Don't."

He was going to break something. His skin was burning. Emmett turned and exited the front door in record time. As soon as he felt he'd reached a safe distance he released whatever was left of his control. He uprooted a couple dozen trees, and smashed the largest boulders he could get his hands on closest, cursing her, cursing "fate" as they split and cracked under the force of his strength. The angry roar that escaped him was accompanied by a burst of wild energy, and the trees he had mutilated ignited in flame.

Anala wasn't quite sure what to do with herself. She had died. She accepted it, made her peace with it. But she wasn't prepared for coming back. As a direct link to the Goddess, there was a lot she understood about the natural order, the flow of life and death and energy but she didn't know why or how she'd gotten here. Anala was half convinced she had been dropped into an alternate reality. Nolan was as he'd always been but he was also more. Her brother had an air about him, asserted and comfortable. Anala was happy, Nolan had always been a natural leader and it was good to see him as he was before the horrors of their past but he had changed. She couldn't say she was surprised, their situation would change anyone. There was also Emmett. The vampire was a completely different version of himself and she couldn't fathom why or how. Anala stared down at her second bowl of stew. Hunger had caught up with her and Esme had been more than happy to shove a meal at her. They were watching her again, like she was an extraterrestrial who had landed in a foreign world, theirs. She sighed.

"It's a little weird eating with all of you just sitting around watching me."

There were smiles. Rosalie was sitting next to her, playing with her hair like she had done hundreds of times before, her pale fingers ghosting through the dark strands. "It's a little weird watching you eat in our kitchen again."

She grinned. "Oh come on Rose it can't be that weird, hasn't been that long since you saw me eat, right?"

Nolan sat across her. He was watching her eat, pastel eyes wistful. "Almost two years."

Her spoon clattered against the bowl and her eyes widened. She'd been dead for almost two years? Dear God, no wonder they were looking at her like that. "That long?" she had no concept of time until today. It had felt like eternity. It had felt like instants.

Javan was next to him, posture relaxed, chin in his hand. He sat up, eyes scanning her face. "Do you remember it? Dying?"

She shook her head. "No, I mean I remember watching the ceiling cracking and falling not . . . after." She ran her finger along the rim of the bowl. "I remember coming back though. From where I was."

"Where were you?"

Black eyes came to mind. Glowing grass and endless lilies. "I don't know. It didn't feel like I was anywhere, really . . ." it was strange, Anala knew it didn't make any sense. "It was quiet," She whispered. It had been. Until that storm. "It's odd, being back here."

Almost two years later. Life had continued, of course, but returning from death put her back in the cycle, the continuation, and her mind was terribly muddled by it. Here she sat, looking at family, but she felt somewhat disconnected from her surroundings. The questions ran in an endless loop. What happened? Why was she here? How much had really changed in her absence? She took her bowl to the sink and scanned her eyes out the window. Nolan had found her out there somewhere. No reason, just . . . there. She moved onto a question she was better equipped to handle. What now? For one, she wanted to soak in a hot bath, see her room. She needed some familiarity, something normal.

His ire burned through him still, but Emmett was drawn back like a mosquito to a bright, electric death. For all his anger he couldn't stop himself from being amazed by it all. How did one die and return like that? He approached the house, only hearing his family. No heartbeats. He slipped into his bedroom, assaulted with Anala's scent. He couldn't stop the slight anxiety at returning to her being gone. He sat on his bed, sighing, feeling strangely weary. Where was she? His brother appeared in the doorway. Edward walked across the room and sat in his desk chair. "She went home."

Good. It was bad enough her scent was everywhere. He just had to figure out a way to get himself to leave, which was proving to be monumentally harder than he'd first thought. Edward leaned forward, elbows on his knees. "Don't."

"Why?" Emmett already knew why. He'd just gotten back, it would upset Esme to leave so soon.

"That too. But that's not it. You know why."

Please don't start.

"I won't. I can understand how you're feeling," Could he now? Edward rolled his eyes. "All I'm saying is that you can't leave yet. It'll kill you if you don't get answers."

He had a point. Edward always had a point. But it wasn't doing a lot to convince him. What was he really getting at? Edward's lips quirked a bit. The telepath knew Emmett didn't beat around the bush. He thought he made a point of doing just that, just to annoy him. Judging by the look on his face, Edward was doing exactly that.

Edward's smile widened. Yup.

You're such a dick.

Edward gave him the finger, falling back into familiar sibling habits. "Fine, ignore me then. But tell me, is that it? She's alive, which has to mean something, right? You don't think you should stay?"

Emmett scoffed. "Doubt it." he kicked off his shoes and reclined back on the bed. He folded his hands behind his head and stared at the ceiling. She was back because the universe wanted to torture him further. Karma. That Bitch. Not only that but life didn't seem to have much value anymore if Anala could just toss hers away so easily, and she didn't have faith in those she allegedly cared about. Emmett supposed it didn't really matter anymore, he had let her go. Irrationally, his anger ascended again.

"If that were true, you wouldn't have gotten angry."

Emmett looked to his brother. "Stop that."^^^^