A/N: All character are Steph's, personalities are mine.

As always big thanks to my beta, you rock my socks. Also thanks to for believing in me you superstar.

So, here we go. All questions should be answered in this chapter, how you like it, i know i do!

See you at the bottom(:

8: Truth

It was cold. I was cold, but I was sweating. I could tell the room was dark, that it was nighttime, without even opening my eyes. I remained laying on…whatever I was laying on, listening to the voices whispering about me.

"Sorry," the woman said. "I didn't know she would react like this,"

"Well there's nothing we can do except wait," a man said. Even in my dream-like state I could tell the man was attractive. "What happened?"

The woman explained, "I found her sitting in the hallway. I'd seen her around and decided why not. I sat with her and got the impression she didn't like me. I think it had something to do with the kid who left…or died…or whatever happened to him. I told her it wasn't our fault, since this place wanted us to come in the first place. I explained how the kid came to us, basically begging us—well, to you—to come help them. She listened to me, not really saying anything at first." She mused.

There was a tender silence, like they were digesting what she was saying. Or maybe he was nodding. I didn't know; my eyes were closed.

She resumed, "Then I said the kid was a man, and she kinda froze. Deer caught in headlights and shit."

"Huh," another man said. This voice was different. It was deep, but wasn't as deep as the first man. "Continue,"

"Well, then I told her who the kid was and she freaked. She started seizing and trembling and she fainted. I didn't know what to do or who to get, so I calmly laid her down—but then shit went crazy. She started flailing all around—hands in the air, legs swaying. I think she even started screaming something but it was a bunch of words I didn't understand."

Another silence.

Continuing, the woman cleared her throat, and I could tell there were tears in her eyes as she spoke. "She was flailing so much—I tried to get control, but she ended up slamming her head on the wall. It started leaking so much blood. I used my hand to cover up the wound and paged Carlisle and Jasper."

The first man hummed in response. It was killing me to not wake up and demand answers from these people. But I knew I had to keep silent so I could here the rest of the conversation. And I didn't want to attention on me.

"You said the kid set her off?" the second man said.

There was yet another silence for a second, and I assumed the woman nodded in response. I heard sniffling, which confirmed my suspicion of her crying.

"Well, we'll need to talk to Carlisle, but I think the kid was important to—"

The second man interrupted the first, saying, "Yeah, I was talking to the other fellow, Alice I think her name is, and she was explaining how the kid was their best friend. I guess something happened, something dark, and he left. They both apparently have no idea where he went."

What the second man said surprised me. He uttered out, "Let's keep it that way."

My breathing started to increase as they talked about Emmett. I didn't know how much longer I could here about Emmett and not say anything. It hurt just listening to them. Why would they need to keep it a secret from me? From Alice? Was he in danger? Was he on a suicide mission? What was he doing?

Thankfully, there was a knock on the door, ending the conversation. The first man spoke a quick, "Not a word of this to anyone, you two. Not even the girl."

I drifted back to sleep.

"You're awake," murmured a voice next to my ear.

I knew the voice, that dark, honey-rich voice that haunted me. I moaned, from denial that he was there or from pain I wasn't quite sure. I turned my head from side to side, seemingly in denial of everything that just happened. I felt tightness on my head, like my skin was stretching as I shook my head on the mattress.

With my eyes remaining closed, I turned my head and lifted up my arm to feel what was constricting me.

It was rough, like sandpaper. I pressed down on the sandpaper and a sharp pain singed through my body. "Ahh!" I exclaimed, hissing at the pain.

I felt another hand grasp my wrist gently. The fingers were soft, but also had a rough feel to them. They were warm, and that's when I noticed how cold I was. I started to shiver lightly.

"Shh," the voice calmed. The grasp on my wrist went away, and I immediately missed the warmth. The fingers, instead of leaving me completely, moved to the top of my head and began to brush my hair back from my face, soothing me. It was then that I noticed I was sweating profusely.

I gulped, noticing the burning sensation in my throat. My eyes opened slowly, and I blinked rapidly, for my vision was blurry. My vision re-centered, and I saw him. His eyebrows drawn in concern, his eyes, while guarded, showed complete and utter worry, something I never knew he was capable of feeling. His mouth was in a frown, but not a disapproving frown. I couldn't place what the frown represented.

"How're you feeling?" Masen asked, his fingers still running through my disgusting and greasy hair.

"My…throat burns," I croaked. I began to cough haphazardly, curling up into a ball as every tremor of a cough shook my body.

I hadn't noticed Masen left until he sat back down with the thud on the metal stool. The stool, embracing his weight, scraped on the floor—which was made of linoleum, nothing I had ever seen before. The scraping was so loud, making my headache pound and my ears ring. I cringed, whimpering at the noise.

"I'm sorry," he murmured quietly, taking into consideration my headache. "Here, drink this." He handed me a tall glass of water with ice. He helped me sit up, leaning me against the cold wall behind me. "You gave us a scare," he continued.

I chugged my water quickly, drinking it in one gulp. It felt so good on my throat. I looked at him silently, asking what happened.

"Rose brought you to the Common with your head gushing with blood. Said you fainted." He explained. "Why did you faint?"

I looked down remembering the events that spiraled…how long was I out?

I ignored his question. "How long?" I whispered, terrified to hear the answer.

"Three days,"

My eyes got large as I looked at him. I was out for three days. Three days. Who did all my work for me? Oh, God, he was here to kill me. Well, either that or hurt me severely.

"Oh my God," I gasped. I quickly jumped up from the cot. I swayed back and forth, and my headache was pounding like no other. I thought my brain was going to explode out of my skull. "I'm so sorry, I'll get back to work right away. I'll work triple the amount I have been…" I was more or less talking to myself.

"Bella—"

"I left you minus down a man," I moaned. I was looking at the ground in complete shame. How selfish I was, letting my problems get the best of me. "I'll work triple, I won't sleep until everything is done. I'm so sorry—"

"Bell—"

"I'm so sorry, Dr. Masen," I repeated, my head down in fear and obedience.

"Swan," he roared. It took the affect he desired, and I shut up instantly. I was shaking so hard, he thought I was shivering, but in the end I was just terrified of the man in front of me. "Will you shut up?" he asked, a small smile playing on his lips. I blinked at him. That was a tone I had never heard before, a light playfulness that took the bite out of his words. Maybe I shouldn't be afraid, I mused.

Now maybe it was the dizziness, or the fact that I was not yet in control of my mental faculties, but the question just slipped out.

"What do you know about Emmett?" I asked.

He sighed, looking anywhere but at me, clearly debating on whether or not to let me in on the secret.

He began, "He came in a couple of weeks ago, asking us to come help you all. Said the place was going down under quickly, and didn't want to see you guys go down with it. You were too important to him."

"Yeah," I said. "I understand that part. But why did her go there? What is he doing—where is he going?"

"Bella…" Masen sighed, clasping his hands together and looking at the floor.

"No, Masen," I said, pushing a finger to his chest. A part of me was stunned by my own boldness as I had been terrified of the man moments ago, but I pressed on. "I want answers. Now."

He looked at me for a long while, contemplating if he could really tell me everything. He looked so torn—torn between what I have no idea. Time passed, and the more it passed the more anxious I got. His eyes gradually got more and more sad, and I assumed it was due to the side of him that wanted to tell me everything, because it was winning.

"Fine," he said, not breaking the intense eye contact with me. "Get comfortable,"

I sat back, and relaxed, believing I was ready to here what I've wanted to know since the beginning.

"About a decade before you were born,"—currently avoiding how he knew how old I was—"the world was going through one of it most violent stages ever recorded in history. Wars, gang violence, and serial killings were happening so much daily, it became normal. As years went by, more and more people started acting violent to end the violence, banding together to create gangs that would try and clear out the streets. However, as I'm sure you're just rich with common sense, fighting violence with violence is never the answer. So, after being around for a couple months, the government, or someone out of random, would exterminate them."

My eyes grew larger. Who knew there would be more violence than there is today?

He continued, looking down at his feet. "But one group was still successful. Three brothers—Aro, Marcus, and Caius—all banned together after their mother was supposedly murdered right in front of them. Slowly but surely, over the course of a couple years, gangs, wanted killers and rapists, suddenly started going missing. No one knew why it was happening—or how—but they believed something of a greater power was helping stop the violence.

"So it continued on: people going missing and ending up dead, violence and crimes rate rapidly depleting, and the war was coming to a close after twenty-five years."

Listening to him speak I couldn't comprehend how we got to where we are today. It sounded like these three men were doing the world good—ending violence and crimes. I wanted to ask questions, a million of them brewing in my mind, but I knew I had to keep quiet, because I may never get this chance again. Also because he wasn't done. Minor detail.

"The three brothers soon became public. People chanted their names in the streets, posted were hung around the city everywhere. You couldn't go anywhere without seeing at least one of the brothers everywhere you turned." He barked out a sarcastic laugh. "People thought they were god-like, they worshiped them. They could do no wrong."

He took a deep breath seeming prepare to drop the big bomb on all of the wonderful things he was telling me. "It wasn't until they took out the government, did people finally notice how horrific they were."

I gasped in shock. Here we go.

"News had spread that they had taken out our government—both houses, the president, everyone—gone. Soon, they climbed their way up, and became our new government. They made new laws and began to create a new mindset in our world.

"A couple years before you were born, they hit the breaking point. They felt the world had been destroyed by the violence and all the people who had helped create it. It was shameful and horrible, and they wanted to end it all and start fresh—fresh people, fresh laws, everything.

"So," he sighed. It looked like he was having a hard time explaining this to me. I wanted to be selfless and tell him it was okay to stop, but we both knew it wasn't. I was too far deep, and I needed answers. "they decided to do just that—start fresh. Soon masses of our population started to die. It wasn't until a couple months into the mass extinction was it made public that the brothers had started killing our humanity. They burned down cities, shot people in the streets, and bombed countries. They weren't stopping until the generations of human were gone—depleted, so they could indeed start a whole new world."

I looked at him completely in shock. I don't know how I formed my next words, but somehow I managed it, "So that's how we were started." It wasn't a question, but a statement. It all made sense now.

He nodded, "Yes. Soon, facilities like yours and mine started popping up all around the world. But the brothers always found them, and bombed those as well. We began to get smart, and built them underground so there would be no trace. We started taking people who were injured and on the brink of death, and fighting for them to stay alive. We help them in everyway we could."

"Which is why you're here," I noted.

"Correct," he answered. "When Emmett came to us, he said you were failing miserably. You were doing more harm than good, and basically making the human extinction go faster than it should. I came as soon as I could, Bella, and I fully intent to turn this place around."

I looked into his green eyes, sparkling with confidence as he promised me something I have been working for as long as I could remember. I smiled at him, silently promising to help him achieve his goal. I believed he could. I've seen him in action—the no bullshit rule this man had in place was doing wonders. Our numbers of survival were up and kept climbing rapidly.

I took his hand in mine, and began to play with his fingers, staring at the intricate details: the grasp lines, the veins visible on his palm and backside, the small hairs growing out of his knuckles. I looked up him, keeping my hand firmly grasping his, a small smile gracing my face. "You still haven't told me about Emmett," I said quietly, barely whispering it.

He leaned closer, kneeling by my side. He turned our hands so his thumb was rubbing the backside of my hand in small strokes. "You don't want to know,"

I looked at him, "Tell me, Edward," it was the first time I said his name. It sounded wonderful on my lips.

Edward must have agreed because he had the signature, panty-dropping smirk on his face.

Suddenly, he became serious and said, "I'm sorry, Bella,"

I looked at him in confusion, my silence conveying my question: What do you mean?

"Emmett has gone to kill Aro,"

So that's it. A suicide mission.

Jeeeez Emmett, making everything hard for everyone. The plot thickens! Hope all questions were answered and everything makes more sense. Also shoutout to my favorite couple, you go.

Please review, see you all next time!