Somewhere in the Pacific Ocean -
Jasper… was not feeling well.
He was curled on the floor of a swaying fishing boat somewhere in… God knows where, he had left hunting to distract himself, found a fishing boat with three humans.
He killed them, but one of them had shot him.
That wasn't suppose to be a problem.
Apparently, it was.
He had drained one and slaughtered the other two, but he didn't drain them, he had thrown up all the blood he had consumed, and he was now curled on a pool of blood and his own venom.
Because yes, the bullet had lodged into his abdomen, and as life would be a bitch, it was right on the exact same spot where Caius had stabbed him.
He felt nauseous despite the fact that he had nothing else to vomit, he could feel the cold sweat trickling down his temple, the fire in his stomach, like claws dragging across it, several pin pricks, twisting like a vengeful snake.
His vision was blurred and all he could focus on was on the sound of water, the dripping blood from the human hanging off the boat.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
When did things became this bad? When did the pain become so impossible to ignore? He had known something wasn't right, but he had hoped for it to be the vervain.
Now he wasn't so sure.
He heard the roar of a motor, far far far… shit, he needed to leave… but God, moving was so not a good idea, but he couldn't let the humans find him, he couldn't let this scene be found, much less with his venom all over the floor.
Thus.
Biting back the pain he forced himself to stand up, the world spun around with such force he crashed back on the ground with a curse and a choked whimper.
"Pathetic."
-Shut.- Jasper manages to slur out before forcing himself back up, his insides scream, and the world spins, but this time he doesn't crash.
He's shaking and keeping himself upright is proving to be a challenge, but he does, he searches the damn boat for a lighter, when he finds one he doesn't waste time to set fire to the pool of venom on the ground.
As expected, fire roars to life with the same ferocity it would with gasoline.
Jasper jumps off the boat.
Crashing into the water and letting himself sink and sink. He wants to curl at the bottom of the ocean, but the stinging hell that comes from salt frosting over the venom in his open wounds make him move.
His clothes have blood, but the venom he's expelling is enough to drive even the worst of predators away, he doesn't know which path to take, his mind is too clouded to remind him which way was it.
And so all he does is walk, and walk, the sea is endless darkness, it makes panic start to grip him as he walks and walks with no traces of land or even a familiar surrounding, he can't see past the blurriness, can't hear much with clogged ears.
But the temperature… he follows the path of warmth.
Then he feels it.
An emotional signature.
Unfamiliar.
Not hostile.
It's more curious if not a bit apprehensive.
But he can't see.
He feels the vibrations in the water, it's not animal, but humans cannot stand these depths, but he can only feel people's emotions.
Something hums from somewhere, not a whale, similar, but definitely not a whale, and it makes drowsiness seize him even harder, he can feel the vibrations growing closer, the whale-like humming growing louder, unnatural, it makes a shiver run down his spine as it echoes throughout the ocean, forcing him on his knees.
He can see a… humanoid figure…? The whale-like humming is stronger, it reverberates like a lulling wave across his skin, he feels like the weight of the world has settled upon his shoulders.
Like the world isn't quite there.
The last thing he feels are hands on him before the world grows dark.
~
Forks. -
Alice is in her bedroom, shoving some clothes Emmett gave her in the backpack, Jasper needed to change his clothes regularly, with that of him sleeping underwater…
The clothes lost the scent too soon.
He needed to shield his scent as much as possible so as to avoid Demetri catching a whiff of him.
That's when she heard it.
Footsteps.
-The hell is he doing here?- Rosalie's whisper caught Alice's attention and she's quick to peer outside through the window.
The breath caught in her throat.
Alec.
She was downstairs and at the porch in a flash, it hadn't even been an hour since the Volturi left, what was he doing here? She hadn't seen anything of the likes happening.
Still.
Alec doesn't approach the house, he stands there, staring straight at Alice with an indecipherable look.
-Alec? What are you doing here?- Carlisle asks, the boy is alone, that much can be seen, which is extremely off putting considering he's never seen without Jane.
Alec doesn't answer.
He's still staring at Alice.
Alice who feels confused if not a bit curious on what was the kid's deal, he couldn't possibly know, right? But as she watches him pull out from his pocket and hold it out she knew.
Alec knew exactly where and with whom was the rogue vampire.
The bronze chain with the horseshoe he was holding was proof of it.
Jasper's chain.
He never took it off as far as Alice had seen in her visions, she hadn't even noticed he wasn't wearing it.
How did Alec have it?
But if he knew how come hadn't he told Aro? What stopped him from telling Aro the truth? He wasn't friends with Jasper, she could tell that much, then what would drive him to hide such a thing from Aro?
She couldn't understand. What wasn't she seeing?
-Basil.- Came Alec's whisper.
Basil? What did he mean by "basil"? Was it some secret code? Wasn't that a plant? Flower? Something like that? She could have sworn she had heard Esme talking about that once.
But that didn't explain anything.
-Basil?- She repeats, her answer seems to irritate him, and to her surprise, he walks up to the bottom of the stairs and holds out the chain, this time, instead of for show, for her to take it.
She approaches him, still somewhat doubtful of what is he even doing here. She holds her hand out and he puts the chain on her hand, doesn't release it though as he holds her gaze.
Why did it felt like he was trying to tell her something? But what? Why couldn't he just say it instead of making it all so cryptic and difficult?
-Basil.- He repeats more firmly as he jiggles the chain on her hand with an annoyed scowl.
And Alice still has no idea what is that suppose to mean, all she can gather is that it's important, she's somehow suppose to figure out the reason, but what is it?
She looks down at the chain and back at Alec who's now giving her the perfect look of someone's who's getting tired of waiting for her to figure out the biggest and most obvious thing in the world. What is it???
She looks back at the chain, Jasper's chain, basil, basil, Jasper's chain…
Basil was a plant… was she supposed to do something with it and Jasper? What for? What-
Ah.
Realization struck her with the might of a slap.
Oh.
Oh.
So that was the reason for Jasper's oddities and lack of healing.
The bastards had poisoned him with werewolf venom.
The idea that he had had that coursing through his veins for over a week now made her shudder.
-You understand?- Alec questioned, staring straight at the woman's unnerving golden eyes, to be honest? He didn't want to be here, he shouldn't be here, but the moment he had seen her.
The moment he caught her scent.
That was the moment he realized to whom it belonged the scent Jasper had come back with, the one in the clothes he burnt.
It was this woman.
And he might have not proof of it, wasn't sure how she even dodged Aro's gift.
But he knew Jasper was with her, or at least she knew where he was.
He didn't knew if Jasper had figured out the reason behind the why he might not be healing, but he still told her how to fix it.
Caius had poisoned him with werewolf venom when he stabbed him, a small enough dose for it to not be noticed at first as it spread across his body.
But he wasn't about to straight up tell her, it was bad enough he was here, that he didn't tell Aro the truth the exact moment he recognized the scent.
He was betraying Jane by just being here.
And he's never felt more sick in his life.
He released the chain on the woman's hand, he had found it in Jasper's room, of all things, Alec knew he liked that a lot, he never took it off, had refused to take it off when Aro had suggested switching it for something with more "taste".
So Alec guessed that that chain would be the one thing he would want back the most.
Alongside the keychain.
Which he also pulls out of his pocket and hands to the woman without a second thought.
-Thanks.
-Don't, I'm just doing this because I owe him one, nothing more, I could care less what happens to him.- Alec states with a glare, he didn't care, whatever happened in the future would be on Jasper himself for making the choices he made.
He was helping him because Jasper had helped him and Jane that time, and he never told a soul. That was it, he didn't care.
And he hated how the woman still had the nerve to smile at him, he glared at her even more, he hated this, even more so because deep down he did miss having someone to play videogames with, or to spare with.
But he would rather die than admit it.
He gave her one last glare before turning around and leaving.
He didn't care about anything regarding Jasper, Jane was the only one who mattered.
~
Jasper woke up to the sound of crashing waves and a deafening pressure in his lungs and stomach, prompting him to jerk up and throw up all the salted water that had swarmed his insides alongside whatever blood he might have left in his stomach, the action of it doing nothing but worsen the brain splitting headache and the throbbing and stinging of his wounds.
He cursed, fingers curling and digging into the sand.
Sand.
He twisted around before sitting up, flinching, he was in a beach.
Unfamiliar.
But land either way.
How did he got here? He had heard that ethereal humming, the humanoid figure, the emotional signature, what the hell had been that?
It hadn't been an animal, animals no matter how big of an apex predator did not react well to the smell of venom.
It couldn't be a human, no human could survive the pressure nor the temperature down there.
But there were no traces on the sand, though considering how close to ashore he was if there had been traces the waves must have eliminated them.
He groaned as a new wave of pain ripples through his body, making a nauseous feeling twist in his stomach, whatever, he might as well had imagined it and the current brought him here.
Right now he needed to figure out where the hell was he, he put the muzzle back on before forcing himself to get up, cursing each moment of it, he almost crashed back on the ground as the world spun.
But he was nothing if not stubborn, he roamed his gaze around, it was quite hard to take things in when his vision kept zooming in and out.
He saw a cliff in the distance, and the air smelt odd now that he noticed it, he felt like he had smelt it before, but his senses weren't cooperating much with him right now.
Shit.
He made his way into the forest, the world was spinning and burning, he couldn't stop shaking and he could swear he could feel a river of heat coursing through his veins, his throat burnt with vengeance, his chest, his stomach.
But worst of all?
His wounds.
The smell of his own venom mixed with faint blood was making his head hurt even more and the nausea intensify.
He ended up leaning against a tree at some point as he fought to keep himself upright, but then his damn legs gave out from underneath him, sending him crashing on the ground, the landing making his wounds flare with a feral whiplash that got him curling up and wrapping his arms around his abdomen.
God, why was this happening?
And he couldn't move anymore, he felt way too weak, way too heavy, was Alice looking for him? Or had she realized with the Volturi's visit that he wasn't worth the risk? She didn't want him anymore, did she?
He had no one, all the people he ever knew were dead, Peter… Jasper had refused to let Alice contact him, too ashamed to face him.
He must surely hate him, he had no one, all his life he spent it killing, gaining enemies, a terrible reputation, and now…
Now he was alone.
And God that loneliness had never felt as thick and as overwhelming as it did now, he was alone, so alone it burnt something deep within his core.
It suffocated him, he curled even tighter into himself, fingers digging into his ribs, even as pain blazed he kept digging and digging until he heard his ribs snap, a whiplash of fire bursting all around.
Tears spilling out as he kept crushing his now broken ribs.
And then he heard it.
Footsteps.
~
Seth had been walking back home when he had caught it.
The familiar bittersweet reek that made his nose itch and his instincts reel.
Vampire.
It was more intense than it should be, and there was also the faint smell of blood.
Seth found himself tracking it down.
And of all things expected finding the vampire curled on the ground wasn't it, the bittersweet stench was intense, and he was shaking? Since when was that possible?
And he's got a muzzle.
The muzzled Volturi.
Alice had told Jacob about the "muzzled vampire", he meant no harm, to please not attack him.
The pack didn't like the idea of an unfamiliar vampire's presence, nor had Jake felt thrilled over the idea of an ex-Volturi being anywhere near Renesmee or Bella.
But the Cullen's territory was theirs, the pack had no say in which vampires were allowed to roam around, which meant if Alice said Jasper couldn't be touched then he couldn't be touched because he was in the Cullen's territory.
Because while the treaty line became flexible on that that the pack could step into their territory and viceversa it didn't meant they could do whatever they wanted on each other's territory.
But he was now in the Preserve.
Why was he here?
But to be fair the guy didn't seem to be in his senses right now, and he smelt funny.
He reached out and rested one of his front paws on the vampire's leg.
The reaction was immediate, he flinched and growled, such animalistic sound for someone with human vocal cords.
Seth didn't even knew vampires could growl.
Even the air felt odd, pin pricks digging into his skin.
Should he call Jacob? Or just grab him and take him to the Cullens?
"Seth? What are you doing?"- Leah's sudden voice in his head almost made him jump out of his skin.
"I found the vampire with the muzzle Alice mentioned before. I think he's sick."- Seth conceded as he kept staring at the curled vampire on the ground.
"He's dead, he can't get sick."- He could almost hear Leah's scoff as she answered to him. Understandable, Seth had no idea either vampires could get sick.
"I know, but he does seem sick, he's shaking and he seems hot enough to sweat."- He told her.- "I think we should call Dr. Cullen."- He said after a moment.
"Fine, but don't go anywhere near him."- Leah sounded as irritated as Seth expected her to, Leah did not like the Cullens much, but she was coming around.
Seth couldn't understand what got people so worked over, the Cullens were alright people, vampires, but alright people.
Even the scary blonde.
Thus.
He sat there and waited.
~
Carlisle hadn't been prepared for Sam's phone call.
That the muzzled vampire was in their territory, seemingly sick, to take him away before he changed his mind.
But he wasn't sick.
Alice had told him.
Based on Alec's words he must have been poisoned with werewolf venom last he was in Volterra, a small enough dose for him to not notice the effects until the poison had spread all over.
Werewolf venom.
Vampires didn't get sick.
At least not with the same ease as humans.
But vervain and werewolf venom could still very much poison them, same as a wolf shapeshifters' venom.
Alice had gone with him of course, Carlisle wasn't sure what to think of this right now, if Alice's words about him having been subjected to vervain poisoning for so long were right… now with the werewolf venom…
His body might be way too weak for him to take it, God, this poor boy…
Meeting with Seth and finding him… he had still been wearing the muzzle and as delirious as he had been he had still refused to let anyone but Alice anywhere near him.
Alice had told him to not take Jasper home, that he would be more at ease around humans than around vampires he didn't knew right now.
So Carlisle had taken him to a hotel room, telling the woman at the reception that Jasper was his nephew, it would have been easier to tell her he was his son but she recognized him.
She would know it was a lie, and it could get a lot of gossip.
Esme had boiled some basil before he and Alice left, but the intense smell of venom spoke of injuries.
-Alice, did he had wounds on him?- Carlisle asks as he watched her lead Jasper to sit down on the bed, he was delirious but he still held onto Alice's arm as if his life depended on it.
And the shirt he was wearing… there was pink on it.
The stench of human blood giving away their origin.
-Yeah, but he wasn't- he didn't smelt like this before.- Alice said, Jasper's skin felt too warm for comfort, and he was hugging her arm, glaring at Carlisle with the ferocity of a thousand suns.
Much like he had done all the way here.
She had tried talking to him but none of what she said seemed to be reaching him.
-Where was he hurt?
-His stomach, and his back, or at least those were the spots that got him grimacing a lot if I put pressure on them.- Alice conceded, she had spent a lot of time subtly putting pressure all over his body to at least get an idea where he might be hurt.
Just so she could avoid touching there seeing that he refused to give her answers regarding his injuries.
-Did you see them?- Carlisle questions, circling the bed, the pitch black glare following him with such intensity he had to admit it was quite intimidating, this was The Major.
But he was also an empath.
So Carlisle tried to focus on calm emotions, reassurance, he means him no harm, he just wants to help.
-No, he doesn't like talking about them.- Alice said, feeling as Jasper brought her closer, growling at Carlisle. She brings her free hand to rest on top of his head, she's struggling to keep herself calm, to not let her emotions win over.
Because what happened in the short amount of time she hadn't been with him? What drove him to this state when he had been just fine when she left him?
-Would you lift his shirt?- Carlisle requests, because he has the feeling that this young man will not like him going anywhere near him, much less touch him.
Alice nods at Carlisle before moving her free hand, grabbing the back of Jasper's damp shirt before lifting it.
The sight she got made the air catch in her throat.
-Oh God.- She gasps, horrified, because his back, he's got dark marks, burn marks, most of them so ravenous venom glimmers in the burnt flesh, as if whoever did them had left whatever they used to burn him with there for a while, letting the skin burn.
How had he been acting so fine when that was on his back?
He flinches, mumbling something, in norwegian of all possible languages.
-It's alright.- She's quick to soothe.
-He needs to drink the basil.- Carlisle told, peeling his eyes away from the boy's marred back, he had a hard time believing the Volturi would be so cruel so as to do something like that.
-Jasper?- Alice called, he didn't respond to her voice, just kept glaring at Carlisle. She sighed before releasing his shirt and reaching out for his face, forcing him to look at her.- He's here to help, alright? He means you no harm.
A blank look was her answer.
This before he fell into side glaring at Carlisle.
And Alice knew he wouldn't cooperate as long as Carlisle was here, thus, she turned to look at him, she didn't even need to voice the request.
-I'll wait outside.- Carlisle said, as a doctor Carlisle was more than used to having to step aside because of skittish patients.
Carlisle had initially accompanied Alice in case she needed help, but he had intended to let her handle it on her own considering his presence might not be much liked by Jasper.
But after catching whiff of the intense reek of venom…
Alice might not be able to handle it all on her own, much less when Jasper was in such a state.
Meanwhile, Alice watched Carlisle leave, not before he left the bottle with the boiled basil at the end of the bed.
Basil was a great antidote against werewolf venom, and for small doses of vervain.
Not that it would do much difference to Jasper's problem with the vervain, his current condition due the vervain held no antidote.
She turned back to Jasper, his hold on her arm had loosened the tiniest bit, but enough to allow her to wiggle her arm out, she grabbed his face before he could aim to grab her arm again.
-I'm gonna take this off, alright? You need to drink something that will make you feel better, I promise.- Alice told, tapping at the muzzle for more emphasis.
When he didn't react she took it to remove the muzzle slowly, just in case he reacted negatively to it.
Surprisingly, he let her.
She set it down on the nightstand before reaching for the bottle of basil water, there were even several basil leaves floating around, she took the cap off the bottle, grimacing at the smell.
It didn't stink, but it didn't smell pleasant either, she grabbed his face before leading the bottle towards his lips, but he quickly jerked his head away.
-Come on Jazz, work with me.- She requested softly, holding his head still by the jaw, his eyes were completely black, glazed over, no recognition whatsoever, and oh so pained.
She hated seeing him like this.
And when he refused the bottle for the fifth time she decided to use one last resort, she took a swig from the unpleasant liquid, fighting back the urge to spit it right back out.
She grabbed his face more firmly before sealing their lips together, getting him to swallow it was a thousand times more difficult than those stupid "romantic" books ever made it out to be.
But she managed it.
That's how she got him to drink the whole bottle of water, and once that was done she left the empty bottle on the bed, wiping her mouth with her sleeve, it was water anyways, before wiping Jasper's mouth too.
He looked even more drowsy.
And as Carlisle had foretold.
He ended up passing out.
~
Carlisle had heard and read the stories about The Major, he had been the reason he had avoided the South in the past, to not expose his family to the danger of potentially crossing paths with him.
Because any vampire who came across him would certainly end up dead, he was brutal, much more volatile and violent than any vampire Carlisle ever met, he heard about the carnages he left behind, about the bodies littering the battlefield in the aftermath.
He had been María's right hand, and she had been one of the most dangerous vampires to ever walk the Earth too, after all, she had been the one to create The Major, she had been smart and dangerously skilled, the Volturi never managed to find her even after seizing the South.
And The Major had been thought dead.
Which had filled a lot of people with relief.
But he wasn't.
He was alive.
And Carlisle could have never expected that that man who had terrorized the South for so long would turn out to look like he did.
He was unconscious now, and Carlisle was fixing the wounds on his abdomen and chest, he even had a gunshot wound, his skin was marred in thousands of scars, some more ravenous than others, as if the torn skin had never healed quite right, he also had gunshot scars, shrapnel on his left side.
Even his arms were covered in scars, the ones on his forearms were the worst, unlike the others those looked quite recent, and considering the fact that when he was found Alice had had to force him to stop crushing his own ribs…
Carlisle had the feeling he knew who had done those scars.
And that…
It was sad, because what had been done to this boy to drive him to such extent? But those scars, The Major's reputation, the Volturi… he had a feeling that he knew the answer to his own question.
His neck was also filled with scars, his jawline, his cheeks, there was even one on his left eyebrow.
A cruel mosaic that also spoke of just how dangerous he was, how many had tried to kill him and how many had died for it, the only reason Carlisle wasn't feeling so on edge was for the sole fact that he couldn't really bring himself to.
Not when all he could see was a young man that could very much be one of his own children, and he looked so harmless sleeping, so peaceful, so young.
Carlisle could have never imagined The Major to be a 19 year old, much less for him to look so… innocent.
Nor for him to end up with Alice.
Leave it to Alice to manage to tame the one vampire not even the Volturi could deal with.
He still wasn't sure how he felt about his daughter dating The Major, but he wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Everyone deserved a second chance.
~
Jasper woke up to the feeling of hands and an unfamiliar emotional signature, that's all the incentive he needed as he felt adrenaline rush in, and he didn't waste a second to lash out, kicking, hissing and shoving, forcing the threat onto the floor and pinning them down with his hand on their throat.
And when hands grabbed his wrists he snatched the emotional signature and pierced it with corrosive desperation and utter doom, a sea of darkness that ate and ate at all emotions given off until nothing was left but absolute devastation.
He was weak.
Too weak to fight.
But he wasn't defenseless.
He would never be defenseless again.
He dove down to bite there throat, but an arm shielded, he sank his teeth into it regardless, injecting as much venom as possible as he bit through flesh, teeth clamping shut on the bone, aiming to shatter it.
Someone was talking, but the blurriness of the world wouldn't allow him to process the voice nor even who was the threat.
And then alarm sliced across his skin, familiar, he couldn't put name to it, but it made his stomach twist, this before someone was grabbing him from behind, forcing him to release the arm, he didn't fight it.
In fact.
His instincts flared at it, and he latched onto it, pulling them behind him and growling at the threat. This was his his his.
Calm rippled across his skin, comfort, reassurance, love, such obliterating love it threatened to suffocate him, arms wrapping around his waist.
Calm. Calm calm.
It forced him into a world of even more fog, his brain swimming, God, why couldn't he focus?
He shook his head, refusing to bend down to the emotional signature hell bent of making him let his guard down.
He kept glaring at the shadow before him, growling, the shadow backtracked and he hissed, aiming to take a step forward, but the arms around his waist kept him in place, keeping him from following after the slow retreating shadow.
The reek of venom in the air making his insides burn, The Major clawing beneath his skin, ravenous, unforgiving, vengeful.
But the moment the shadow was gone, the moment the world spun as a sudden wave of dizziness hit with the might of a railroad, stomach twisting painfully.
And then darkness came.
World zooming out as he found himself falling back into nothing but numbness and darkness.