Playlist:

Lady Gaga - Dance In The Dark

Evanescence - Going Under

Imagine Dragons - Demons

SVRCINA - Battlefield

P!nk - Try

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the words. Stephanie Meyer owns the Twilight series, and the songs belong to their respective people.


Dance in the Dark


Two days later, Bella languished in the privacy of her office with her aching head in her hands. Edward had been furious with her since they had returned from the Badlands and Tomas' castle, going so far as to leave her sleeping alone in the medical wing.

"I was helpless, Bella. I couldn't defend you. Why would you trap me behind that shield, at the river? Why can Jasper fight for you, but I can't?"

Bella had tried to explain that she needed to keep him safe, that she couldn't stand even the thought of him being hurt; but Edward had been deaf to her pleas for understanding. Thinking back on his blind fury, Bella sighed.

Addy would've understood. She paused, thinking painfully of the love she had held when she was younger and blotting at the blood pooling in her mouth with a nearby cloth. Addy would've understood, yes; but Fiore would've shared Edward's anger and been right to do so. He had so hated to be robbed of his choices.

She leaned back, resting her head against the back of her comfortable desk chair, absently spinning the pendant holding the fire's blessing where it hung from her neck. She needed to fix this. The situation was getting more and more complicated, and she didn't need friction with her lover on top of everything else.

Kaedra knocked briefly before she entered the office. "Where's your shadow?" she asked, not even greeting Bella properly before beginning her interrogation. "Thought that blood-sucking lover of yours stalked you everywhere. Trouble in paradise?"

Bella idly motioned her regent to the couch along one wall in the calming space; gesturing for her to sit for a moment while still distracted by her thoughts. Bella was tired of being alone.

"Edward-" she put special emphasis on her lover's name, sick of Kaedra's bigoted insults already, "is tending to his mother and brother, both of whom have endured a harrowing experience."

"Enough about the stupid vampyr. We need to think about Tomas' next move. He won't take your refusal of his offer well." Kaedra's destroyed eye did not detract from the cold beauty of the glare on her face.

Bella was worried about Tomas' retribution as well. Painfully worried. As long as she had known him, Tomas was always able to get under her skin, striking at her more effectively than even the Master could. The acquisition of the eternal flame was a victory, and no small one; but Bella's heart didn't share in the celebratory atmosphere of Camp. She was too worried about the price she would surely pay for her impertinence.

Lizzie's voice echoed into the room from the hallway, Josephat hot on her heels.

"- It is not relevant, Elizabeth. She doesn't need to know. It changes nothing. She was released from the medical wing just this morning. She's more fragile than you know."

"If you think I am keeping something like this from her, you've got another thing coming. She's bound to find out anyway. You know secrets cause nothing but pain."

Bella and Kaedra rose to their feet, already facing the door when Lizzie burst through it desperately. "My Queen, you must see this."

Bella and Kaedra followed the pair swiftly to the main Council chamber, where Marcos already waited. The echo played in the air over the long table, showing a mortal news feed.

The Cullens were in the Library, across from the grand balcony that was the Council's official meeting place. They raced into the room at the commotion. Bella's dead face and stiff posture stopped them in their tracks. The newscaster's impersonal tone rang in their ears across the marble space.

" - In the small town of Forks, Washington, fires still rage, with high casualties that continue to climb. A nearby reservation has also been hit hard, and citizens are reporting wild tales of wolves pulling people from their burning homes. The chief of police, Charles Swan, is one of the casualties after he ran into the burning school to save a group of students trapped under a collapsing roof. The gas explosion took place during the school's graduation ceremony, and started the wildfires burning through Washington's forests. The National Guard has been called in to..."

The words faded and echoed in Bella's mind, becoming senseless garbage. The camera panned across the familiar woods where Bella had found a new life, showing the destruction wrought on the small town.

Tomas had done this.

A ragged gasp escaped from Bella's iron control, and she fled the company of her friends and her vampires. Her mortal father was dead, Forks destroyed. Had any of her mortal acquaintances survived?

...What had she done?


Going Under


Bella felt Edward's aura approach her hiding spot in the royal gardens; her magickal senses were overloaded and sparking in her brain. She had closed her eyes against the serene beauty of the space, trying desperately to control the urge to rip the foliage to shreds.

She didn't want him seeing her like this. She knew it would be impossible to shield him from the evil that warped her wounded soul forever. Still, she had foolishly hoped to protect him from her internal battles for a little while longer.

She didn't open her eyes as Edward entered the small, gated alley where Bella had hidden herself. He paused, taking in her posture: her head on her knees and tucked into the corner, her face hidden by her arms. She had curled in on herself on the low stone bench, making her body as small as possible. She felt him settle on the small bench next to her, his cooler body temperature raising goosebumps on her arm as he reached for her hand.

"I'm so sorry, Bella."

Bella felt the roiling tension in her soul snap with the sound of cracking glass.

She threw herself off the bench before Edward could touch her, standing over him and leaning in towards his face as she snarled. "It's a terrible idea for me to lose my temper, Edward, so I suggest you leave. And take your nosy, prying family with you."

The rest of the Cullens were gathered around the gate that blocked the entrance to the narrow alcove of the garden, looking unreasonably shocked at Bella's rage. Bella could not escape without going through the group of vampires, and the trapped-in feeling made her already delicate hold on her temper weaken further.

"None of this—none of this would have happened if you hadn't gone digging into things that weren't any of your damn business." Grey thunderclouds were forming to block out the strong summer sun; echoes flashed violently through the rapidly darkening garden.

Jasper turning her wrist in his grasp from across a chessboard, Carlisle's shocked stillness, the sound of clothes tearing as Alice's face loomed

Bella clutched at her aching head, feeling her pupils begin to dilate unnaturally. She let out a frustrated shout as she banished the violent images with a decisive clap of her hands.

Kaedra was between her and Edward, hands raised to show she was unarmed. "Isabella Swan, you need to calm down. Right now."

The plants around them were growing unnaturally quickly, and Edward jumped up from the bench as it crumbled beneath him, turning to find it already being overtaken with thorns and weeds. Thunder rumbled in the sky, lightning flashing in the sudden storm before rain began to fall in sheets, pinging on the stained-glass ceiling of the cavern that housed Camp. The pendant around Bella's neck was glowing a deep and menacing blood-red.

Edward looked around in confusion and shock at the display of unthinkable power. "Bella, what's-"

Bella shoved Kaedra telekinetically to her knees, holding the regent there as her pupils stretched, black oozing from her eyes. There was a whisper in the air, full of malice. Bella was panting heavily.

'Get out. Get away from me. NOW."

Fire began to break through the stained-glass ceiling.

When Edward hesitated, Bella threw him into the sandstone wall of one of the buildings forming the narrow alcove, freezing him there with a snap of her fingers. Her head turned to follow his body's path across the space like a striking cobra.

She heard Emmett cry out in warning, and out of the corner of her eye she saw Jasper catch his wife before she could fall. Alice was clutching at her head and screaming loud and long; her eyes were a clouded white. Esme and Carlisle were turning their attention to their screaming sighted daughter. Rosalie stood apart from them; her eyes were on Bella, projecting calm and understanding.

Josephat was running up to the gate, cursing robustly as he shed his coat onto the ground and approached; none of it mattered, everything was ruined, she was going to die. She was going to lose herself in this parasitic darkness that rose in her soul, uncontrollable and sharp as it cut her to pieces, bringing pain again, and again, and-

The glitches were back: Bella with white eyes, shaking on her bed in her Fork's bedroom and painfully thin; Charlie's concerned face in the middle of the night; Jacob and motorcycles crashing; the view from the top of a cliff's edge at the water below; of Edward in Volterra and the sun glinting off his skin; of the Volturi, and Jane meeting her gaze.

Some small part of Bella's mind rebelled as she approached Edward slowly, her hips swaying seductively as she crowded him against the wall. "You want to love me? I think it's time you realized what that means." She forced her lips on his with one hand around his neck. She was painfully aware of how easy it would be to behead him as a drumbeat started in her head.

Marcos was outside of the alley, assisting her citizens, who were rushing past the conflict unfolding in the garden and running for cover. The ground shook beneath their feet, and alarms echoed around the cavern. She forced Jo and the Cullens to their knees as well, locking them in place and silencing them with a thought. She released Edward from her hold and addressed him darkly.

"Do you know me, lover? Can you see your Bella in me?"

Shimmering gold tried to break into the void of Bella's bleeding gaze, but it was gone again in a flash of lightning. Bella threw Edward down the alley towards his immobilized family like a rag doll. His cold stone form crashed into the iron gate, knocking it off its hinges. He landed heavily, the gate carving a ditch into the dirt as it impacted with the shaking sandstone. He struggled to his feet and braced himself for the next blow. He would not fight her.

But Bella had levitated off the ground, the golden glow spreading around her the only light left in the shadows of the cavern. Bella felt the Master reach into her mind from far away, his telepathic voice a low chant that grew until none of her own thoughts could break through to be acknowledged. She turned her black gaze from Edward before she could set him aflame. She coiled the black poison in her aura to a sharp point. Her arm muscles clenched as she removed her hands from her head to throw them outward, screaming into the dark. She pushed the blade back, heedless of the cost, and freed her family from where they were frozen with a golden flash of light.

It wasn't over yet. Bella fell to her knees, screaming. Her hands were tensing into claws that caged her head as blood ran from her arms and back; old wounds were re-opening. She struggled to maintain even a hint of herself. Black tears fell down her cheeks, the result of the Master's aura infecting hers. The glitches darkened the air around her:

Marcos was approaching her in a shabby hotel room as Kaedra restrained her from attacking him. Herself, younger and in Pheonix now, throwing her laptop against the wall as Renee screamed at her, her human mother crying. She was in a hospital bed with Josephat addressing a nurse in a deadly whisper. Black eyes were gleaming at her from above as she arched her back helplessly…

The split-second images crowded overtop one another; before suddenly there was only one.

Bella was in a crowded city square, surrounded by horrified looking people. There was no sound, only oppressive silence. Bella was dressed in only a too-big t-shirt; bleeding and broken, kneeling on the ground with her shattered leg stretched behind her. She clutched a red-haired girl's body to hers, screaming unheard into the corpse's neck. In response, windows shattered all through the square and mortals ducked for cover.

Edward was beside her on one side, Josephat and Carlisle on the other. Edward gripped her face; forcing her to meet his amber eyes.

"I can see you, my Bella. I can see you even now."

Control got a little easier, but Bella knew the walls in her mind would not hold for long. Bella bowed her head to the ground between Edward and where Jo and Carlisle kneeled. She curled over her knees as she closed her eyes, her rage dissolving to leave only grief in its path.


Demons


Rain and fire were no longer falling on Havana, though the sky remained dark and overcast. Alice had finally stopped screaming, limp in Emmett's arms as Jasper shook her roughly. Rosalie approached her mate and family slowly. Josephat leaned over Bella's bowed form, blue light spilling from his lips in glowing wisps as he spoke in strange tongues, wooing his Queen's aura back to her.

Bella's forehead left the ground slowly, raising herself from her defeated position just enough to meet Edward's eyes once more.

The alarms cut off and silence echoed through the cavern. Bella lowered her head again, as though it were too heavy for her shoulders. She rested her eyes, closing them with a brush of eyelashes against Edward's neck. She clutched his hand to her cheek with both of her own. Bella focused on breathing steadily as blue light raced across the wounds that Carlisle held together with both of his pale, shaking hands. The light closed them and swept her precious blood away.

Josephat met Edward's gaze, still pouring healing magic into his young friend through his hands. Pieces of broken glass were rising all throughout Havana, levitating slowly to re-form the magnificent sunroof. The earthquake stopped.

Jo spoke softly. "No one quite knows how it came to be that Bella and her companions were in the Master's company. But we do know the torture she endured was not senseless violence. The Master was jealous of Shannara's power, and he is even more jealous of Isabella's. He would claim it as his own, place his brand on her and Bind her to him, possessing her body and her magicks for all eternity. But first her Spirit must be broken."

"Why?" Edward's voice was hoarse, and he wasn't sure if he were addressing Josephat, or whatever God may exist in this world.

"Isabella Swan is an exceptional Fae of exceptional power; and not just for her Royal status, though that is its own extraordinary tale. Fae can use magicks across all elements but hold a natural affinity in only one or two. These are where they are most powerful in their magick." He nodded towards where Bella clung to him. "She claims all of the elemental affinities as her own."

"Bella's silenced tongue prevents us from knowing her side of the story, but as the Master attempted to Bind her to him, something happened. Adeline was killed as a sacrifice in the cast, and somehow this made Bella able to escape the Master's grasp. Isabella disappeared only a week after she left the mortal hospital where those doctors," Josephat spat the word, "sewed her scars and called it healing. She spoke to no Fae about her experiences before she left for Miami."

The healer took a centering breath and continued; his blue-magic was pouring into Bella's aura now, soothing the knots that had gathered. "One thing, however, is certain in this war. If Bella is Bound to the Master, all is lost. Your family will die along with everyone in Camp, and her fate will be one worse than death. But if she does not fall...no. Even then The Master will surely kill her. Her life was forfeit the moment he set his black gaze on her. Her only chance to survive was to hide in the mortal world, but now even that small chance is gone. She challenged him too much by returning, and in saving your family she sealed her fate. All we can hope is for Isabella to weaken him with her death and for her power to be kept from him. Havana will survive and the war will continue. Your family may even live. But for any of that to happen, Bella's Spirit must not break. If she falls prey to the Master's influence on her, she has asked me to ensure her death."

Edward reached to snap Josephat's neck numbly, his mind spinning; Bella took his hand before he could kill the healer, guiding it back to her face and forcing him to meet her eyes. Bella's eyes were lost and hopeless, looking at him as those black tears made tracks on her cheeks. Malevolent whispers rang in the shadows, whispering softly as they faded away from the physical world.

"Edward."

Her opposite hand met his shoulder, which tingled where she slid her warm hand to rest on the spot where his shoulder met his neck. She pulled at his numb form, tilting her forehead to rest on his. "I will fight. I will fight for as long as I can. You must know I will. I don't want to leave you. You will survive, I swear it. I'm so sorry, Edward."

Edward's hand shook as he tightened his grip on Bella's jaw, silencing her. His eyes were unfocused and shining with tears of venom which would never be shed. He could feel Bella's determination, but also a quiet acceptance that made his veins boil.

"Bella. My Bella. Mine. I won't survive, love. You must know that. If you die, if you fall and are possessed, it doesn't matter. I won't live without you. I refuse." He kissed her fiercely, as he had every time he had been forced to say goodbye.

When he broke the kiss, he met her golden gaze with his eyes. "I see you, my Bella. I never want to turn my eyes away."


Battlefield


After her scars had once again sealed whole, Bella wiped her eyes and raced to Alice's side. By the time she got to her, Edward and Carlisle were already there; Esme grasped for her husband's hand. Josephat set about examining Alice's motionless body, but Bella ignored him and reached for her sighted sister's face. Jasper grabbed her scarred wrist with a growl, stopping her.

"Jasper, I can help her."

"How?" Josephat cut in over Jasper's growls as they faded and Bella was released.

"I told you, Alice is gifted with the Sight. She has seen pathways before, but there is a key difference between Fae sight and what Alice knows; there is a difference between seeing pathways and decisions and having all the could-be's and never-were's of the universe flowing through your head. Look: just keep an eye on my aura please. I think one temper tantrum is enough for the day." Bella smoothed her hand across Alice's forehead gently, and her eyes were consumed with a pale gold that rapidly faded to cloudy white. Emmett gasped, turning to Josephat.

"Since when can Bella see the future? And what's with the creepy eyes around here?"

Jo replied distractedly, blue energy crackling at his fingertips as he revealed Bella's aura for all to see. "Isabella holds all the affinities, though her affinity for the element of Spirit is not known to many. Spirit will have gifted her with the Sight, but I have never seen her use it before. Quiet, please."

Bella's gaze shifted and rolled beneath her eyelids, focusing on the things only she and Alice could see.

"Edward, what are they seeing?" Esme's question was high-pitched, and her voice shook.

Edward shook his head. "There's just a chant, it doesn't make any sense. I've never been blocked from Alice's visions before."

Carlisle answered him. "From what I understand from Alice's training with the Fae, their brand of Sight is very different from Alice's normal way of seeing. Maybe-"

Jo broke in. "Quiet."

Bella's aura was shifting now, becoming a brighter and purer gold, almost white itself. The gold flared in the confines of the dark that bordered it, and suddenly Camp was coated in colors again, the sun beaming through the repaired ceiling with renewed strength.

Bella gasped and Alice did too. Jasper was already embracing her joyfully as her eyes faded into the topaz irises that defined his family. "What the hell?" Alice's confusion was palpable, but Edward only had eyes for Bella.

Her eyes were flashing lazily between a menacing black and cloudy white, before her posture relaxed and she removed her hand from Alice's head, her eyes fading into warm brown again.

"Sorry Alice. I must have thrown you into Destiny's path when I started to lose control."

Jasper growled at Bella again, snatching Alice away from Emmett's grasp; he was seeking to gather his wife behind him and further away from Bella.

"I can't promise it won't happen again, Jasper. Alice's gift is very strong, and I can't control Destiny. But the experience wasn't, and shouldn't be, painful for her. Just disorienting."

Alice rested her hand on Jasper's chest. "I'm okay Jazz, really. Weirdly tired, but I'm okay."

"What did you see?"

Alice met Bella's gaze before she replied, and Bella subtly motioned a 'No' with her hand, which was hidden at her side.

"Stuff." Alice's voice was chipper and annoying, in a tone Edward recognized. The whole family shook their heads, looking down at the ground with shared exasperation written across their features. They would get nothing from her. Alice could be almost as stubborn as Bella, especially when it came to the future.

Bella clapped her hands together. "Well, that was fun. Let's never do it again."


Try


Lizzie rushed to meet them as their ragged group approached Castle HQ, her expression panicked. Edward and Bella clung to one another, and Emmett and Carlisle were quietly talking to Alice; respectively trying to reason with her and annoy her into revealing her powerful vision. Jasper vibrated behind Alice, his hand still gripping his wife's tightly as he scanned constantly for threats. Lizzie turned to where Rosalie and Esme walked together, quietly inquiring.

"What the hell was all that? Were we attacked? I've never seen anything like it."

Rosalie's voice was icy as she shrugged her shoulders. "Believe me, me neither. Insanity is what that was. Bella had a panic attack." She didn't mean for it to sound so cold, but it came out that way all the same.

Rosalie was not without empathy for Bella, for the way her life had been dragged into darkness and muck. She understood her Fae sister more now and was able to relate to the grief and shame that could result from someone else's actions. But Rosalie hated pity and wouldn't give it to Bella. She knew it would not comfort her.

Lizzie escorted them to the dining room where the citizens of Camp had gathered for the evening meal, already gossiping about the day's events. When the drained group sat together at one of the long tables, Rosalie wormed her way into the spot across from Edward and Bella. Carlisle was on the other side of her mind-reading brother, who glared at her warningly but allowed himself to be distracted by their father.

Bella looked at her expectantly, and Rosalie's mouth went dry. She had never been speechless before, every thought in her vampiric brain screeching to a halt. So far, Bella had saved her mother, her sister, and her from certain death or worse. Jasper was intimidated by her, hell, even Emmett admired her. Edward was head over heels for the girl. Suddenly, Rosalie was intimidated by the strength Bella possessed.

Well, she may not know the weight of the world on her shoulders, but if there was one thing Rosalie knew how to do, it was pick up and move on. So, Rose swallowed her judgement of Bella's actions and addressed her sister with true warmth in her tone.

"About those dress designs..."

Bella laughed, the sound a welcome relief to all who heard it.