NOW

Hayley was caught between the impulse to cheer and to groan. She'd hoped to hear this hadn't she? Like waiting for the two characters of a tv show to finally see reason and get together. Now that it was here, she saw it likely didn't quite end up like those characters tended to.

Anna didn't seem upset. She boosted herself up on to the countertop, adding hot pepper flakes to her pizza, jerking her head at Cole who lowered Hayley to the tiny kitchen nook table.

"I was Bruan when I moved here, no one in the town knew me as Simone ever. I don't think most of them even know its not my maiden name. It's a small town, not Forks small, but it amounts to similar results."

Small. Hadn't Anna told Hayley that her apartment was small. Hayley hadn't thought so, and equated it to being so accustomed to New York City small. Now though, she had to wonder if it hadn't felt that way because she could feel someone was missing. It wasn't a home for one after all.

The questions swirled in her mind but Hayley made herself reach for her pizza instead.

"So I take it you got your dance then." Hayley grinned.

"Biblically." Ethan said and caught the pizza crust Anna threw, finishing it off himself.

THEN

"Do you think we'll be sorted into our houses first, or….." Ethan accepted the cuff from his mother.

The four teens, Cece, Laura, and Paul Southgate sat in a formal sitting room off a foyer of what was advertised to the public to be a private home. It felt more like an office, and was what Phillip explained as one of the many such homes the Emissary held. Today they'd be meeting with who Phillip called one of the Emissary's elders. Phillip was in with him first while the others waited.

Caroline was sandwiched between her parents on a bench as though they'd hoist her by the elbows at anytime and make a dash for the door. She stole a sheepish glance at Anna, who winked back.

Ethan clamped down on Cole's knee as it bounced nervously.

"Relax."

"Easily."

Now Anna rolled her eyes at Caroline. She straightened in her chair when Phillip came back into the room, another man not far behind.

Where Phillip gave an air of ease in most situations, which he carried today, the man that followed and closed the door behind them, was no nonsense. He wore a suit, which seemed out of place even though the house was more an office. His glance was stern as he took in the rooms occupants, though not focusing much on the adults.

"Well, everyone, no easy way, so I'll just introduce the elder of The Emissary, Jeff Hozen."

"Jeff. The Yoda's name….is Jeff." Anna whispered.

"Anna Jane Louisa." Cecelia clipped and Anna hushed.

Phillip's eyes twinkled, "My granddaughter Anna Jane." He then gestured to Ethan.

"This is Ethan Kelly, his mother Cecelia Holm Kelly. You've been in town long in enough to hear of the Holm's no doubt."

Cece stood and held out a hand. Soft, but with an iron grip. "My husband will want to meet you another time. He's out waiting in the car for us."

Jeff's sternness remained even when the corner of his mouth quirked at the unsaid message.

Cece nodded, and put her hand on Cole's shoulder. "This is our bonus son, Cole Masen."

Cole seemed bolstered by the title and reached out his own hand to shake Jeff's.

Phillip continued to the Southgates. "This is Caroline and her parents Paul and Laura Southgate. They're relatively new to the area."

With Laura remaining still, Caroline stole a hopeful glance at her father, who reluctantly nodded in lieu of a handshake. This didn't help Jeff's demeanor.

In the silence, Phillip let out an exasperated sigh. "Jeff, I've known you all my life, that stick up your ass wasn't always that high."

The four shared a look. Jeff looked years younger than Phillip.

Jeff sighed himself, hitching his pants a little as he took a seat. "Simone your subtly hasn't been a developed."

"You a vampire?" Cole interrupted.

Caroline covered her fathers low groan with a quip. "Funny how quickly we're used to just saying things."

"You best start believing in ghost stories Miss Turner." Ethan put on a graveling cockney voice.

"You're in one." Anna finished and pointed to her nose and then Ethan.

Jeff watched the exchange, something in his dark eyes that could only be dread. They met Cole. "I'm not a vampire. There are none in The Emissary. Any who have been turned, have been turned in more than that way."

"How inclusive." Ethan snorted.

"So what are you?" All nerves forgotten Cole shrugged at Cece's sharp look. "He knows everything about us, only fair."

"I hold a couple of abilities. One is seeing visions. Some of the past, some of present, some of future. They aren't predictable or even constant. I can share those visions with others though, and sometimes control which vision becomes reality. Its not a very reliable type of magic I'm afraid. The other is a type of healing. It's manifested a similar immortality. Though I imagine I could be killed." His mouth stretched to a tight, humorless smile. "Time, illness, and most injuries don't do their damage."

Laura tensed and Caroline looped her arm through hers. Understanding this wasn't a kinship Laura would want to find.

"That explains it." Laura said sadly. "I figured a soldier, the look you have is one I see all the time."

"What look is that?"

"War." Laura shrugged. "You've seen it. But I suppose more in the way I have then. I'm an army nurse."

"I see. Yes, I've seen this war. It never ends."

"And you expect our children will do that?" Paul added.

"I see no children here, yours or otherwise."

Before the Southgates could swipe back, Cece folded her hands on the table top.

"We're here as their advocates. You can't argue they don't have the need."

"No of course not." Jeff's tone softened only slightly.

"Right. Well…."

"Mr. Simone has claimed the people here, in your….group….they have all sorts of these things."

"Powers, Mr. Southgate." He appeared almost amused. "Its not a word you ought to be frightened of when Caroline clearly is not."

"Do you have someone who can take them away?"

"Dad." Caroline whispered.

Ethan tensed so that Cole reached for him this time.

"Paul this isn't something we can…"

He snapped to Laura. "I don't have much say in you running off to war, I have a say in her doing it goddamnit."

Now it was only Anna's stare that kept both boys at bay.

Laura's jaw clenched. "We can discuss this…."

"Later. Right. Fine you deal with this then, I'll be waiting to take the two of you home as always." He pushed up from the bench and out of the room.

Caroline hesitated, leaning as though to stand as she was accustomed to following her father. But then she sat back, pulled in all directions.

Jeff didn't look surprised or insulted by the request or the exchange. He looked only at Caroline.

"Caroline is this something you wish?"

She didn't look at her mother, but to Anna, Cole, then Ethan. She smirked back at Jeff.

"Even if it was something you could do, no."

Jeff nodded. "You're right of course. It isn't something we could do or frankly most of us may have."

He went back to ignoring the parents entirely and spoke to the others.

"You've made choice enough to come here. There will be more choices along the way. We're not like our enemy, there is no lock at a gate here. If you want no part in this fight, that's your choice each and every day. It can always change. And if you were to choose to go it alone and need our help at another time, it would be there. That's how we've survived."

Anna snorted. "It sounds like a democracy."

"I'd say it is."

"Then why do you want a leader? Why do you think it has to be a Novak or a Simone, just because some people centuries ago said so?"

Ethan and Cole shared a look. While the boys wondered on it from time to time, they hadn't spoken as a group much over the last year and a half about Anna's family connection. Especially not what it could mean.

"At the end of the day, we're still people. Still a community of our own. Most communities naturally a drawn to a leader. We're no different from that need."

"From what you describe, you're unified enough. All working towards the same cause from well before any of us were born." Anna argued, feeling a warmth when Caroline leaned towards her. "You don't need a leader to do that."

"We don't, no. We need a source of hope." Much like Phillips, Jeffs eyes reflected the age his appearance hadn't. "To us, the prophecy and whomever it represents, sounded like a miracle. That after all the years of destruction and fear and running that The Emissary has faced, that we could end up as we started. A group of like individuals, banded together. That we could be a part of that bond. It's incredibly moving to us. How could it not be?"

Caroline smiled at Ethan, who nudged Cole, who gave a nod to Anna.

"That helps the case." She said with a sigh. "We're not here to imply we're a part of the prophecy or The Emissary. Regardless of who any of our families are. We're not here to choose."

"Appreciate its open for later." Ethan added. "For right now we just to need to know how to protect ourselves when we move away from here."

"Of course. For one thing, there are dozens of these houses over the country. Depending on where you end up, I'm sure there won't be a location far that you can go to should the need arise."

"Safe house, rad." Caroline did a check through the air.

"Training, we can do here and continue with wherever you go."

"How much training is it you think they'll need Jeff?" Phillip rolled his eyes. "They're going off to college and to start working, the less they're involved with all this, the less the other side is going to go for them."

"That's usually true, and its helpful that Carlisle Cullen didn't leave any witnesses of them using their powers."

Laura shifted in her seat. Cece kept a poker face. Phillip grinned.

But Cole shook his head. "They have to know about us, what about what I saw?"

"Phillip told me about that." Jeff very nearly softened. "Everything you all have seen and been through even before that, it leaves a mark. I'm sure you don't want to hear that it was only a dream, but when you live through trauma, you see things that are so real. We all have. I do, especially when I'm not even asleep but merely unfocused."

Cole wasn't entirely convinced, but relented enough to lean back. Jeff continued.

"At this time, there may be suspicions, but those have always followed the Simones and Novaks. However if you all leave and settle in a new and more populated town together though, those suspicions will grow. As will the attempts."

"Because they'll be with me." Anna glared. Would that solve it? If I went somewhere else?"

"Exfuckingcuse me?" Ethan ignored his mothers hiss. "How long you been thinking of that one Anna Jane?"

She held up her hands. "It's a natural thought progression."

"And how long do you think it'll be til they snuff you out when its just you? Hmm?" Caroline fumed. "I don't give a shit if you're a Simone, a Novak, she who must not be named, whatever. We're not splitting up." She added both for Anna and the thoughts she assumed Laura was mimicking of Pauls.

Cole walked over to Anna, lowing so they were eye to eye. Rocking back on his heels he nodded at her. "Promise me Anna."

"Alright Michael, alright." She leaned in to rub her cheek on his.

"That settles that then." Phillip looked sharply at Anna Jane. "I still don't think continuing a training is going to be necessary when they move."

"They're new to this Phillip, it's completely necessary."

"I think what Mr. S means is we only need training you think we'll need for these abilities." Ethan looked at Cole.

"Teach us all we'll need to know about the bad guys and all that. What we can do to stop them." He smirked. "The vampires especially."

Caroline walked over to Ethan, leaning on his chair. "We already have the hardest part down."

Jeff looked from them to Anna who pointed at herself and then amongst the other three.

"We're bonded. Not because of this. Not because of what we can do." Anna shrugged that away. "Because of who we are to one another. To the friendship we've made. So if anyone or anything comes at us, well I doubt we'll have to say a word. You can teach that sure, but we'll be saving you time there."

For a moment the certainty of that washed over Jeff. Wasn't this the certainty, the hope they had craved? That he himself didn't truly believe existed? Maybe. But the glimmer of it faded when one only looked at how young they were. Did they know horrors others within their age group hadn't? Absolutely. But how did you explain that they would likely see as much death as a soldier? That one or more of those deaths would likely be one of them? They may have seen much, but there would be no explaining what it would be like.

They just had to get on with it.

Jeff led the group deeper into the house until they reached what had less than a century prior been a ballroom. Now the large space had been converted to The Emissaries version of combat training. He explained there were usually more people about, even in this, one of their smaller Emissary houses. But for now, they would be no need for introductions to more than a select few.

He was surprised, as were the mothers and Phillip, to see that the four teens weren't without skill. They may not have been ready to go to an Emissary house until now, but they clearly hadn't spent the last year and a half neglecting their gifts. And they'd already predicted how the ability could be used as a defense.

When asked to move objects about the room, they could do so both without any movement themselves, through they had more power behind it if they used their hands.

Or, more fun.

Jeff had to admit, they were further than he would have hoped for. Further, than most at this stage. But he decided to push it.

"Alright, most times, and especially when they aren't expecting much out of an opponent, The Preservers only send one, maybe two. Usually its just to see what they can. But depending on whose sent, maybe they'll try for more. They're not always easy to control, so they'll go off book. These are the ones that are a concern for now. Until we're sure they know more about you that is."

"So you think we'll only be fighting one at a time, if its even a fight." Ethan nearly shrugged.

"That one could be a vampire. You're all still human, this has always been there, just dormant. There isn't anything about your physical health that has changed. You may be a bit more instinctive than other humans, a bit faster, and telekinesis can offer a significant protection. But you can be hurt just the same. You can be killed, just the same. If its not a vampire they send, it could be someone with a healing ability. Any hits you land, would heal fairly quickly and you have to depend on them tiring enough to not heal as fast. Or it can be one with an ability that damages your own or distracts you from being able to use it. Just one is all it can take."

Nerves forgotten, Cole raised his chin. "Show us."

The days then on blended together as they balanced school and the trainings in that ballroom. They took finals as their senior year wrapped, and filled up on learning both protection and a run down on the other side.

Much like The Emissary had Jeff, waiting for a potential other leader, The Preservers had their own, only in groups. A faction of them were headed by The Volturi, the vampire law. They didn't like to involve themselves in much of The Preservers, a part from picking their own favorites to collect. The held an impressive array of vampires with extra abilities, and used them and the fear to keep their posts.

Who truly led The Preservers though, was an unfortunate mystery. There were names Jeff gave of whom to look out for, but who called the shots had been a question The Emissary fought constantly to answer. Was it someone like Jeff, who had been stuck in a loop, living a half immortal life? Was it an ever changing list? All they knew is they always had the same goal. To collect as many trophies of power that they could, and eliminate or turn anyone that could be connected to the original line or prophecy.

It was a stress in the lives of Anna Jane, Caroline, Cole, and Ethan. But they didn't let what could be change them.

Caroline continued to flourish in her relationship with the other three, despite the obvious disappointment of her parents. If they weren't fighting her, they were fighting each other, and Caroline found herself fearful for the first time in her life that her parents marriage wouldn't survive. Her intention to find work rather than further schooling added to that. Laura and Paul blamed themselves, claiming they sheltered her too much, and the first experience of school friends and a boyfriend kept her clinging to that new bubble rather than branching out. Caroline felt confident that wasn't the case. She'd had her experience of regular school life, that had been all she wanted from it. What she wanted from the next stage was roots in something that was her own. Not ones that kept her stagnant, but ones from choices that were for her own path, not the ones duty demanded. Painting all that she saw and felt along the way. Growing more and more in love with a boy who felt just the same as she had.

Ethan may not have known what his vocation would be, all he knew is he had to be where Caroline was. Where his friends were. He felt young and invincible enough to wait for the rest to fall in line. He didn't concern himself with The Emissary or The Preservers, but rather the people who mattered most being safe.

Cole, was beyond ready for college. For a new town. People who didn't know his past and look at him with pity. His friends didn't, never. But the town was a daily reminder. And maybe that's what kept him from feeling like his own person. He knew his path. Cole had wanted to be a photographer since he was a kid, he knew it would be his ticket to any travel he wanted. Any path. But without his parents he lost all sense of where home was. All sense of where he was going. Who he would become. Ethan and Anna helped with that. And now Caroline. But he needed to find himself.

Anna saw the upcoming move as her freedom. College, she was always told by more traditional adults, was the only chance at security in "the real world." As someone who had lived in the real world far earlier than most, she wasn't one to believe it true. But she was grateful enough to know when you were given an opportunity, you took it. Her grades hadn't afforded her the full scholarship Cole was awarded, but her and Phillips finances got her half the way. She would learn all she could of art, of music, of history. And after four years, she'd build her own home and never have to jump up at anyone else's whim.

After their summer of not exactly vacation, they had their sights on the future clearer than any others who had thrown their caps in the air just two months before. And despite the hardships they'd faced and others that were sure to come, there wasn't a group of friends more grateful to be together.

NOW

Cole rubbed his hand up and down Hayley's arm as he spoke.

"We left Forks in August for here. Well, New York. Anna and I started classes at NYU."

"Did you all live together then?"

"We did." Ethan gripped Cole's shoulder as he stood to go to the kitchen.

"It's funny, during the last visit in the city I was reminded how it was like." Cole explained. "How I used to wish we'd go on to live in the same city and it would be like Friends or Seinfeld. We'd be constantly bursting into each others places." He shared Anna's grin. "And so we do, its just a little different."

"We couldn't swing Manhattan, so we settled in Hells Kitchen actually." Anna winked at Hayley. "Ended up in Brooklyn for senior year, which would have been when you started on campus."

Hayley blew out a breath. "It's so weird to think of, but none of us were ready for all this then I suppose."

"Weirder yet." Ethan came back to the living room with waters. "If you and Cole had met then. If you had met us and we ended up where we are right now, only then….." He handed Hayley hers. "Well we might have given the prophecy more thought than we actually did back then."

She looked back to Anna who was looking away, and out the window. "Because there would have been six?"

Anna spun her gold band. "We stayed in the city all of that first semester. Cole and I going to classes while Caroline and Ethan found odd jobs. We didn't go back to Forks until winter break."

"And when you did?"

Cole pulled Hayley just a little bit closer. "When we did, four became five."