JUSTICE

"The purified, disciplined personality now recognizes the One Life and feels it standing beside him, as the sword of power endows him with the ability to divine right from wrong."

—Eden Gray, The Complete Guide to the Tarot

Divinatory Meaning: Justice will be done. Balance is required. Lawsuits will be won. The balanced personality demands elimination of excess baggage, wrong ideas, useless forms of education. A mixture of the right ingredients is welcomed—as in science, chemistry, and cooking. May betoken the desire for education, with a well-balanced mind as its objective.

Reversed: Injustice, inequality, legal complications. Advice to use mercy and understanding when judging others, and to avoid excessive tendency to severity.

—Joan Bunning, Learning the Tarot

—

DECEMBER 5TH 2039

9:43PM MST

NEDERLAND, COLORADO

The stabbing pain in Alice's head forced her to stop. Then, she refocused, clenched her jaw together, and looked again. It was easier this time, to see their futures, but every time she was forced to restart it made it more difficult to go as far into the future as she preferred.

Alice preferred, on the low end, to have days and hours as a cushion between her visions and her now. When it wasn't possible, she would accept hours. When it was especially soon, she would accept even minutes.

Now, as she watched Emmett and Jasper lead Peter east so he could hunt, Alice was only averaging about thirty-nine seconds into the future and she was getting more and more frustrated.

"Sorry," Edward apologized, even though it wasn't his fault. Alice paused long enough to shoot him an unamused look and he spoke up again, "I'll go tell Esme to go distract her in the loft."

Alice shook her head, "No, it's fine." It wouldn't work, either. Ness hadn't wandered more than three steps away from Bella or Rosalie since the men had departed for their hunt. Rosalie was planted in the den, laptop on the floor, tapping across the keys as she researched every population fluctuation that had occurred between Colorado and Oaxaca over the past ten years that couldn't be explained away by illness or disaster.

It was a tricky way to track army activity but it was the best idea that any of them had come up with outside of "sit and wait" which was idiotic and "ask Alice what she sees" which was slowly also becoming a bit of a stupid plan.

Alice focused again on Jasper and winced when she had to push through a wall of shooting pain in the front of her head to see him properly. It wasn't because of Renesmee—although straining too hard in an attempt to see Ness' future could sometimes cause similar pain—but because Alice was pushing too hard. Forcing visions for this many hours at a time always left her with a headache of sorts. After a minute she came back to the present and glared at the ticking hand of the clock. She was only thirty-six seconds ahead of them now.

"Alice," Edward's hand on her hand was comforting despite how irritated she was, "rest for a second. It's not worth hurting yourself."

"I have to do it now," Alice grumbled, squeezing over top of his hand before smacking it away. She loved him, but she needed to do this. I won't be able to do this once he's back.

Edward knew she was right, so he didn't comment on that. Thankfully. When Jasper realized she was hurting herself to force the future he'd be upset with her. Not that he wasn't already—

"Alright," Alice refocused in front of her as Edward stood up and pulled her onto her feet. "Break time. No arguing."

Alice tried to yank her wrist back to no avail. For a moment she was thankful she was barefoot. She planted her feet, used her toes to grip the carpet and when Edward felt her move the entire rug with her, he paused, looked down, and snorted. "You're a pain in the ass."

"I'll give their future a break," she promised, "let me at least sort thorough a few different ones real quick."

"After we go into the side yard." Edward pulled at her elbow again and Alice watched the flicker in her mind as he contemplated just picking her fully up off of her feet. Don't you fucking dare. "Come on," he sighed and tugged again. His shoulders lowered when she finally allowed him to pull her out of the library.

"If we go too far into the woods Esme is going to have a heart attack," Alice muttered as she followed Edward slowly across the yard. The snow that had begun a few hours ago had shifted to sleet, and now a frozen mix dampened their hair and pelted their shoulders. The ground squelched loudly beneath their feet.

She ducked beneath some low-hanging branches and almost cussed him out when he, at the last second, released the branch he'd been holding out of her way. It nearly smacked her in the face.

He hummed, as if disappointed. "I really thought I had you there."

"I'm really not in the mood, Edward."

"No one is," he finally turned toward her and hopped up into the old oak. It was the largest tree on their property. On the other side of it sat a tire swing that Emmett was no longer allowed to push Ness on. Partially because Rosalie didn't want him to damage the ancient tree, and partially because ever since Emmett and Ness and proved to Carlisle that yes, hybrids could get concussions, their 'rough-housing' had to be monitored.

By someone who wasn't Jasper or Alice.

Alice crossed her arms over her chest. The way Jasper had looked at her when he'd realized what she'd done in the forest, that she'd messed up so irreparably, was burned into her head. He'd looked at her like he wasn't sure who he was looking at.

Alice turned away from Edward. She didn't want to catch her reflection in his eyes. She wasn't sure she'd recognize herself, either.

"It's not your fault." Edward's words were soft.

She shushed him as she walked around the tree. She had never before used the toy but tonight she gripped the rope and jumped lightly, pushing her legs through the tire. As she started to swing, much faster and farther than she was expecting to go, she settled herself inside the tire, rested her head against the old rubber and closed her eyes again.

Alice looked toward Jasper, Emmett, and Peter once more. Irritation and relief swam through her. She'd missed Peter's hunt, but it had gone successfully. They were on their way back and would be home within the next fourteen minutes.

Carlisle had been loath to let them travel so closely to town, but it had been their only option. They couldn't travel too far until they knew what they were up against. Boulder would simply have to spare a human tonight. Carlisle didn't have to like it, he just had to allow it. Then, she completed her routine, twice over.

"Rosalie might have the right idea," Edward spoke after she'd completed the second cycle through as many futures as she could. It was a begrudging admission. "Putting everything on paper could help."

"Transcribing my visions would take five thousand times longer than it does to see them," Alice huffed. She had come to a stop as she'd poked around at the future. She bent her knees and realized there was no way she'd be able to reach the ground or the tree.

Alice saw Edward snort and approach, and let him.

He shoved the side of the tire and Alice felt the wind whip around her again. Then, she saw what he meant by his sentence. "Oh."

"Yeah, oh." He stepped back toward the tree, probably so she wouldn't collide into him, and spoke again. "Annoying little know-it-all."

"Speak for yourself."

"Not today, I won't."

He had a point with the idea. It would definitely take her far longer to make a list of all of the vampires she kept tabs on and then to update their approximate locations, but it would be useful information for the entire family to have.

In her mind she watched as the library was set to be transformed into nothing but walls and walls of lists. Each shelf would soon have papers hung from them, and Alice would make herself comfortable on the floor. Each time someone moved, or traveled nearby, or any time anything notable happened, Alice would be able to update everyone's individual papers.

"You almost have it right," Edward commented and then the vision shifted.

Ugh, fine. She wouldn't remain comfortably confined to the library. She would be forced to interact with her family, too. She'd be forced to hunt and to socialize, even if only a little bit. Edward wasn't going to let her climb into her brain and languish and Alice wanted to smack him.

She tried when the swing brought her closer to where he stood. She missed, and it just looked like a stupid, pitiful flail. "Shut up," she muttered as he chuckled.

When Alice lurched back toward Edward, he stopped the swing, freezing her in place. He placed a hand on her back and Alice saw the words on his lips before he had to speak them.

"I'm so, so sorry Alice."

Alice was out of the tire, her arms wrapped tight around Edward's neck where he held her in a firm embrace. She did not cry. She did not scream or shout or sob. Alice only held tightly to her brother and let her misery engulf her. She only had seven more minutes before Jasper was back in hearing range, and six before he'd be able to feel her heartbreak.

This was barely a portion of the pain that she felt, and Alice knew that if she really got into it now it would blow her concentration for the rest of the day, but she also knew that it was best to do this while she could. The pain of Charlotte's passing was so, so strong, so Alice allowed herself a few minutes to lay pitifully in the arms of her best friend.

Charlotte had been her first best friend. She'd been the first vampire besides Jasper that Alice had ever spent time by herself with. Charlotte had been the person that Alice had trusted to fix her hair back in '49. It had been so strangely long in a few portions and impossible to pin back properly since the rest of her hair was so damn short. She'd trusted Charlotte enough to even out the back of it, and Alice had almost cried out of excitement before Charlotte had even offered to do it.

Charlotte had been the one person who Alice could write or call to that would be interested in the most boring, lackluster details of their strange life amongst the humans. Charlotte had loved jewelry and movies and the holidays. Charlotte had loved life. Charlotte had loved Peter and Jasper and Alice.

Alice had loved Charlotte.

It wasn't fair that Alice had been forced to watch Charlotte die.

When Alice first believed that Charlotte was already gone, there had been an unspoken relief in her brain. That relief had felt selfish; just knowing that even though she'd missed it with her visions (causing guilt and shock and pain) that meant that she wouldn't be forced to watch it.

Alice should've known that something that horrific and terrifying would find its way into her brain regardless. That seemed to be the nature of things when it came to her gift.

It never spared her the visions she didn't want to see.

Alice and Edward didn't exchange any further words as they made their way back to the house, hand in hand. It hadn't taken long for Alice to loosen her grip on Edward's neck and land softly in the muddy mush beneath them. Alice had already seen that the sleet would turn back into snow around midnight.

The wintery concoction would freeze overnight, which would be a disaster for the humans on the roads in the morning. Alice found herself wondering whether the car accidents that would ensue over the course of the upcoming wintery week would be useful for them. They had to feed Peter somehow, and Alice didn't know how long this nightmare would last.

Which was usually her area of expertise.

Alice released Edward's hand and they quickly parted ways after they emerged from the tree line. Alice moved to the side of the house and climbed in through a window to prevent peppering the main level with dirty, bare footprints.

Jasper, Emmett, and Peter would be home in less than two minutes. Until then, Alice would shower quickly, change her clothes, and enact the plan that Edward had worked out, thanks to Rosalie's ideas.

She rinsed the dirt and mud off of her body and focused on two people first:

The man beneath Maria is dirty, barefoot, dead, and wears nothing more than tattered jeans and an unbuttoned shirt; homeless by the looks of it. She drains him quickly, efficiently. The underpass she stands beneath is brighter than is typical for her usual travels. The graffiti on the concrete behind her is very much in English. She's strangely alone but the relaxed, unbothered curve of her shoulders proves to Alice that her army is not far.

Alice blinked back to her surroundings as she worked shampoo through her short hair. The information that Maria was almost certainly farther north than expected was something she'd share with everyone when she got downstairs.

Aro's future was less interesting. His involvement in the archiving of the Volturi's newest finds had bored her to tears when she'd first begun to watch him shuffle through documents and books and ancient millstones and carved depictions of violence and sex, several weeks ago, and even now she could find nothing interesting or out of the ordinary.

She spared a cursory glance toward the main members of the Volturi guard, shuffling down the list of them until she found something interesting.

Alice only looked at a few (Renata, Chelsea, Afton—) before she stopped, paused, replayed a vision, and then sought out a new one. Something was off. She poked around further before she realized what was different. Corin wasn't with the wives.

Alice looked harder and then found her in a place she couldn't recognize. Judging by the walls and the trim and the art that decorated each elaborate wall Alice was certain that it was somewhere in Volterra but—

But perhaps she should not be so confident in that certainty.

Charlotte's screams were still loud in Alice's brain and she flinched away at the sound her memory provided. Perfect recall was a bitch.

Alice cut the water and reached for a towel as she heard the sound of feet bounding across the yard. Edward was right. It would only benefit everyone to have at least the smallest portion of information her visions had to offer. If she saw anything confusing, she would have them to rely on.

After tonight's grave failure, Alice hoped she could rely on them more than they would rely on her. As a group, they would figure out who was doing this, they would come up with a plan, and they would be able to neutralize the threat to their safety in any way possible.

Alice had failed at protecting Charlotte. She would not fail anyone else.