Author's Note:

I am so sorry it has been so long. Life stuff happened then I just got some serious writer's block, but I never stopped thinking about this story. Thank you to all of you that kept reading and sending me nice messages. You are the best.

A quick thanks to my husband for editing this and constantly encouraging me.

I don't own Twilight.

Chapter 17: This is why we can't have nice things

The gravel crunched under my feet and cold air bit my cheeks as I jumped out of the van. We had been driving for hours, it felt good to stretch my legs and I felt giddy with anticipation. I looked over at Edward's beaming smile, which he quickly schooled into a focused glare. I followed his gaze toward the rows of steel containers lining the shipping yard.

We had been planning for this night for the past four weeks. It had started with a minor mention on the local news, a night guard had been killed at a shipping depot near Seattle. A single murder would have barely caught our notice, but shipping yard crimes are usually connected to drug shipments, human trafficking, or some other type of illegal trade. Two nights later it happened again in Juneau. We knew that we were on the tail of organized criminals, and bad ones by the look of things.

After a few weeks, Alice was in tune to their movements. Our targets would hit the shipyards when Schumacher Cargo containers arrived. Alice saw the violence that would occur tonight. We would get in, incapacitate the criminals, and get out before the authorities arrived. It would be easy, fun even. Emmett appeared to be vibrating with joy as we jogged toward the container yard.

I bounced on my toes, and a jolt went through me as I spotted them. A group of eight men gathered in a tight circle, all looking at the ground. The sound of the shot reverberated off the shipping containers, my blood ran cold. We were too late to save the security guard, I spotted a nightstick on the ground next to his body. Charlie loves his nightstick.

Bones cracked as I slammed my fist into the back of one guy's skull. He bounced off the side of a shipping container with a meaty thud.

"Fuck, Bella!" Rose called from behind me.

I winced, that might have been an overreaction. I hoped I hadn't just killed a man. I turned and looked back at Edward; he gave a little half shrug.

"We'll call an ambulance…he'll be fine?" He said it like a question.

I didn't have time to think about it as shots rang out around me. I felt several stinging slugs hit my chest, and turned to glare at the other seven men pointing guns at me. My lips pulled into a smirk.

"I'm pretty sure that guy just crapped his pants," Edward whispered in a voice too quiet for human ears.

Alice laughed and took off in a run around the back of several men, gently touching their shoulders and moving their elbows. I wasn't sure what she was doing until the shots rang out and the men moving to flank me on either side fell, blood spraying from their knees. Five left.

Emmett sprang forward and struck a man to my right just as he raised his gun. The force of the blow caused him to stumble backwards and fire random shots into the air. A ringing sound cut through the night air as bullets ricocheted off shipping containers and struck the four remaining men through the shoulders, knees or ankles. I did a mental fist pump but heard a collective groan from the Cullens.

"Fuck dude!" Jasper yelled at Emmett and the pieces clicked into place…Emmett's gift.

Emmett gave the group a guilty smirk, "It wasn't much, it might not even hit one of you."

As if on cue, we all turned to the sound of groaning metal. It seems that the rain of the last few days had softened the soil under the outrigger of a crane. The boom swung into a stack of shipping containers knocking them into one another. I watched in horror as one by one, stacks of shipping containers struck each other, falling like a line of dominoes. I turned and ran, grabbing the arms of two of the downed men. I wanted to stop them, not crush them into a bloody pulp.

I glanced back as I ran to see Edward stoop to do the same except the mud gave way under his toe and he splayed forward onto the ground.

A shadow crossed over his face as the falling shipping container passed in front of the light over Edward's head.

One singular word passed through my mind, "Mine", and the world blurred and went fuzzy at the edges.

He was in my arms, cold and hard and we rolled, flashes of orange painted metal and gravel all I could make out until I saw the yellow glare of the light overhead, glimmering off the mist like a halo.

I laid there for a moment, the cold gravel digging into my back, assuring me that I was alive. We would have probably survived, I wasn't sure. I had never tested my ability to withstand the crushing force of several hundred shipping containers. I turned my head to find Edward's eyes boring deeply into mine, his breath ragged from exertion.

This is not the right moment to be turned on.

He quirked a grin like he had read my mind and I started laughing.

He looked past me and his face went grim, "I don't think that guy made it."

I glanced over my shoulder and saw just an arm remained free of the debris. "That was Emmett's fault."

He nodded somberly, but honestly; I wasn't too phased. These guys had killed several innocent guards in the last few weeks, and who knew how many before. It wasn't like we killed him on purpose anyway.

Edward seemed to think the same, since he just shrugged and stood up, offering me a hand.

"Well, that could have gone better, but at least we got the job done," Alice said, sitting cross legged on top of the pile of debris, a fairy of chaos.

Rose walked up to Emmett and slapped him on the back of the head and he laughed. "I want to use it sometimes; it wasn't too bad."

That earned him a glare from Edward, but we all dissolved into the giggles that typically follow an adrenaline high.

I leaned into Edward's side, "How are we going to cover our…,"

Alice froze and Edward tensed beside me.

"Run!" he said, pushing me forward and causing me to stumble. Gravel crunched behind me and I turned to a diminutive girl approaching. She was barefoot, face turned down. She was wearing tattered jean shorts and a t-shirt that had been ripped across the front, like she had been enjoying a day in the sun three weeks ago, but had been living in the forest ever since, twigs sticking out of her matted blond hair. I stepped towards her, intent on offering this poor girl my help, when she tilted her chin up and I saw them. Blood red eyes.

Ice water ran through my veins.

What is that thing?

"Run!" Edward yelled again as he surged towards the red eyed woman.

Fuck that!

I followed in step behind him, ready to take on this new threat. I wasn't sure what had him so spooked, but it was just one creepy red eyed girl against six superpowered aliens.

Emmett was closer to her than the rest of us, he put his hands up and approached her like a spooked animal.

"Listen, I'm not sure what you are doing out here all by yourself, but we can help you…" she reached up and grabbed his outstretched arm and he screamed in pain, falling on the ground and shaking. He looked up from the mud, clutching his arm to his chest. She moved faster than us, grabbing Rose from behind, and leaving her screaming and writhing in the mud alongside her mate.

"Bella, go!" Edward yelled.

"It's an agent! I'm not leaving you!"

At the word agent, her head turned and she looked at me with menace. We had to get far away from here, all of us. I ran forward and punched her squarely in the jaw, apparently her power was similar to Jane's because my shield was effective. She stumbled back, her eyebrows pulling together.

"Everyone at once, this isn't some stupid kung fu movie," Alice yelled, and everyone surged forward.

The red eyed girl put her arms over her head in a protective position and I winced as bright blue light burned my eyes and left spots in my vision. Around me the Cullens fell, blown back by the force of energy she had released.

I ran to Edward, his bronze hair pasted to his face from mist and mud, his delicate lavender eyelids fluttering for a second before opening.

Her scream pierced through the night air, causing the hairs on my arms to stand up. I turned to the red eyed girl, still covering her head with her arms, but now she was glowing. She looked ethereal, a star being born in the middle of this muddy, destroyed shipyard. Despite the danger, I could not look away. Her face was drawn in a scream of ecstasy. She stood, stretching out like a cat, arching her back and lifting her hands towards the heavens, each fingertip glowing brighter than the rest of her body. I stood in awe, watching her ascent into the divine.

Then, her fingers caught on fire.

I knew that we could burn out if we took in too much power, if we didn't direct it outside of ourselves, but I had never seen it happen. I couldn't understand it, hadn't she just spent her energy with that blast of power?

I looked at the others, they had all regained their feet and wore the same expressions of awe and horror that I felt. We stood in a circle, like priests around a pyre, watching helplessly as she burned.

AN: Please review! It really helps.