CHAPTER 17 - THE WORLD

"This attainment is the merging of the self-conscious with the subconscious, and the blending of these two with the superconscious—the final state of Cosmic Consciousness, the supreme goal to which all the other keys have led."

—Eden Gray, The Complete Guide to the Tarot

Divinatory Meaning: Completion, reward, success, triumph in all undertakings. Travel, change of residence, arrival at a state of Cosmic Consciousness. The path of liberation.

Reversed: Success yet to be won; fear of change or travel, too great an attachment to one's place of residence or job. Lack of vision.

—Joan Bunning, Learning the Tarot

—

DECEMBER 5TH 2039

4:55PM MST

LYONS, COLORADO

They were silent as they stayed on the lower slopes of the mountains. It was hard to avoid taking the trails they were so used to—they didn't want to travel too closely to any major roads. Loveland wasn't a large city. Neither was Boulder, or any of the cities in the area; and none of them provided the adequate cover they needed. But the knowledge that a newborn army could be hiding out nearby meant strong odds that a string of murders were plaguing the area.

Emmett had searched through missing persons reports and homicide investigations from the surrounding towns, trying to see if a connection could already be made. Nothing out of the ordinary had stuck out. The only relief that provided was that hopefully the Volturi would not become aware of the fact that there was potential newborn activity in yet another area where the Cullens were currently residing. Besides that, the findings did little to soothe them.

Alice's head swam as her visions flickered in and out of sight. They only had a few minutes before they reached city limits and before they would be forced to slow down and start seeking out scent trails. She sorely hoped that the area she was seeing in her visions was farther west and farther north than the town itself.

The reminder of the other people that could, and would, get hurt—humans and vampires alike—made a stone sink heavy into her stomach. Alice felt a little selfish as she hoped that there would be some sort of easily accessible, and incognito, human areas nearby to where they would find Peter. If he ended up injured (beyond the hand that they still possessed) it would really help to be able to feed him as quickly as possible.

She ignored the pointed look Edward shot her from where he was running at the point of their party, right beside Jasper. There was no chance of her apologizing for that. With that thought, Edward proceeded to ignore her, facing forward once more as he and Jasper tried to track these vampires down. Edward knew what feeding Peter entailed. He knew better than to think twice about that now, or even later.

If it were a choice between ten, twenty, or hell, even two thousand humans or someone she cared about, Alice knew what she would choose. It was hard to focus on anything but death as they ran toward where they knew Peter was.

Thankfully, Alice could still see him. He was left with three newborns, their dirt-smeared faces still and solemn as they stood and watched the forest around them. Peter was still hooded, on the ground in the dirt but he was silent now, no longer screaming or growling or arguing with his captors. There had been a few gaps in her visions in the last half hour, and a curious couple of moments when there had been another vampire or two that had departed soon after—meaning that there were more than just the three lingering around, she'd informed her family—but one thing had remained certain:

Peter had a future.

Charlotte did not.

For a moment Alice wasn't able to dwell on those thoughts at all. Her entire focus suddenly was on the forest around her, the area in front of them, the path they were traveling, their destination, and the mission at hand. A few more quick visions flickered through and Alice spoke loudly, but not too loud, "left in fifty yards" and her confidence ignited in a way that she hadn't felt at all since they'd received the terrible little box.

That was the moment she realized this was all Jasper's doing.

It was rare that he did this. It took a massive amount of his effort to force a group this large to focus as one unit. Alice still didn't quite understand how he was able to do it; how he was able to know exactly which levels of which emotions to choose and cycle between and raise and lower in order to turn a group of emotionally compromised individuals into a well-trained team.

Even Edward had always struggled to explain it in a way that a normal, non-mind reader could understand. At one point in Jasper's life, he had done this with regularity, and for more than twice the amount of people. It was always a sobering thought.

Another vision flickered through her: of Edward exclaiming he'd found something. Before he even spoke the words or stumbled across the trail, he called out a different set of words. "This way, we'll get a trail soon." Jasper sped up and when Edward kept up pace with him, Alice found herself thankful for it.

Emmett was at the rear of their group, close behind Esme and Ness, who were flanked on either side by Rosalie and Bella. Alice had been situated in the dead center of the group. In the back of her mind she imagined giving her husband a scolding even though she never would.

Alice was sure Jasper had seventeen pre-planned reasons as to why, logistically, having Alice in the center made sense for their strategy. She knew Jasper better than that, though. A part of her wished she could've soothed herself more with that daydream. With the imaginings of a simple, loving spat that was both silly and sweet and wholly unnecessary.

Unfortunately the thought was swept from her mind when whatever focus Jasper was driving into them intensified. It was strange. It wasn't possible for their senses to become heightened, but for a moment the forest was clearer, the sounds around them were sharper and even the smells of the forest were more crisp.

That was the thought in her mind when, all at once, they barreled into a foreign scent. Unmistakably vampiric. Seconds later, another scent along the same trail. They shifted their group again and charged forward, ready to fight.

The bag containing the hands of their dear friends felt heavy in her grip; Jasper had entrusted it to her soon after departing. She tightened her hold and her resolve hardened. They'd get to Peter soon and figure out what to do next, after.

Her visions became clearer the further they ran, all of them moving in sync and quieter than Alice would have thought possible, all things considered. It was almost time. A vision abruptly fell over Alice then, and she felt her stomach drop.

It came to her in flickers at first, barely glimpses of images, but then she was watching something she thought she'd never see again.

「 "—promised you all the blood in the world, it isn't worth being ammo. Please, I know what it's like. I know! You're canon fodder for a war you never signed up for. It's not all like this. The world isn't like this! There's more that you—"」

Charlotte was pleading with her captors.

Charlotte was alive. Alice was wrong.

Wrong wrong wrong—

There were hands on her shoulders and her feet were stumbling to a stop and it wasn't until Edward lifted a hand and patted her cheek a few times, calling her name, that Alice realized she'd been saying the word out loud, over and over again.

Wrong wrong wrong.

"I was wrong," Alice gasped. She allowed Edward to pull her upright—the snow had turned to rain after they'd departed and her feet had slid forward in the wet, muddy slush on the forest floor—and stared back into his eyes, widened in horror. Alice desperately sought out Jasper's gaze and locked eyes with him. But before she could speak, she was too sickened to explain. It was as if she'd ingested cooled, rancid blood from a long-dead animal, and there was a change she'd be seeing it again. She'd been wrong. Charlotte was alive.

"No…" Edward spoke, his own terror mirrored back at her.

The news that Charlotte was alive was not comforting information when the very next vision she received was of Charlotte's smoldering ashes.

Is it even worth it to tell them? Alice asked. She was panicking. She was absolutely panicking with the proof right in her head that she'd been wrong and Charlotte had been alive the entire time. She'd been trying to let Jasper down easy with the information that their friend wasn't coming back from this. Is it even worth it to say anything if we still can't save her?

"Charlotte is alive," Edward spoke firmly, answering both Alice's question and her family's question in one blow. Betrayal and relief were at war within herself. She did not want them to know but she knew she would not have been able to say the words herself. Edward was right, they deserved to know. But she hated that the information proved her grossly fallible. That it would tempt them with hope.

Charlotte's death was inescapable.

"How?" Jasper snapped, and Alice didn't even flinch back from his anger, still too stunned and horrified and ashamed and confused to react appropriately.

The entire forest was a flutter of voices for several long seconds. Only Ness, Bella, and Emmett did not speak. Esme was relieved and Rosalie was already proposing an alternative plan. Carlisle was trying to force everyone to take a minute to regroup so calm conversation could happen. Jasper just grabbed her upper arms firmly and repeated himself, "Alice, how?"

She couldn't speak. It wasn't for a lack of words in her mind but because she didn't have an answer. She didn't know how. There was no way to sit down and think back and trace back to the point where she'd fucked up so badly they were going to lose one of the people they loved.

Jasper could feel her horror. He could feel every single thing she was feeling right now. Even still, he gripped her arms harder. He stared at her like he wasn't sure what he was looking for. He shook her once, quickly, trying to will her brain back into motion, begging for a reply.

"Alice." This time, she did flinch and the demand.

"We can't reroute now," Edward spoke, pushing Alice's own thoughts out into the air. Both Alice and Edward already knew that it was the only way forward. They had to keep moving and grab Peter rather than abandon him in a vain attempt to save Charlotte. Because if they did that then Peter and Charlotte would both end up dead, and Alice truly, with every inch of her heart and soul, could not allow that to happen.

Alice said the only two words she could get her mouth to form. It was the worst possible thing she could have said. There was no stopping it. "I'm sorry."

They fell back into formation again, clumsily this time. Jasper's concentration had blown and now it was as if he wasn't even trying to keep them focused anymore. Alice could feel his anger trailing behind him like a stream, and she was right in its path.

"I'm sorry," she spoke as they moved, and Carlisle's firm hand found its way to her back as he continued pushing her along, not allowing her to fall behind. "I'm sorry." It took every ounce of restraint she had not to fling herself into Carlisle's arms and scream. Her sudden fury was directed entirely at herself and all she could do was say, through gritted teeth, "I'm sorry," as if trying to make her family believe her.

She couldn't stop the words as they moved, and knew that it wasn't helping anyone.

The sound of Peter screams greeted them, minutes later, as they approached the patch of woods where he was being held. He could hear their approach and did not know that it was help. Alice could see now, the explanation he would give to them later. He was not sure where he was. He thought the worst had happened and he and Charlotte had been somehow dragged back into the wars, now to be used as bait in some fight they wanted no part in. Until it had begun to snow, he had believed that they were in the Sierra Madre Oriental and that Mexico would claim their ashes after all.

Peter would blame their capture on traveling too far south in New Mexico. He would say that they'd gotten comfortable wandering close the border. He would insist that the peace of the north had softened him and he would blame himself for the death of the most important person in the world to him. Charlotte would be ripped apart by the hands of people he had never met and Peter would still blame himself.

Alice saw all of this as they finally reached Peter. It was hardly a fight. It only took Jasper and Edward, working in tandem, two seconds to kill the three newborns that were with Peter. None of them fought back.

Edward yanked the bag out of Alice's hands and ran toward where Jasper was helping Peter onto his feet. He had asked her for it but she'd been too stunned, staring at the radio in front of them, propped up on a two-way receiver, on and listening, to respond.

The vision flew through her mind. "Turn that off," she spoke before she even knew what she was saying. She tried moving forward but stumbled when her visions stole her attention; someone steadied her by the elbow. There was no hope. This was the beginning of Charlotte's end and Alice was stuck frozen, knowing what would happen within the next fifty-one seconds.

Jasper had pulled Peter's hand out of the bag, and Peter screamed when he got a glimpse of Charlotte's, still inside. "NO!" He shoved Jasper away with the one hand he possessed and pulled his elbow out of Carlisle's loose grip. "No, no you should have gone to her first!" His voice cracked as his black eyes moved wildly, looking back at all of them. "We need to find her—we're wasting time—"

"Turn it off, now," Alice snapped, still frozen as she blinked toward the radio across the small clearing. Esme's hold on her arm tightened when Alice tried to step forward again. In the next second, Rosalie took up the initiative and picked up the small receiver, but when she had the radio in her hands, a voice rang out and she dropped it like it was on fire.

Charlotte could hear them. Charlotte was screaming.

"Peter? Alice? Are you there?" Her voice was frantic and the entire forest was silent except for her hysterical cries. "Are—no—NO—let me go—"

"Turn it off NOW!" Alice screamed. Edward moved at top speed and ripped out all the visible wires as he reached the transmitter.

It still wasn't fast enough to drown out the sound of Charlotte screaming.

In the chaos of the forest Alice was still forced to watch, in her mind, every second of Charlotte's murder.

「They pull Charlotte's arms back further, dislocating them with swiftness before they shove her hooded face into the dirt. Charlotte's final scream breaks off on a choked gasp. There is a boot against her back and the man who holds her wrists twists them this way and that, and then one at a time he yanks. He takes his time, casually tossing each arm in front of them, and sits Charlotte up properly, with a hand around the back of her neck. She flops backward against the man's legs and he swiftly rips the hood off of her head; the fabric tears away easily.

Her head flops back and then forth again, as if she can no longer control her own body. Her expression is overcome with an agonizing shock as blinding pain overtakes her senses. She lets out another choking gag when her eyes catch sight of her detached arms, and any further words are lost on her tongue as her unintelligible groan morphs into a growl, deep in her chest. A hand tangles itself into her blonde hair and lifts slightly, displaying her bare, unmarked neck. Her death rattle is punctuated by a quick twist.」

Her head was gone.

Then, her future was gone.

Then, Alice couldn't see any more.

Peter's screaming grounded her. He yelled at Jasper and cursed at all of them. Peter growled and wrestled the bag containing Charlotte's hand out of Carlisle's grasp. Emmett stepped forward to pull Carlisle back, and Rosalie hovered, carefully watching Peter's grief erupt. Bella was frozen behind them, her face overcome with horror as she looked between Peter and the destroyed radio.

Alice watched them, detached from the reality they were all experiencing, still reeling from the one she'd just experienced.

"Alice?" Edward was at her other side, but Alice ignored him and Esme both.

Charlotte was dead. It was all Alice's fault. Hopefully she could explain it to Peter and he would only blame her, and not Jasper or anyone else.

Alice had made many mistakes in her past. But this one, she knew, was unforgivable.

I'm sorry, the words remained a mantra in her mind, and she bit her tongue so hard that her mouth flooded with venom. I'm so, so sorry.

Unfortunately the only person who could hear her desperate words was Edward. And the only person who knew that her broken expression wasn't from grief or sympathy was Jasper.

The only thing Alice could feel was guilt.

A/N: Act three begins next week. Things are about to get a lot more tense. Enjoy the chaos.