Edward POV
Edward followed the vampire who'd kidnapped his beloved through the labyrinthine sewer tunnels. His senses were heightened. His movements were silent and graceful. The stench of decay assaulted his nostrils, but he ignored it. His focus was singular: retrieve Bella, whose muffled screams he could still hear, and free her from Maria's coven.
Jasper and Jacob had taken another route when the coven split up. They followed the leader, but Edward focused only on the scent of his mate, sweet even through the sewer's filth. He picked up the thoughts of two vampires, Emely and Mario. He recognized Emely from Texas and Mario from Charlie's memories. Mario was the one who brainwashed Maria's underlings. If he had dared to lay a hand on Leia...
Edward hurried. He couldn't make out Leia's thoughts, but he knew she was with them. He saw her through Emely and Mario's eyes. She'd been bitten, turning, dying. If rescuing her wasn't his priority, he would have regretted giving up his chance for vengeance to his brother. Emely's thoughts revealed it was Maria who did this to Leia.
As he got closer, Leia's cries echoed through the corridors, stabbing at Edward's heart. He heard her whimpering, pleading for mercy, mixed with the harsh splashes of water underfoot. She was his reason for being, the light in his endless night. He would do whatever it took to save her.
Edward soon faced Emely. She stood poised for battle, her eyes blazing with determination. Without hesitation, she lunged forward. Her movements were fluid and deadly. Edward met her attack head-on, moving with the precision and grace of a predator. Their clash was a blur of speed and violence in the narrow sewer.
Emely fought fiercely. Her strikes were relentless. But Edward refused to yield, focused on protecting Leia and defeating the threat. He read Emely's thoughts, predicting her moves and staying one step ahead. Even so, they were almost evenly matched until—
With a swift maneuver, Mario tripped Emely as she rushed past him, sending her crashing to the ground. Edward seized the moment and delivered the final blow. With a crack, her head separated from her body.
Edward stood over Emely's fallen form, senses heightened from the adrenaline. He turned to Mario, who clutched Leia in his arms. Relief and apprehension filled him. Leia was within reach, but Mario's intentions were unclear.
Mario's eyes darted nervously between Edward and the dismembered Emely at his feet. Fear was evident in his gaze. His resolve wavered under Edward's scrutiny.
"Edward," Mario began, his voice trembling. "I... I don't want to fight you or the coven. I worked against Maria, trying to escape. You can read that in my mind, can't you? Just let me go. I'll give you the girl, and you'll never see me again."
Edward's jaw clenched in anger at Mario's nerve, trying to negotiate with Leia's life. But he knew he couldn't let his emotions cloud his judgment. Leia's safety was paramount. She was in the middle of turning, still vulnerable. One move from Mario and he could snap her neck.
Edward read the truth in Mario's words. Mario knew about Edward's gift and was pushing thoughts forward. Memories of manipulating Maria and her coven to seem loyal, while sowing discord. He'd been caught and punished several times, with failed escape attempts erased from minds.
Mario's talent was powerful, but his ambition was survival.
"If you dared use your gift on Leia..." Edward snarled.
"I haven't! I swear! She still remembers you, still hates Maria. I've done nothing to her—well, almost nothing."
Edward snarled in rage. Mario tightened his grip on Leia's neck, stopping Edward from lunging.
"Nothing much," Mario stressed. "Just made sure she wouldn't hold a grudge against me. Let me go, and you won't notice a difference."
"I'll be the judge of that," Edward said coldly. "You're not getting off easily, Mario. You're coming with me."
Mario's eyes widened in panic. "But... I can't! Maria will come after me, she'll—"
Edward cut him off with a sharp gesture. "You should be more concerned about what I'll do if you don't cooperate. Undo the brainwashing you've inflicted on Leia, her father, and the Quileute she-wolf. Help us erase the memory of vampires from Forks. Then, after I've confirmed you've done exactly as told, will I consider letting you go."
Mario hesitated, fear warring with self-preservation. Ultimately, Edward's wrath outweighed his already lacking loyalty to Maria.
"Alright," he whispered. "I'll do it."
Edward nodded with grim satisfaction, watching Mario carefully. Mario slowly lowered Leia to the ground and stepped back. Edward was at her side in a flash, removing the gag and cradling her.
"It hurts... It hurts, make it stop, MAKE IT STOP!" Leia begged, thrashing around.
"You can't take her to the surface like that," Mario warned nervously, inching away.
"Shut up and don't move!" Edward threatened. He hushed Leia, reassuring her that everything would be alright.
Then he glared at Emely's remains. "Burn her."
"What?" Mario exclaimed. "But—"
"If you're ready to betray Maria, prove it. My backup will be here any moment. If you run, you'll end up like your friend."
Mario cursed quietly but began gathering Emely's remains.
For the first time in hours, Edward started to relax. He could hear Jacob and Jasper approaching, their thoughts triumphant.
The war was finally over.
XxX
Leia POV
Leia woke up with a start.
Her world of pain faded to a single point, gripping her heart. Silence followed. Silence, darkness and the absence of gravity. She thought she felt a warm touch on her cheek. The image of a woman flashed before her eyes, a tear-stained face and a soft smile. Then, a violent tremble went through her entire body. Her senses returned to her and she opened her eyes with a gasp to an unfamiliar metal ceiling.
"Leia! Leia!" someone shouted next to her. Two hands were grabbing her left arm as if it was a life line.
Leia tried to move instinctively but found herself restrained. She panicked, remembering her capture, the sense of pure terror when she realized what kind of fate was waiting for her. Her thoughts flitted to her most recent memories - Edward, Charlie's rescue, the attack - did she forget anything? Did any of her views or morals get warped? Vampire vegetarianism, she was still all for that, Cullens good, Maria bad, wolves and Denalis are allies - that was still true, wasn't it?
"Leia? Can you hear me?" the voice asked again.
Leia flinched. That voice did not belong to Edward. She turned her head slowly and... stared. The person sitting at her side was not unfamiliar, though she'd never met him. No, meeting him should've been impossible. This... This was Luke Skywalker. She recognized him from the movies. But that couldn't be true. Leia wasn't...
A horrible realization started to dawn on her. Reflexively she wanted to raise her hands to check whether they were pale and flawless. The restrains stopped her. Of course that answered that question in its own way. If she were a vampire, no steel restrains would be able to hold her. If she were a vampire, her throat would be on fire instead of simply being parched. If she were a vampire, she would be seeing ultraviolet in the light and be able to see every imperfection and detail in the ceiling. Leia was still human. Leia was... She was back in her home galaxy.
Millions of light years and a possible dimensional crossing away from her new family, from the people who needed her, from Edward.
"What... What happened?" she asked, her voice hoarse from screaming. "Why am I being restrained?"
"Oh... I'm sorry for that. You were thrashing around so much we were worried you'd hurt yourself", Luke said even as he started unlocking the restraints. "You started screaming out of nowhere, as if you were in pain. Nobody could find anything wrong with you though. You're on the Blue Shadow now, the ship Obi-Wan and I use to travel around. We have a small medi-droid here... It kept you sedated most of the time. You were only woken up to feed you and stuff but every time you started screaming again... I was so afraid we'd loose you. We did loose you, for a moment. Your heart stopped beating but the droid resuscitated you. Are you... Are you still in pain?" Luke asked anxiously.
"No", Leia made slowly and struggled to sit up. Her whole body ached. "But... I don't understand. Wasn't I captured by Vader? How did I get here?" If she had switched places with Bella, if Bella had felt her pain (and wasn't that a giant mess she'd have to apologize profusely for) then shouldn't she still be Darth Vader's captive? Last time she'd talked to her sister, she'd still been working on that hare-brained idea of hers to turn Vader to the light side.
"You don't remember? We met in that cave where we went looking for kyber crystals. Vader was there when you collapsed too", Luke said. "He... He seemed really worried about you. He said you wouldn't be safe with him, that the Emperor was doing something to hurt you and he wanted to stop it. Then he told us to take you somewhere safe and left."
Vader... had left her with Luke?
"That doesn't make any sense", Leia replied with a scowl. "The Emperor had nothing to do with it. And Vader would kill me before he let me escape with a Jedi. How... How long was I out?"
"Three days", Luke replied, looking at her with great worry, a worry that looked so weird on the face of a stranger.
"Leia, do you... Do you know what made you collapse like that?" Luke answered quietly.
Leia stared at him blankly. She wondered how much she could tell him, tried to wrack her brain to remember how much Bella had said she'd told him. As far as she was aware, Bella had never told anyone that she'd switched places. Vader had spotted Leia once while she'd been ghosting but Bella had said she'd managed to explain that one away by claiming Leia as an untrained random Force-sensitive with a similar talent for ghosting that she'd kept as an imaginary friend growing up or something of that sort.
One thing was for sure, Leia had to switch back as soon as possible. She didn't even dare wonder what Edward would think or do when Bella opened her eyes in Leia's body. Well, technically Bella would be back in her own body but Edward had never met her. She hoped Bella would be able to clear up the incident. She didn't want to think about what would happen if the Cullens thought her 180° turn of personality was the result of Maria's brainwashing.
"I... have a suspicion about what happened. If I'm right it won't happen again", she replied vaguely. "I... I need to sleep. No, I need to drink and eat something but then I need to sleep. I need... rest", she said slowly.
"Of course. I'll get you something right away", Luke said relived. "I... I'm so glad to have you back."
Leia nodded uncomfortably and watched Luke scurry away.
Luke. Her... twin brother. Leia groaned and held a hand to her throbbing forehead. Could her life get anymore weird?
Leia stood on wobbly knees from the medical bed and awkwardly stumbled out into a corridor and a small communal area. There, she found an old man wearing brown Jedi robes. He too was familiar, though she'd only ever seen his face on screen.
Obi-Wan Kenobi lifted a cup of tea to his lips and motioned for her to join him.
"You shouldn't be walking around yet, Princess. Please, take it easy", he said.
Leia let herself fall into the seat opposite of him and almost burned her lips in her eagerness to swallow the tea the Jedi offered her.
"Do you remember what happened?" Kenobi asked.
"Yes... I died", Leia said hollowly, staring into her empty cup.
"You had to be resuscitated", Kenobi agreed. "But you look fine now."
"You don't understand", Leia mumbled. "I died. I've been to the other side, even. Then I was brought back... But a part of me is still dead. I left something behind. Something precious." She clutched the empty cub tightly. "I need to get it back."
Leia had decided that she wanted to become a vampire. She had wanted to wait for a while longer and she'd wanted her turning to be a transition into a loving family. She'd never wanted to have her life ripped away that violently by an enemy. But it was no matter. If Bella was in Leia's... in her body... in the Forks body now, that meant they couldn't brainwash her, right? Of course... it was equally possible that, realizing that, Maria would just kill her. If Bella and her Forks body were dead... There would be no way for Leia to return. There would be no way for her to see Edward ever again.
Kenobi regarded her carefully, watching her every tremble.
"Did Vader hurt you?" he asked at last.
Leia gave a hollow laugh. The pain of imagining her life without Edward had pushed any thoughts of the threats of her home galaxy to the far end of her priority list. "Vader isn't the only monster out there, Master Kenobi. I've seen the face of evil and it laughed at me!"
"It must've been a harrowing experience", Kenobi said quietly.
Leia just shook her head. She was not in the mood to explain herself to the Jedi. She'd leave that to Bella, thank you very much.
Luke returned in that moment, putting a swiftly heated meal in front of her. Leia thanked him quietly and started to tuck in.
"Are you... feeling better?" Luke asked worried, having sat down next to Kenobi.
"I'm mostly just... tired. And confused", Leia admitted. She didn't much care for these two people that she had never met. She didn't care how they saw her or what they thought about her and she couldn't really afford to explain herself if she didn't want to mess up what Bella had build in her... new life. In Leia's body. In the... Star Wars body? Alderaan body? She'd have to think of a name.
"What are you confused about? Maybe we can help clear things up", Kenobi offered.
Leia smiled humorlessly. "You'll have your work cut out for you there. I'm confused about a lot of things."
"Such as?" Luke pried.
Leia shook her head. "You wouldn't understand."
"Why not?" Luke asked with a scowl.
He felt... left out, rejected, Leia realized. He already noticed that Leia was unlike Bella.
Somehow, this annoyed Leia. She'd never asked for a twin brother and now she had to play the part? Luke had no idea what she'd gone through. She'd just woken up from being continuously tortured for three days straight... Why couldn't she have a damn break?!
"Because you haven't seen the things I've seen", she hissed. "You wouldn't understand because you're not crazy. I'm very well aware of how what I've experienced would sound like to someone not in my shoes", she stressed. "Be glad for that, Luke. You get to be normal. Well. As normal as a Jedi on the run can be. You get to be sure about who you are and what your goals are, you get to be... get to be sure whether you're alive or dead or dreaming or insane."
"You're not insane", Luke said convinced, as if the very notion was ridiculous.
"How would you know?" Leia returned sharply. "You don't know me."
"Of course I do, you're my sister", Luke insisted.
Leia slammed her cup of tea back on the table.
"I'm not...!" she started but caught herself at the last second. Leia closed her eyes, counted to five and started again. "You don't understand, Luke. I... There's something wrong with my head. I don't remember you. I know of you, I recognize your face and know facts about you. But I don't remember ever meeting you. I don't remember a single conversation we've had. There are... things... missing. Large chunks of my life, months of it. So don't... talk as if you know me. I'm not the same person."
Luke's face visibly fell and Kenobi too looked worried. Leia averted her eyes and took another sip of her tea. It was better this way. She couldn't pretend to be Bella. She wasn't Bella. It was better to claim some memory loss, blame it all on Vader and the mysterious pain-event. When she switched back with Bella, her sister could claim a mysterious Force-cure and everything would be back to normal.
"Leia, I... don't know what happened to you", Luke said slowly. "Truthfully... when I didn't hear anything from you for so long, I did get worried. That maybe Vader had done something to you, hurt you, tortured you, manipulated you with the Force or something. That when I next met you, he'd have turned you against me. But nothing like that happened. You're still here, you're talking to me normally, you haven't attacked me or tried to run away or anything like that. You're letting me help you. So... you only have to trust me a little bit more."
Leia met his eyes but it was hard for her to feel hope when she had no idea how to get back to her galaxy. Bella had honed her ability to 'ghost', to reach other Jedi via the Force. Leia had only ever met Bella, no one else. In the beginning their meetings had only occurred in their dreams and they had coincided with a moment where both girls felt an equal need to see the other. Bella had later managed to contact Leia through meditation and even forcefully pulled her in when she was being attacked. Leia had never really figured out how to force a meeting though, not beyond wishing really hard before going to bed.
Meeting in their dreams was no longer an option though. Not when Bella now possessed a vampiric body that didn't need sleep.
If Leia couldn't figure out how to contact Bella, if Bella was dead or brainwashed or held captive or anything else that prevented her from contacting Leia... She might be stuck in this galaxy for a while.
"I don't know where to start", she said in a small voice.
"How about you start with what you are sure about?" Kenobi offered. "Tell me five true things about yourself."
Well, she could do that.
Leia opened her mouth - and hesitated.
'I am Princess Leia Organa'.
But was she? Princess Organa was a name her adopted parents had given her. But Leia had abandoned her planet, her people, her parents, had allowed another girl to take her place. Did she have any right anymore to call herself by that name? Even just her first name, Leia, that she still used for herself and that Edward called her by, it didn't mean the same thing to her as it did to the two Jedi in front of her.
'I am twenty years old.'
Her body was, biologically and chronologically, twenty. But Leia had never had her 20th birthday. She had been eighteen when she'd been bitten by Maria in the Forks body. Her brain had never truly matured to adulthood. She didn't feel any more mature now than she did when she'd been Bella.
'The Empire is evil and the Rebellion fights for a just cause.'
Leia had believed that truth wholeheartedly once. She wanted it to be still true. But then she had to think back to Forks and planet Earth. Bella had likened the rule of the Volturi to the rule of the Sith. But Earth was split into many different countries, some entirely untouched by vampirism. Almost nobody knew about the evil lurking in their midst and there were many big and small issues that had nothing to do with the supernatural. Could she call people like Vader evil not knowing how Bella had changed him? Could she call the Emperor evil based on what she'd seen in movies and what had been taught to her by her parents without ever having met him?
"The... The empire is a bad system... and there are too many people suffering under it", she settled on.
"That is true", Kenobi said, "But it's not really a fact about yourself."
"It's a view I have", Leia disagreed.
"Is it a view that is important to you? A view that defines you?"
Leia stared at him. Was it? Did it matter to her that the Empire was bad? For almost a year now she'd been more concerned with 'human drinking vampires bad' than 'Empire bad'. She realized that the Rebellion's fight wasn't... It wasn't her fight anymore. She had moved on from it. She had other battles to fight now.
"Tell us something else that's true", Luke encouraged her with a smile.
She looked at him.
'You're my brother'.
Except he wasn't. Biologically, sure, right in this moment. But Leia no longer felt at home in this galaxy. Her home was Forks now. She wanted to go back to Bella's body. This was the first time she'd met Luke and though he called her sister, he saw a different girl when he looked at her.
"This... shouldn't be so hard", she said quietly.
"It's not that hard", Luke tried to help her. "You're Leia Organa, adopted daughter of Queen Breha and Bail Organa of Alderaan. You're my twin sister. You've worked with the Rebellion against the Empire since you were little. You spend some time in Vader's captivity trying to save your parents but you're free now. If you don't remember parts of it... that's okay. I will help you remember. Or we'll just make new memories. It's easy."
"It's really, really not though", Leia stressed. "That right there, that's all... that's just half-truths, Luke. I can't... explain it properly, I only know that I need to go back."
"Back to Vader?" Kenobi asked quietly.
"What? No! Believe me, I'm so glad I don't have to see that creature again." Leia shuddered at the mere thought of waking up to Darth Vader interrogating her. If she acted a bit differently from what Luke was used to, at least she had a proper excuse for that in her captivity. Vader would've noticed immediately that she wasn't the same person at all.
"Do you mean back to Alderaan?" Luke asked, looking less relieved than she would've expected at her words.
"I mean... It's hard to explain", Leia huffed. "I mean, back to... back to the Force, I suppose. While I was out... I traveled through this... place... I saw things... And I lost something. On that journey. I need to go back to get it. Right now I'm not... here... completely. Half of me is still stuck. The half that remembers you, it's not here. I don't know where it is. Possibly even still being tortured. I need to... get back to that other half of me. If she's still there." Her shoulders slumped. "If she wasn't swallowed up by darkness." She imagined Bella stuck as a vampire, held captive by a hostile coven. Could her shield withstand the brainwashing? Without her magical forever mate at her side, would she be able to withstand the lure of blood? Was she even alive anymore?
"If you... try to go back... Will that cause you pain again?" Luke asked hesitantly.
"No", she said and shook her head. "That was a one-time-thing. I'm sure of that."
Luke looked visibly relieved. "Then what do you need from us?"
"I need sleep... and to meditate. This isn't something I can do entirely on my own but with some luck... someone will throw me a rope."
"Well, plenty of rest is exactly what the droid said you'll need so I think that's an excellent idea", Kenobi said. "We'll have to make a few more stops before we can be sure to have shaken any tails so you can rest up a bit and well see how you feel in a few days."
"Thank you", Leia replied. "I'm sorry for not making any sense... But I am glad that you two rescued me. I just... have to find my bearings."
After eating her meal, Leia went to the fresher and then promptly back to bed.
After she was gone, Luke and Kenobi mulled over the Princess' odd behavior.
"She's... different", Luke said quietly.
"Different, yes. But not as bad as we feared", Kenobi replied.
"She said she's glad we rescued her." Luke scowled. "We didn't rescue her, Master. She didn't want to come with me. She wanted to stay with Vader. And he didn't try to keep her with him by force. He told us to take her with us!"
"What do you think that means?" Kenobi asked in that voice that Luke hated, the one that meant he was trying to make him understand some lesson.
"I don't know", he admitted. "I just know we can't take her to Alderaan or to her parents or to Mon Mothma like that. They wouldn't understand."
"I agree", his Master said sagely. "We have to keep an eye on her."
XxX
Bella POV
Bella didn't perceive much of her surroundings while she was in 'the world of pain'. It was a disorientating experience to say the least. She didn't notice the passage of time and she didn't notice the passage of dimensions. She only knew that one moment it was her adoptive father hovering above her and the next, it was unfamiliar, strange people. It didn't matter much to her in that moment because neither was willing to give in to her pleas to stop her pain and just let her die.
Eventually the pain stopped and as it did, so did her heart. Bella Swan died... and opened her eyes to... not quite a new world, it was a familiar enough dimension, the one she'd grown up in, but it looked fundamentally changed to her.
Bella felt as if her brain had grown to at least five times its size. She could suddenly think five different thoughts at once, feel five different things at once.
Part one of her brain realized what was happening to her. She was back in Forks, she'd switched back with Leia and Leia had been bitten by a vampire. That's why everything felt so different. This part of her worried whether Leia was fine, worried about Vader and Luke and Obi-Wan Kenobi who'd been in the middle of a fight when she'd collapsed. It worried how she'd get back, how much time had passed and panicked about whether or not it was even possible to go back.
Part two of Bella's brain was thoroughly distracted by all the new impressions. She could see the colors mixed in white light. She could see every cell and hair on her arm. She could hear an ant crawling over the floor. She took a deep breath and could smell a myriad of different scents...and mixed in with them the most delicious odor she'd ever smelled. This part of her was filled with a sense of wonder and amazement. Bella had always liked the idea of exploring new places. Suddenly, with her new eyes, even exploring her blanket was exciting.
Part three of Bella's brain noticed that she was not alone. Bella had awoken in a what appeared to be a basement or at least a windowless room. The walls were made out of white tiles and she saw plenty of white furniture around, fridges and desks and cupboards and sciency-stuff like pipets and glassware on them. It looked like a laboratory. Next to the infirmary-style bed she lied in, a teenager with red-bronze hair, dark eyes and pale skin was sitting. His description fit the one Twilight gave of Edward Cullen. However he really only bore a passing resemblance to Robert Pattinson; he was about twenty times more handsome. At the same time there was something vaguely repulsive about him. Not in a disgusting sort of way but in an unnatural way, like a model that got too many surgeries, a face plastered with too much makeup or a bad CGI effect. He just looked too perfect. Edward Cullen was sitting slumped over and miserable-looking at her side but when Bella returned from the world of pain, his head immediately snapped up and he regarded her with worry, pain and something else she couldn't identify.
Part four of Bella's brain had discovered that her mental shield, that had previously felt like a bubble she could hide behind like a magic shield, had... changed. Her outer shield no longer resembled a soap bubble, easy to be poked to spill the candy inside, or a feather she used to lightly brush over someone's presence. Now, it felt like she was wrapped up in a layer of thick ethereal walls, as if she was sitting inside of an onion. With a mental command, she poked the first layer and felt it wrap around her tightly, growing hard as wood. There was no physical wall there obstructing her but she knew instinctively that anyone sending a Force-probe at her would be thoroughly rejected. Bella poked the second layer and it wobbled in place before slowly floating outward through the third layer. As it passed Edward, the other vampire started to tremble slightly and his eyes flit around wildly.
Part five of Bella's brain didn't care about Edward or dimensional travel or new impressions. Part five was occupied entirely by the burning pain in her throat, lesser than the pain that had wracked her entire body but still horribly in the same category. She was so thirsty. Part two happily notified part five that the delicious scent she smelled came from the blood red stains on her blanket and the crumbs under her fingernails where she'd scratched at her own skin trying to escape the world of pain. She was a vampire now. She needed blood.
Part five was by far the most insistent one.
Feeling full of energy, Bella hopped off her bed, miscalculated her own strength and left two feet-shaped holes in the ground. She wriggled her toes, part two counting 314 pieces of tiles-turned-gravel underneath her bare soles. Blood. She needed to find blood, part five reminded her.
"Leia? Leia, it's me, c-calm down."
Bella turned to see Edward had gotten back on his feet and lost the dazed look. He was now holding his hands up as if in surrender, watching her every movement.
Bella opened her mouth but hesitated. Should she tell him that she wasn't Leia? She'd lived with the secret of a borrowed body for so long, lying was her first instinct. But... she was back in her home dimension. This was her body. Yet unlike Bella, Leia had told Edward all about the switch and he now expected her to be someone else...
Bella was filled with a brief sense of panic. What if Leia woke up in Bella's... well, in her own body back in Star Wars, back with Vader and started acting like a possessed person to her adoptive father? What would Vader do? Would Leia try to disguise who she was and pretend to be Bella, pretending to be Leia? Would she be able to fool Vader? A pang of pain hit Bella thinking about it. Would Vader recognize that Leia wasn't the daughter he'd bonded with over the last months? Or would the Force tell him that he finally had his real daughter at his side? Would he be relieved to be rid of the fake Bella or grow mad at Leia and hurt her, thinking her an imposter?
"Leia?" Edward asked carefully. "It's okay. You're safe now."
Bella started crying. She couldn't help it, like all the impressions around her, so too her emotions seemed to be enhanced. And still, all her thoughts returned to...
"I'm thirsty", she sobbed, gingerly rubbing her burning throat.
"That's perfectly natural", Edward reassured her. "We'll go out to hunt some animals together. I'll help you with it, okay? It's going to be fine. Everything is going to be fine."
Bella nodded miserably. All those different parts of her brain were so distracting, fighting for dominance. If she could just shut up part five, maybe she could think clearer.
Edward reached out to her, offering his hand but Bella flinched away from it. This vampire hadn't yet realized she wasn't his love, it seemed and while she definitely should clear that up, she wanted to do that with a clear head. So she walked past him on her own, miscalculated her own speed and smashed right through the steel door of the basement. In no time at all, she was outside.
Under the moonlit sky, Bella's senses were alive with a newfound intensity. As she stepped out of the house, her emotions swirled with a potent cocktail of excitement and apprehension. With a flash, Edward stood by her side. When Bella looked at him, she noticed that he was sitting in an onion too. There wasn't anything visible there, his onion only had one layer and it was a lot thinner than hers. But still, it was curious and familiar at once. Bella reached out to poke his onion with her mind. As she did so, her own onion grew a sprout. A little tendril grew out from her second layer, touching Edward's. Through the connection, Bella's second layer started to fill with sensations, as if she'd poked a hole in a water balloon that was now leaking. She felt anxiety, worry but also wonder, relief and... love. An awful, awful lot of really powerful love.
"Stop that!" she snapped and cut off the sprout as if it was a poisonous snake.
"Stop what? What's wrong?" Edward asked worriedly.
Bella wrapped her arms around herself, feeling dirty. She knew those emotions were not truly directed at her and she felt like she was betraying Leia by not blurting out the truth right away.
"I... I'm not doing anything", Edward said quietly. "I... can't read your mind, for some reason. But I'll stop trying if it somehow feels weird to you."
Bella looked back at him, looked closer, looked with more than just her eyes. She realized that Edward did in fact have more than one layer to his onion, but his outer layer was so grand, so wide, that it encompassed everything around them both. They were both sitting together in his onion. It must be his vampire power she was sensing... His mind reading range was that large.
"You can't help it", she realized. "You can't... make it smaller?"
"Make what smaller?" he asked gently.
Bella shook her head. "Forget it. Let's just... Let's just hunt."
"Alright. Let's go." Edward offered her his hand again but Bella walked past him - ran past him, once more underestimating how much power her steps now had.
The night air was thick with the scent of the forest, each aroma amplified to an almost intoxicating degree. Edward began to guide Bella through the process of honing her senses, teaching her to distinguish between the myriad scents that danced on the breeze.
"Breathe deeply, Leia," Edward instructed, his voice a soothing melody in the darkness. "Focus on the scents around you. Can you smell the earthy musk of a deer nearby?"
Bella closed her eyes, letting her senses expand outward. She inhaled deeply, the rich scent of the forest filling her nostrils. Amidst the symphony of aromas, she detected the faint trace of deer, its scent mingling with the damp earth and the tang of pine needles.
"Yes," she murmured, her voice barely above a whisper. "I can smell it."
Edward nodded in approval, his dark eyes gleaming with pride. "Good. Now, let's follow the scent. Remember, control is key. You mustn't let your thirst overwhelm you or you'll cause a great mess."
As they moved through the forest, Bella's senses were bombarded with a cacophony of smells - the metallic tang of blood, the sharp bite of adrenaline, the sweet perfume of fear. Each scent called out to her, igniting a primal hunger deep within her soul.
Struggling to maintain her composure, Bella clenched her fists, her nails unable to bite into her marble palms. The thirst burned within her, a relentless fire that threatened to consume her every thought.
"Stay focused, Leia," Edward urged, his voice a lifeline in the darkness. "You can do this. Control your instincts, and you will prevail."
With every ounce of willpower she possessed, Bella fought against the primal urge to give in to her thirst. Step by agonizing step, she followed Edward through the night, her senses attuned to the hunt.
As they neared the source of the scent, Edward motioned for Bella to crouch low to the ground, moving with stealthy grace. Bella followed his lead, her movements fluid and silent as they approached their quarry.
Through the dense foliage, Bella caught her first glimpse of the deer - a magnificent creature, its sleek form illuminated by the soft glow of the moon. Its head lifted, ears twitching at the slightest sound, but it remained unaware of the predators closing in.
With a nod from Edward, Bella sprang into action. She moved with lightning speed, her vampire instincts guiding her every movement. She closed the distance between herself and the deer in mere seconds, her senses attuned to its every heartbeat, its every breath.
In a blur of motion, Bella lunged forward, her fangs sinking deep into the deer's neck. A rush of warmth flooded her mouth as she tasted the tang of blood, her thirst finally being quenched. The deer let out a startled cry, but it was too late - Bella had already begun to drink.
As she drank, Bella felt a surge of exhilaration course through her veins. Despite its warmth, the blood was more like liquid ice, invigorating her with every swallow as it quenched the fire in her throat. She drank deeply, savoring the taste of her first hunt as a vampire.
Beside her, Edward watched carefully, his dark eyes gleaming in the darkness.
And as Bella finally released the deer, its lifeblood drained and its body limp in her arms, she felt... calmer. Sated. The sight of the bloody corpse at her feet was disgusting and she felt dirty once more. Even so, it was better an animal than a human. The blood left a stale aftertaste on her tongue but it wasn't that much worse than the rations she'd been eating while she was with the Rebellion.
Bella hunted two more deer and one boar before part five of her brain finally stopped bothering her and she got used to ignoring part two constantly gushing about the new sensations. Edward also drained a deer, his dark eyes turning gold.
"Are you feeling better now, Leia?" Edward asked her when they were done burying the bodies.
"... I'm not Leia", she admitted then, not looking at him.
Edward was silent for a few moments. Then he asked. "Then who are you?"
"I'm Bella. The real one, I mean. I... We switched back." She looked up then, apprehensively studying his expression. Edward's face looked like a mask of ice. Instinctively, following a habit she'd developed living with a cyborg, Bella poked his onion again, enabling her to read his emotions. To her great surprised, she sensed mostly... relief.
"I thought it might be something like that. You... You look like you barely recognize me. I was afraid that it was Mario's influence. But your powers are different from what we'd expected. I can't read your mind and that thing you did to me back in the basement... I have no idea what that was but Leia could never do something like that. It was like all my senses were suddenly enhanced and I believe I felt your emotions."
Bella thought back to the basement. She'd been so utterly distracted back then but her memory easily recalled what happened now that Edward had mentioned it. The second onion layer seemed to be a more powerful manifestation of Bella's Force-candy bubbles and her ability to sense emotions by brushing her presence against another Force-sensitive. Back in the basement she'd basically pushed her entire shield at Edward, not just a pre-prepared candy bubble. By doing that, had she forced him to feel... everything she felt?
"I... I read that my... my alternate future self could originally only shield her mind. But I learned some more things in the other universe", Bella said quietly. "Reading and sharing emotions is very common among Force-sensitives."
Edward nodded. "Your power seems to be similar to Jasper's. Do you feel what I feel now?"
Bella shook her head as she'd already withdrawn her sprout. "Only when I try to. It's like... Like I have a second shield above the one protecting my mind. I can shape it, extend it and make it grow these... feelers. I can also..." She formed a little pocket in her second layer, put some of her curiosity for her newfound senses inside and closed it up. It felt like a little, tightly packed box now, like a... a present. She poked it gently and it wandered over to Edward, seamlessly merging with the thin film that surrounded him. It looked so fragile, that film, ready to burst at a moment's notice and spill all of his emotions out. Bella couldn't help but think that if it were Vader, he'd probably wear an onion just as thick as her's. It was just that his was more... open, like a flower in bloom, inviting her to share whatever she wanted with him because he wanted to connect with her.
Edward shuddered as her baby-onion hit him and he rubbed his temple
"I'd nearly forgotten how overwhelming things can be as a newborn. I'm sorry. This must all be very strange to you."
"My story, the story I should've lived through, is a novel in Leia's word just like Star Wars is a movie in this world", Bella said quietly. "I've read that novel so I know about vampires, I know what it's supposed to feel like. It's... strange. The change was... painful. But at least I have an idea what's going on because Leia kept me updated." She shook her head, trying to ignore the fact that she could see every detail on the wings of a nearby moth. "The last thing she told me was that she ran into some vampires in Texas that might be after her talents. What happened?"
Edward sat down on a nearby tree trunk, every movement painfully slow, as if to not scare her. Then, he started to explain. He told her about Maria's coven, the history it had with the Cullens, Jasper specifically, and how they'd encroached on their territory. He told of the two day war in Forks, the many victims, the alliance with the Denali and the wolves. He told of Charlie's capture and rescue, of the problems stemming from the talents Maria had gathered in her coven, the brainwashing and Leia's fear of being captured and turned against the Cullens. Then he told of their last adventure, the chase after Maria, Leia's abduction and retrieval and Maria's defeat.
"Is Charlie... Is he alright?" Bella fret. "Does he know...?"
"We... I managed to convince Mario to help us undo some of the damage the army caused", Edward said quietly. "I monitored him exactly the whole time to make sure he only changed what he was supposed to. First he reversed the changes on your father he'd made to turn him against us. Then we explained what really happened. We... We had to tell him about you too. Not that you were in a galaxy far, far away of course, but that his daughter had been bitten. I'm sorry, I know you probably would've liked to have a say in it. But we had no idea you'd... switch back... And time was of the essence. We gave him a choice, to turn or to have his memory altered to erase the last couple of days to fit the official cover story we put out. He chose the latter."
"Then... What does he think happened to me?" Bella asked.
"... he thinks you're dead."
Bella froze, her stomach making painful lurches. Edward looked apologetic.
"I'm sorry. Leia was... She cared about him but she didn't really think of him as her father. That was always Bail Organa to her. She'd already chosen to join our family, though she wanted it to happen later, on her own terms. We thought it would be safest and that the general chaos in Forks right now would be ideal to cover for her death. She would have to leave with us anyway, learn the ways of the vampire..."
"No, I... I get it", Bella said, even as she brushed away a stray tear. It was bloody.
The thought of Charlie thinking her dead... her mother thinking her dead... It was so final. There was no way she could ever return to her ordinary life now. She... She had known that, chosen that even. She'd been fine living in Star Wars. But now she was back and... She didn't belong anymore. This life was no longer her own. This world was no longer her own.
Bella cared for Charlie but... The last time she'd seen him she'd been a little kid. She'd missed her mother more than her father while in Star Wars. And she'd gained a new family. It was better if Charlie could get some closure. Maybe one day Bella could develop her ghosting ability enough to literally appear to him as a ghost and say goodbye? The vampires could hardly have anything against that.
"I want to go home", Bella said quietly, overcome by a sense of longing and homesickness.
Edward flinched slightly. "Bella, that... That won't be possible. You won't have enough control yet to meet him."
"I'm not talking about Forks. I'm not talking about Charlie or..." Or our house, she wanted to say until she remembered that Leia had destroyed it. Truly, there was nothing left here for her.
"I'm talking about my galaxy."
"Oh", Edward made and even without using her onion sprouts, Bella could tell that he was very much relieved. "Well, then... can't you... switch back?"
"So eager to get rid of me?" she asked with a little sad smile.
Vampires couldn't blush but Edward looked distinctively uncomfortable. "I..."
"It's fine", she released him before he could embarrass himself. "You love her and I'm here, possessing her body. It must be weird."
"Immensely so", Edward muttered without looking at her.
"I want to go back. And I'm sure she wants to come back too. I don't know what exactly happened... When I was in danger once, I cried out for help in the Force and she just... appeared. I think something similar must've happened when she was turned. Especially if she was afraid of getting brainwashed", Bella guessed. "The danger is over now so we should switch back. I... I don't belong here anymore." A bit quieter she added: "I don't want to be here anymore."
"I understand", Edward said even though there was no way he did. "Do... Do you need anything, can I help...?"
Wow, he really was eager to get rid of her.
Bella sat down on the forest floor cross-legged. "I'll just try to reach out to her via meditation. Just... be quiet."
Edward immediately froze, quiet as a statue.
Bella closed her eyes and started to go through the steps Yoda and Qui-Gon had taught her to meditate.
First, focus on your breathing.
... well there was a problem already. Bella hadn't noticed until now but - she wasn't actually breathing. She drew some air when she spoke but her body no longer required air.
With a scowl, Bella concentrated on actually drawing air through her nose, channeling it into her belly, just focus on her body... A body that was unnaturally still. Still and cold and... dead.
It didn't help that part of Bella's brain was still analyzing all the forest sounds around her. It was so hard to concentrate.
"Bella?" she heard Edward ask.
"Be quiet", she snapped back and forced her brain, all five parts of it, to focus back on her breathing.
In, out. In, out. In... out.
How much time had passed while she hunted? Had Leia woken up already? Was Vader worried? Did he notice a difference right away? What had happened to Luke and Obi-Wan?
What was that noise? Like something rolling over the ground... it sounded like a boulder. Bella opened one eye for a tiny bit. Oh, it was a dung beetle, transporting its load. That explained the smell. Why was it so loud?
Focus, Bella. In, out. In, out. In... out.
She really hoped Vader and Luke weren't dueling. She wasn't sure if her brother would survive that experience. Not with Vader not knowing that he was his son and with him worried for Bella screaming her lungs out. There was potentially a disaster of galactic proportions waiting for her on the other side.
This wasn't working.
Bella's eyes snapped open and she huffed.
"What's wrong?" Edward asked immediately.
"I can't concentrate", she complained. "I get distracted by the smallest sound or thought!"
"That is normal for newborns", Edward said quietly. "Should I call Jasper for help? He might be able to calm you."
"I'm calm enough, there's just so much to... explore", Bella answered. "Let me try something else."
She stood and spread her legs, moving her arms into the first position of a kata she'd practiced a thousand times. Vader had taught her this, to meditate while moving. He'd told her once that as a youngling, he'd often had trouble meditating while sitting quietly, just breathing. Meditation was all about focusing the mind on a non-demanding task, something rhythmic like the beating of your own heart. However, Vader's life had always been so hectic that just sitting still, doing nothing was not at all familiar to him. It was a lot easier for him to connect through the Force when he focused on familiar movements instead, on katas or even when tinkering with some droid.
Bella no longer had a breath that came natural and her heart wasn't beating any longer. Maybe the familiar movements of the kata would help her get into the proper state of mind though.
Bella moved with focus, concentrating on completing the kata perfectly. She needed five tries until she had it down, adjusting for her body' newfound strength and speed. Another five times until the movements felt natural. There was no muscle memory here to help her out and it showed. At last though the motions felt easy enough for her to use them as a sort of background noise while she tried to expand her mind.
Every living being was connected through the Force. The leaves on the trees, the grass underneath her feet. The little insects and animals. Life was everywhere. The Force was everywhere. She just had to reach out and...
Nothing.
She just had to reach out and-
...
Bella stopped. She opened her eyes, frozen mid-motion.
She could hear the animals. She could hear the wind rustling in the trees.
But she couldn't... feel the... Force.
"Bella?" Edward asked quietly.
"I can't do it", Bella whispered horrified.
"What?" Edward asked, sounding slightly panicked.
"I... I'm dead. I'm not connected to the Force anymore." She whirled around, wide red eyes staring at the other vampire in horror. "It's not just me, Edward, everything here is dead! There... There is no Force, anywhere!"
Which, on second though, made sense in a horrifying kind of way. The Force belonged into the Star Wars universe. It didn't exist in Twilight. Of course her meditation, her Force-sense, feeling the energy connecting all living things wouldn't work if there was no such energy. Leia's Force-powers had translated into Twilight-witchy powers the moment she stepped foot onto this world and had developed as such. In turn, Bella's nonexistent senses had bloomed only in the galaxy far, far away.
"I can't connect to Leia through the Force", Bella said aloud, stunned.
"But... But Leia could always contact you", Edward protested. "It worked before so why not now?"
"I... I don't know", Bella made. "We had a Force-bond, before, I suppose... but if there's one thing that surely severs Force bonds, it's death."
"There was a time when you didn't have a bond yet though", Edward insisted. "There was a first time when Leia used the Force to connect to you, a human in a world devoid of it."
"The first time it happened, she prayed to the Force and I wished upon a shooting star. We... We just really, really wanted something to change, at the same time. Sometimes we were asleep, sometimes not. But I'm dead... I can't even sleep anymore!" Bella panicked.
"Think, Bella. Was there ever a time when Leia, from Forks, contacted you while she was not asleep?" Edward asked.
"Just now, while she was turning. Aside form that..." Bella wracked her brain. Horrifyingly though, she found that her memories from before... her human memories were blurred and fading. "The first time around, I was asleep in Forks and she was awake on the Death Star. The second and third time, we were both asleep, trying to contact each other. The fourth time... I think that was after I learned to contact other people in my galaxy via ghosting. I was awake then but I think Leia was asleep. I know it was late in the evening when I tried contacting her and it took me a long while... I... I don't think so, Edward. I don't think either Leia or me were ever awake in Forks when talking to each other until that last time."
"It's okay", Edward said, trying to sound calming when Bella started to pace (more like race around the clearing at super speeds). "If your... crossing was an ability bound to the Force, Leia will be able to initiate it from the other side. You said yourself, you switched back while both of you were awake when Leia was turned so it's not like it's impossible to do so."
"But we were dying!", Bella stressed. "What if that's special circumstances? I can't die anymore, I'm already dead!"
"You mustn't think like that! Focus, you said you were contacting other people in your galaxy before. Can you try that now?" Edward was himself starting to sound panicked, which didn't help.
"I... I'll try", Bella said, forcing herself to stop. She closed her eyes and focused on her onion. Bella went back to her second layer, growing sprouts in all directions, trying to reach out across dimensions.
"That's empathy", Edward corrected her. "I feel your anxiousness."
Bella withdrew her sprouts and turned her gaze inward. There was another layer, covering her skin, thicker than the outer one. She poked it and it only grew thicker. She could not extend or enlarge it no matter what she tried. But Bella didn't think this was the key to her ghosting. More likely was that it represented her shield against mental intrusions. But her onion only had those two layers. There were no more buttons for her to press.
Master Yoda had claimed that her ability to see Force-ghosts, even those that didn't consciously decide to be seen by her, was a rare Force-talent. If supernatural powers translated to whatever magic system the dimension she was in used, that meant Bella should have a witchy talent to see ghosts. It should be a fairly powerful and obvious one too, since human powers got enhanced in vampires.
"Can you... Can you show me to a cemetery? Or a place where a person died? A house rumored to be haunted or... something?" Bella asked thoughtfully.
Edward hesitated for a moment, then nodded. "There's an ancient cemetery of the Quileute nearby. It's out the territory that the wolves claim today, part of the national park. No humans will be there."
Bella nodded. "Take me there."
She had to figure out how her powers working in this dimension. There had to be a way for her to contact Leia from her end. There had to be.
The cemetery was miles away but the two vampires arrived there within minutes. Bella spend teh rest of the night loitering around the cemetery trying to conjure up ghosts. However, no translucent figures ever appeared for her. She could however, when she used her second layer onion sprouts, poke around the area of the cemetery and get an... impression back. Brief visions of the lives of strangers, of violence and death. She supposed it made sense, there never had been any mention in the Twilight novels about actual ghosts existing. Even in Star Wars, they were the exception, not the rule, with only a few select Jedi and Sith Lords ever having managed to preserve their essence in the Force after death. No matter what she tried though, Bella couldn't summon the ghosts of anyone of this dimension she knew to be dead. Neither did she have any luck contacting Luke or Vader.
Eventually Bella had to face the horrible truth. Her connection to the Star Wars universe had been severed. She was stuck back in Twilight, in a romance novel without romance, in a dead body that was terribly unfamiliar to her. And she had no idea how to get back to what truly felt like her home.