LATE AND WEARY
"Before going to bed. Late and weary, I am also very confused again; dearest, please don't expect to hear any more from me today."
—Franz Kafka, Letters to Felice
—
DECEMBER 8TH 2039
1:17PM MST
NEDERLAND, COLORADO
Alan shoved William to the ground with enough force that the concrete cracked beneath them. The impact, combined with the deep, animalistic growls rumbling through their chests, shook the garage, rattled the house, and reverberated through Jasper's bones. Finally, Jasper was witnessing just the right amount of progress needed to give them even the slightest chance at making it through the night.
Not that survival was a sure thing for any of these men, but sunset was mere hours away, and they only had one shot. He'd take what he could get out of these men at this point.
The new cracks in the floor and wall were so low on his list of concerns that it wasn't until he felt a spasm of fresh distress upstairs that he realized Rosalie was listening to the destruction of her beloved garage. Jasper pushed away the influx of irritation he felt growing within himself—the last thing any of them should be thinking about was the state of any of their belongings—and forced himself to keep his eyes trained on the men that were sparring in front of him.
William flipped himself back onto his feet clumsily but nevertheless it was effective. He barely got two good shots in before Peter interrupted.
"Ah-ah. No. Try again." Peter's frown was firm and familiar as he circled the pair of men. "The instant you go for a third strike you fuck up. You've been too close to him for too long. If you're able to land a third hit and he's still on his feet, you're in trouble. You get him on the ground or you keep moving."
Peter's instruction wasn't spoken to the men who had been fighting. Standing at Jasper's side were the two hybrid girls. Their blood didn't call to the newborns the same way a normal human's did but Jasper knew there was a chance that the sound of a beating heart alone could get one of these men to slip up. If any of these men lunged at one of them, Jasper would be pissed.
Not because he'd stop them, but because killing one or both of these hybrids meant getting rid of bodies they couldn't afford to pass up. And if the choice was between the newborn vampires and the half-breed girls he would take the men every time; it would be stupid not to.
Peter finally turned toward the girls. "If you give them more than two uninterrupted seconds to watch you, you've fucked up. If you're not fast enough to get out of—"
"We are fast enough," Maysun snapped irritably. Jasper leaned into her displeasure, letting some of it envelope him, too. It was far better than the compounded grief that plagued the house. The anger made it easier to focus.
Peter clenched his teeth and stopped talking. Jasper had been annoyed at Maria's demand that they show the hybrid girls "how to keep their heads attached" and knew that Peter shared his thoughts; there was no way these girls were getting out of this alive if they proceeded alongside them in this upcoming battle.
Sure, the hybrid's vampire anatomy made them sturdier than humans, but they weren't as indestructible as full vampires. Jasper had once watched Renesmee dive backward from a tree, misjudge the length of the fall, and crack the back of her head against an outcrop. Then he'd watched, from a distance, after a quick flight, the way her sky blue sweater had darkened with blood. The rock face had split upon impact, sure, but so had her skin.
Jasper knew just how study hybrids were, and so did the rest of his family.
Which was why when Maria had ordered these girls into the garage, both Carlisle and Esme had protested. They'd been promptly ignored, but their dread of this decision just added more unnecessary weight to the atmosphere. The house was a cloud of grief, fear, pain, and anger. Jasper wanted to lean into all of it, but he knew he had to play his cards right. He had a job to do and couldn't indulge just yet.
The spar resumed and a series of shelves paid the price for William's shitty reaction time.
Rosalie—whose fear and panic and sadness pulsed just a little more with each crunch that echoed through the garage—spoke loud enough that Jasper could just barely hear the frustrated hum of her voice under the noise of the scuffle in front of him.
If they lived through this bullshit, he'd rebuild this stupid fucking garage from the ground up. Until they made it through to morning it didn't fucking matter.
Jasper ignored the large missing panel in the garage door—the hole let massive amounts of sunlight in—and instead focused on the men fighting in front of him. They had been wary of standing too close to the door—Maria's effective conditioning—but after yelling at them a few times, they'd begun to allow themselves to wander into the sunlight in order to effectively utilize all of their space.
Now when they strayed to close, they barely looked twice as their hands and forearms flickered.
Even if this display and this lesson was useless for these girls, Jasper knew that the practice these men were receiving was invaluable. They would not be able to stop until nightfall. They could not stop until then. If the girls learned a thing or two to keep themselves alive for more than thirty seconds, great.
He wasn't interested in more cannon fodder at the eleventh hour, but bodies were bodies and he wasn't going to turn any of them down. Carlisle had called this an 'alliance' and Serena had called it a 'truce'. It didn't matter to Jasper what they wanted to call it. He wasn't interested in working around any stipulations; the question they'd been asked had been simple:
Will you fight?
The yes they'd received was all Jasper needed. He wasn't interested in working around an alliance or counting them among the vulnerable that needed strategic placement for their survival. Sturdy or not—and they loved to insist their sturdiness—they were willing, and that was enough for him.
They wouldn't be useful when it came to muscle. They would be a perfect distraction. If their intel was correct and Esteban had a hybrid in their midst—the sister these two girls were so desperate to retrieve—the scent of two additional ones might be enough to distract or confuse his army.
What he wouldn't do to have the pack from La Push at his disposal right now….Even Jacob's presence would've been significant. For the first time since she'd done it, Jasper felt himself wondering whether Bella had done the right thing in sending Renesmee away. Surely, calling Jacob back instead would've been their better bet. Still risky, because he would've had to make it back to the house alive, but if Ness' safety was the priority, Jacob and the rest of them would have been more than enough.
Jasper pushed the thoughts away. He could feel Edward's irritation flicker from somewhere in the house—he'd probably zeroed in on Jasper's thoughts once he heard the mention of Renesmee's name—and didn't need him distracted from whatever conversation he and Carlisle were having with Maria.
The hum of another voice—one still scratchy and raw, a barely-there lisp present—made itself known in that moment. Rosalie's distress was an ongoing hum but Emmett's was more muted. They were holed up in the loft, having a private conversation that they undoubtedly knew everyone else in the house could hear. And by the sounds of it, they were arguing.
Jasper didn't have to wonder what it was about. He knew that Rosalie did not want to risk Emmett again. That Emmett would rather die than leave his family to face Esteban without him. A few words were decipherable for a moment "—already seen what he…I'm not letting any of you out of my fucking sight—"and Jasper tried to avert his attention anywhere else. Jasper didn't want to be privy to this conversation, and judging by the way the tense atmosphere in the house darkened, general unease and discomfort rising, he knew that no one else did either.
Peter clapped twice. After drawing everyone's attention toward him—William and Alan halted their scuffle to approach—Peter gestured toward the crude map that he and Maria had taken turns scratching onto the wood surface of one of the still-standing work benches. Jasper did not move to join them but when the hybrid girls also stayed unmoving he took two deliberate steps forward. That was the only thing that prompted them to move. Serena approached with a sense of calm overtop her potent fear, and Maysun's anger was burning bright above her own. When she shoved past Jasper he held still. It was hard the repress the urge to respond with violence; she could not be put back together the way these men could. His frustration compounded and he clenched his jaw tight before he could let the impulse get the best of him.
"You three," Peter gestured to the men as he spoke, "will stay on point with Jasper and I. Behind us will be Carlisle, Maria, and Edward, on their flanks you, and you." He continued speaking as he dragged his finger down the jagged wood, and recited each abbreviated name as he pointed to it. "Emmett, Rosalie, and beside them, you and you. Carmen and Esme will be behind them and behind them," Peter finally looked up and arrested his eyes on the hybrids, "you two. We'll have Bella, Garrett, and Kate on our back line with you two on their sides. Travis, Isaac, you two are the only ones who get to pick which side you go on, so decide amongst yourselves.
"Our goal is to charge through and inflict as much damage as fast as possible. We are not going for one or the other; we accomplish both or we die. They'll be working to overwhelm us with their sheer numbers so as long as we hit them hard and fast and throw off their balance in any way we can, we'll get a quick advantage. Without that quick advantage, again: we die.
"The instant we split them, you'll receive your signal from Maria or one of us, and your obligations to hold your positions will be gone. You are only responsible for your own life once this happens. Your mission and assignments still stand firm."
Travis opened his mouth to speak before closing it with a half-spoken sound. He looked nervous as Jasper turned his head toward him, and when Peter raised an eyebrow, meeting his eyes, he finally forced the words out. "Where is Alice supposed to go?"
Something in Jasper's head flared with acute confusion and inexplicable fury. The emotions were sudden and strong enough that the only thing he could do was stare at Travis where he stood, eyes nervously locked onto Peter's. There was silence for three seconds.
"I'm sorry," Travis apologized swiftly. His panic and embarrassment rolled off of him thickly, "I thought that was her name. I just want to make sure I know where everyone is going to be," he rambled while he over-explained himself. "I didn't meant to—I'm—yeah. Sorry." He stopped clumsily and pointedly ignored Jasper's eyes.
Alice.
Jasper let his eyes flicker down to the wooden table and noted the absence of her name. He was sure that Maria and Peter had left it out for a reason, and he felt strange knowing that he hadn't noticed the omission from Peter's careful lineup. The stern glare Peter inflicted upon Travis confirmed Jasper's suspicion: they did not want to bring up Alice around Jasper.
But Jasper had forgotten about Alice because he could not afford to think about Alice. He could not count her amongst their number as they planned for battle because then he would have to focus on her. On her strengths and weaknesses. On her abilities and physicality. He did not count Alice in because he did not want to count her in. Because if he focused too hard on her he was going to lose his head. Every bit of sense he'd struggled to maintain in the past day would be gone with the fucking wind and he'd be useless tonight.
Jasper could not afford to lose his nerve. He could not allow himself to feel anything at all yet.
He visualized their map in his mind, ignored the question and added onto Peter's words. "You default to Maria's command, and mine secondary. You fight until they're all dead or until they retreat. It will be every man for himself out there at the beginning. Only when we establish the upper hand will you be able to lend aid to anyone else. You focus on your fight, and focus on winning."
Travis's nod was stiff. He barely glanced over toward Jasper when Peter called them back into their pairs and commanded that they start back up. Maysun and Serena glanced at each other, then to Jasper, then back toward one another, and then moved back to their original spot to watch more. Jasper didn't think to stop them, even though he knew that, at this point, their survival would be all luck.
There was no more useful instruction that Jasper or Peter could provide for them; anything beyond this wouldn't be helpful unless they were willing to truly feed themselves to Esteban's army for the chance of getting their sister back. But as the minutes ticked, Jennifer's odds of survival grew slimmer and slimmer. Once she was no longer useful to the Volturi, Jasper knew they'd dispose of her.
That was why their instructions were clear: stay out of the way, don't stop moving, and keep yourself alive.
An image tried to force its way to the front of his mind and Jasper shook his head hard (he ignored the way the girls' confusion and fear directed itself toward him) and cracked his neck again. He couldn't focus on anything else. He couldn't focus on anyone else. He had to keep thinking. Keep going over their plan of attack. Keep searching for an instruction not given or a plan that hadn't been worked through yet. He had to fucking focus.
Nothing else mattered.
He pushed all errant thoughts from his mind and somewhere in the house, misery compounded.
A/N:
Here are some of the promised review replies:
- to the guest who so desperately wants confirmation on what the end is going to look like for Alice: very funny that you think I'd tell you. just trust me. if you can't, then I'll see you around I guess.
- Ptool: thank you so much! I'm glad at least some people are finding this fic. ff net seems to be a bit of a ghost town for non edbella-centric fic, so I'm glad that anyone at all is finding and enjoying the story. hope you also enjoy what comes next!
- FolkloreEverymoreIvy: thank you! to hear that this fic is "disturbing" means that I have accomplished my goals! looks like Baby's First Horror Fic is going pretty well over here
- and shoutout to Reinbeau and Biblepam for being my only consistent reviewers! three cheers to you two! ❤️