Chapter 12: Cleaning Up

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This is the fight in Edwards POV first.  The next chapter would show the fight from Bella's POV so technically this is just a filler chapter. Hope you enjoy it anyways!

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Her voice reverberated throughout the area for a moment before being overshadowed by the crashing of marble bodies against each other. My family and I watched, completely mesmerized, as Bella worked her way through the sea of bodies.

It almost appeared as though she was invincible. From where I was I could see that there were no scratches or tears across either her or her clothing. It seemed an impossible feat, considering she had at least five vampires attacking her at each moment. It almost seemed as though their hands just slipped past her, like she was too smooth to grab a hold of. Unfortunately for the other vampires, it also appeared that whenever one would make their way within reach of Bella’s hands, she would immediately tear of their head, followed almost instantly by their arms and legs. She did not pause once and her facial expression did not waver in the slightest. It almost seemed like she did not quite realized or did not care that she was tearing living creatures to pieces.

The fact that she did not make any sort of hesitation scared me, but only slightly. I did not truly know what kind of life she had had to lead the past seventy plus years and so I could not judge her too quickly, but I also knew that this was not my sweet innocent Bella anymore. Time and experience had calloused her; I would just have to hope it had not done the same to her heart.

The fight did not last long; probably a good ten minutes or so. Bella’s expression seemed almost disappointed as she collected body parts to burn. The army had set up a fire before she had ever arrived, sure it would be their victory, but instead Bella was able to use it.

She seemed so lost in thought that she did not notice our approach.

“Bella” Alice practically screamed.

Her head snapped up to look at Alice, her eyes going wide. Bella looked around almost frantically at the half circle my family had made. We didn’t want to box her in but we also wanted to have less of a chance of her getting away once again. She seemed to recognize the fact that she would not have an easy escape when her shoulders slumped in resignation.

“Alice. What are you doing here?”

No matter how hard I stared, it appeared that Bella was oblivious to my gaze. Although hurt by her determined indifference, I continued to look at her, feeling my eyes smolder. I hoped that she had not changed so much that my attempts to dazzle her would fail should she actually turn to meet my gaze.

“We came looking for you. We thought it would take forever, or at least a few years, like it always took for the Volturi, but then you called for a big fight and we were able to see you.” Alice laughed nervously. She didn’t know what kind of thing would set Bella off and was afraid to have her run away again.

Bella laughed humorlessly. It was a hollow, sad sound and my heart hurt to hear it. “Yes, I guess I did make a bit of a spectacle of myself. But why are you here?”

“We love you Bella.” Bella’s face seemed to tighten slightly at Alice’s statement, so she hurried to say something more. “We’ve missed you. When you left suddenly we were shocked. We were so happy to see you again and see that you were okay. Well, not exactly okay, but that you weren’t completely dead and gone. You know, I was just so happy to see you. And then you ran off and we had no idea where you went. The only advice the Volturi could give was to head south and hope you decided to make your-self known somehow. When we got the message, we knew our search would be over. We were so happy because it meant we would be able to see you again. And we have. Here you are!” Alice stopped her rambling when Jasper put a hand on her should.

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Bella’s face stayed tight throughout Alice’s words but as soon as she was finished Bella shook her head a small smile playing across her lips. She looked at Alice again, her eyes sad. “No, really Alice; Why are you here? Did you feel sorry for me when you heard I would have to stand against hundreds? Or did you just want to see for yourself that sweet innocent Bella could actually massacre a horde of vampires?”

Alice seemed genuinely surprised at Bella’s question, as were I and the rest of my family. She didn’t believe that we actually cared about her. Thinking back to the last moments I had spent with her I briefly understood why. I stepped forward, releasing Alice from the burden of explanation.

“Bella.” Immediately her eyes snapped up to meet mine. I hoped the look on my face was reassuring, that it showed my sincerity. “She spoke the truth before Bella. We care about you, we needed to find you. We would love nothing more than for you to come with us, to be a part of our family like you were before, when you were human.” Bella’s coal eyes seemed to darken slightly at the end of my statement so I hurried forward.

“We were surprised when you ran. I tried to catch you, and then to track you when I couldn’t, but you were too fast, too smart.” A slight adoring and prideful smile slipped onto my face. “We were worried you would get hurt. We were worried about you. We love you, all of us.”

Bella scoffed slightly, but her hard gaze had softened slightly upon looking at my face. I could tell she wanted to believe me, but it was difficult. Then something I never expected to see happened.

After throwing the limbs she had been holding in the fire, probably just to have a reason to look away from me, Bella swayed noticeably and sank to the ground, like she had fainted.

“Bella?!” Six other voices joined mine. I leapt forward to try and scoop her up into my arms but I couldn’t actually grab onto her. It was like there was something smooth and impenetrable between my arms and Bella’s body. She almost seemed to be floating slightly above where I could feel something solid. Everyone gasped slightly at the appearance.

Esme was first to recover, going immediately into concerned mother mode.

“Bella dear, what’s wrong? What happened?” Her voice was thick with concern.

“I…I don’t know. I just felt…weak all of a sudden. Oh!” She said as she sat up. Bella quickly scooted out of my hold and back onto the ground; the feeling of loss was immediate. My heart sunk until she began to speak again. “I think I’m thirsty. I haven’t hunted in so long; I think it finally caught up to me.” She smiled a very small sheepish smile.

Emmett immediately sprang into action, saying he would bring her something nice and large. Bella stared after his retreating figure with an expression of disbelief on her face. I leaned in close so my mouth was almost touching her ear.

“We all care about you Bella.” She visibly jumped at my close proximity, glancing at me before turning to look at the rest of my family. Bella’s eyes were wide and trusting, almost begging us to tell her it was true even if we were lying. She wanted to be cared for so badly it crushed my heart.

Carlisle, Esme, Alice, Jasper, and even Rosalie beamed at her. They all held genuine warm expressions on their faces, I was a little surprised at Rosalie, but from her line of thoughts I realized that she had never had anything against Bella personally, it had only been the fact that Bella had seemed to have no interest in all of the things Rosalie had wanted from human life. Now that Bella had been turned into a vampire against her will and was so alone in the world, she had taken to her quite nicely. Bella looked hesitant as she smiled back, seeming more and more like the shy Bella she once was. My heart soared at the sight.

“When was the last time you went hunting Bella?” Carlisle bent down next to her, concerned.

Her face screwed up slightly, obviously trying to remember. “I don’t know, a few weeks? It was before I ran into you all.” Carlisle’s eyes widened to the point I was slightly afraid they would part company with his head. I knew the reason he was concerned. She had run away from me a week before and we usually had to hunt once every two weeks or so, and that was without strenuous activity – such as fighting, which she had been doing almost constantly for the past week.

“So you hunted before you ran into us?” Carlisle asked.

“Um no…two week’s maybe? I was thirsty when I ran into you.” She laughed nervously.

Carlisle seemed to have been rendered speechless, only being able to blink quite rapidly, so Jasper took over. “How…how…how were you able to pass through human towns like that? Hell, how were you able to move like that, let alone fight?” He seemed completely baffled.

“I don’t know. I just did. I wasn’t concentrated on my thirst.” She looked away and added in a mumble, “I was concentrated on other things.”

This perked my interest. “What things?”

Bella looked back at my face, her eyebrows raised slightly and a look of surprise quite obvious. She quickly looked away again, back at the ground. I wished for probably the millionth time that I could read her mind. “Other things like this fight for example.” She gestured to the enormous bonfire that was raging to her right. “Which reminds me…could you…do you think…that you could help me with gathering the…um, pieces?” She looked hesitant and uncomfortable.

“Of course, Bella.” Carlisle stood swiftly, returning to his composed authoritative mode.

The rest of my family quickly gathered the numerous body parts and placed them in the fire while Bella watched. I couldn’t help but gaze at her, relishing in the fact that she was there, with me and not running away. Even though she wasn’t exactly looking at me or giving me much thought.

Emmett arrived back just after the family had finished “cleaning up”. He was carrying a large buck and decent sized doe over his head. A grin was plastered on his face, letting everyone know that he was pleased with himself for finding the animals and returning so quickly.

The animals were, surprisingly, still alive, and, unsurprisingly, completely terrified. Bella’s face scrunched up slightly, pitying the animals. She stood with strength I didn’t think she possessed, swiftly breaking both animals necks. Even after massacring hundreds of vampires, Bella cringed at the thought of the two deer suffering. I couldn’t help the smile that crept across my face.

Each of my family members, including myself, watched the deer hungrily. I found it amazing – as did the rest of my family – that Bella could remain so controlled when the thirst must have been raging inside of her.

“Drink, please Bella.” Carlisle’s voice had a hint of worry. He wanted to make sure she was alright and returned to full strength. She smiled in his direction before draining the animals rapidly. Bella threw the carcasses into the fire before turning back towards my, our, family. Her eyes now a warm honey color. I couldn’t help but admire how the color brought out the lighter highlights in her hair.

Alice pranced over to Bella, barely containing her excitement. “Will you come with us Bella?” Upon seeing the wary expression on Bella’s face, Alice continued. “You don’t have to stay permanently. At least, you don’t have to decide now. You could just come, and see how you feel about being there. Please?” She turned the full force of her puppy dog eyes on Bella.

The expression on Bella’s face immediately softened as she caved to Alice’s devices. “Alright,” she said in a soft voice. Alice squealed in joy, no longer containing herself as she hopped over to Carlisle.

“Can we leave now? Can we go home? Which home?” She seemed too excited for her own good but the rest of my family couldn’t help but smile at her enthusiasm.

“Yes, I think that would be a good idea.”

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