Just realized I didn't thank the last reviewers from the chapter before this. So thank you to mayflower1074,Djuvinity, Mahrii and especially Lionnara who has reviews almost all (if not all) of my chapters. Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed and I hope you enjoy the last chapter!

Chapter 17

EPOV

I waited.

I paced.

I worried.

The only thing that was stopping me from running up there was Bella's assurance that she was ok and the risk it would pose on my family if I were to run upstairs and search for her. Cole's office was the only closed in office in a large room filled with cubicles. I had spent the last hour and a half pacing down the line of darkened cubicles, into Coles office and back. He was sick of watching me pace and had starting doing some work on his computer about 20 minutes ago.

'C'mon Edward, sit, have a drink with me, Bella will be fine.' Cole pleaded with exasperation.

I gave him a small smile 'Thank you for the offer Cole, but I'm ok.' I continued pacing. 'How much longer do you think?' I asked, anxiety eating away at me.

'I'm not sure…' he said uncertainly- that did not help ease my anxiety. He looked up at the clock 'I'm starting to worry too, it's been a while.' With that he picked up his phone and dialled a number, I guessed Nathans office. I started to pace again.

On my second revolution I heard, or rather felt something. 'Do you keep entities in this lab?' I asked cocking my head and listening, Cole had just hung up the phone that went unanswered.

'God no. All the entities are stuck behind the containment field.' Cole answered.

I turned toward the presence I heard. It was familiar but so quiet I couldn't really make it out. 'Aiden?' I asked the thin air. Across the room a coat rack shook as if something had brushed against it.

Cole stood up 'Aiden? What's the matter? Where's Bella?'

Further down the room towards the door a panel of glass shook and I ran at human speed towards it, Cole hot on my heels. The fact that he seemed too weak to communicate with me worried followed flickering lights and shuddering objects to an elevator that took us up to the fifth floor, down another hallway and to a room with no windows.

Cole tried to open the door 'It's locked, damnit.' He said.

'Here let me try.' I stepped forward and reached for the handle forcing it to open, breaking the bolt keeping it locked. 'I think it was just stuck.' I said as I walked in, really no longer caring. I knew he knew that something was off about me.

I opened the door and if my heart could have stopped again it would have. Bella was standing up on a vertical plinth that she was strapped to. Her head hung down onto her chest and if she wasn't strapped to the table there's no way that she would be standing up straight.

I ran to her and lifted her head up, she smelled all wrong, something was seriously wrong here. 'Bella, please, please wake up.' Her eyes flickered 'that's it, come on Bells you can do it.'

'H'lp… pl's…' she mumbled, completely out of it just stirring from unconsciousness.

'Bella, what is it? What's hurting you?' I said, frantic.

'I…V…' I lowered her head back to her chest and looked around, there it was, there was an I.V. poking out of the crook in her elbow and I ripped it out, completely immune to the smell of her blood, I've never cared about something less in my life. Cole and I undid the Velcro straps holding her up and I caught her as she fell.

'Bella, sweetheart, open your eyes. Please, what happened?' I asked as I lowered her to the ground and she began to stir.

'Bella, tell us who did this.' said Cole, visibly angry.

From her slumped position sitting on the ground she looked up at me, then Cole. 'Nathan… McGrath. Same thing they did to Norah.' I felt my blood boil, they were poisoning her for god knows how long, who knew how much damage they had done to her before I got here.

'Son of a BITCH!' Cole threw his hands on top of his head and walked a few steps away before banging his hand on the wall.

'Cole…' she said quietly trying to get his attention, 'Nathan… he's gone insane. He's going to lower the containment field.'

'What?! Why would he do that?!' The usually calm man exploded.

'His family.' She said leaning her head back against the table. 'He's never gotten over it; he wants to be with them again.'

'Nathan can't be that stup-' Cole was interrupted by what felt and sounded like a huge explosion shaking the building. I had to catch Bella to stop her from falling. Poor thing was so weak.

'He's done it… I can't believe he did it. That unbelievable idiot.' Cole said, shaking his head in rage.

Bella started to rise from the floor. 'We have to stop him; I have to shut it down.' I quickly tried to help her stand.

'Bella- no. You're in no condition, and it's not your problem anymore. We have to get out of here.' I tried to convince her.

'Edward,' she said as she lost her balance and I caught her, 'it's everyone's problem. If I don't stop this everyone will die. They will escape into the world and cause unknown damage and chaos. I'm the only one who can do it Edward… but I need your help.' She looked up at me with her beautiful eyes, pleading.

I closed my eyes and leaned my forehead on hers, deliberating.

'We've gotta move.' I heard Cole say from behind me; it was then that I finally noticed the screaming coming from outside the room.

I looked down at the girl I was holding up. 'Can you walk?' I asked her. She thought about it and looked back embarrassed. 'With help.'

'C'mon.' I said wrapping my arm around her body and taking most of her weight. 'Alright, open the door Cole.'

Cole pulled the door open to chaos. People running in every direction, being chased by entities, being grabbed by them and getting yanked down the hallway. We took off running down the hall towards the elevators, Bella moreso stumbled trying her best to keep up. Without the drug actively being pumped into her Aiden had sprung back much more quickly that Bella had and he was able to keep the entities away from us.

We arrived downstairs and took off for the condenser. I could already tell how much more drained this was making Bella. Everything in me was screaming to get her out of here, but I knew that she was right; it would be catastrophic if the rift wasn't closed.

We reached a room with a bunch of belts attached to the wall. Cole grabbed three then walked back over to us, he fastened one around Bella's waist for her then handed me one and put the last one around himself.

'These are portable containment fields, essentially mini- condensers. As long as you are wearing it the entities cannot hurt you, but it doesn't stop them from damaging the belt, so be careful. Through here is a large antechamber before we reach the condenser. It is going to be filled with entities that we will have to get past before we get to it.'

Bella POV

I nodded at Coles words, I was trying to appear ready and able when really I was on the verge of vomiting and I was starting to get cold sweats. I had to swallow it down; I couldn't afford to fall apart now.

Cole slid the door open and we were instantly hit with a barrage of entities forcing their way through the opened door. I felt Edward pull me to the side away from the open door, the pain of the sudden jostling caused me to double over and dry heave.

'Bella! I'm sorry Bella, I didn't mean to be so rough.' Edward yelled over the roar of rushing entities, none of which seemed to know we were there in their excitement at being freed.

'I'm ok.' I said far too quietly for any human to hear, I knew Edward would have no problem. I forced myself to stand up straight. 'I'm good, let's go.'

'Bella, please. You're too ill. You need to rest.' He pleaded with me.

'No time, I can rest later. We have to do this now.' I said starting to walk off without him, to my relief he quickly caught up with me and helped me to run. We ran into what looked almost like a warehouse with storage containers of some sort all around the room. We ran about 10 feet into the room before Edward and I were blasted apart by an entity. We were both blown sideways in two different directions.

'Bella!' I heard Edward yell and he was at my side in a second crouched in front of me facing the entity. It was useless though because just as he got to me Aiden blasted the thing away. Getting up was way too difficult for me and took too much time. Cole ran up and helped me on my left- Edward on my right and the three of us ran as one to the condenser.

Aiden was able to protect us the rest of the way until we opened the door and stepped into the condenser. It was unlike anything I had ever seen, like stepping into a parallel universe. In the centre of what I guess was a room (I couldn't see the walls- or ceiling for that matter) was a huge swirling black sun in the middle of blowing yellows and browns, almost like a mist. Most remarkably among all of this was hundreds of wandering souls.

'There!' Cole yelled over the sound of blowing wind, pointing to the swirling black hole. 'The switch is right in the centre!'

'Of course it is…' I muttered. We began to make our way forward as a ghostly woman walked towards me and grabbed my arm 'Please! My baby! Have you seen her! She was right here a minute ago… You took her didn't you?!' she screamed at me.

'No… please. I'm sorry.' And then Aiden pushed her away from me. We made it another 20 feet before Edward and Cole were both simultaneously launched away from me be an entity, the force of which knocked me over.

'Edward!' I shouted and waited a few seconds before I shouted 'Cole!' I couldn't see or hear either of them. Aiden was mercifully keeping all of the entities away from me and as much as I wanted Edward and Cole with me I knew the only way to find them would be to shut it down.

I somehow managed to push myself up from the floor, the adrenaline working wonders. I stumbled along through the spirits having to shrug many of them off as they begged for help from me. I was nearly there when I heard someone yelling.

'HELEN! LAURA!' It was Nathan, calling out for his family who wanted nothing more than to be free of him. It was then that he spotted me 'I call them but they don't come! I can't find them!'

'Maybe it's because you've tortured them for so long, they don't recognise you anymore and neither do I! You've become a monster Nathan!' I screamed at him with all of my remaining energy. With that he pointed his gun at me.

'I want to see them again, I miss them so much! Bring them to me; I know you can do it!' His eyes burned with insanity and that gun was still aimed directly at me.

'Nathan, I can't make them do anything, if you scared them away there's nothing I can do. No, Nathan. I'm shutting the condenser down before it's too late.' With that I held my hands up in front of me and started to slowly walk around him to continue back towards the condenser. Nathan started to lower the gun before he rapidly pulled it back up and aimed it at me.

'No! I won't let you stop me from seeing my family again Bella!' He screamed this at me as he aimed and fired. I heard the gun go off and felt the searing pain in my chest right above my right breast, I let out an involuntary scream as I fell to the floor. 'Aiden!' I screamed as Nathan aimed his weapon at me again.

Aiden ripped the handgun out of Nathan's hand turned it on him, aimed and fired- killing him instantly. I held my hand to the wound in my chest. 'Fuck!' I yelled. I have to do this now, If I don't do it now I won't be able to do it pretty soon. I thought at Aiden and he helped to pull me to my feet.

While I was walking I could feel my blood pumping out between my fingers and I did a lot more stumbling than walking until I finally came upon an extremely out of place console in the middle of this swirling mass of chaos. With my last remaining dregs of energy I pulled the switch turning off the condenser and then the world went white as all of the spirits and entities that had escaped all got sucked back into the rift.

oOo

'AH!' I woke up screaming to extreme pain as something pushed down on the wound in my chest. 'Shh, Bella, it's ok, I've got you.' Edward said from above me. 'We have to stop the bleeding.' He said as he put pressure down on the wound. I moaned.

'Please, stop Edward.' I moaned in pain.

'I'm sorry Bella, I can't. I have to get you out of here. This is going to be painful, just hang on, ok?' he said as he quickly picked me up.

'Bella! Is she ok?' I felt relief as I heard Cole shout, running up to Edward and I. He saw the blood all over my chest 'Oh my god, what happened to her?'

'Nathan.' Edward said through clenched teeth. 'We have to get her out of here; we have to get her to a hospital. Now.'

I hung limply in Edward arms, unable to even lift my head or my arm. Between the car accident, the poison and the gunshot I had no energy left in me, keeping my eyes open was even difficult but every time I would close them I would get yelled at.

'Bella! Look at me, don't you dare close your eyes! You stay awake, you hear me?' I've never heard Edward so angry, at least not at me- having that kind of rage focused at me was terrifying.

'Sorry…' I whispered, frightened. He looked down at me.

'Bella, I'm sorry. I'm not mad, I just need you to stay awake, please.' Edward pleaded in a much softer tone, seeing the fear in my eyes.

'I'm ok,' I whispered, 'I'm not going anywhere.' In my half-conscious stupor I hadn't noticed that I was missing something, it was too quiet even as we walked through the rubble that was the DPA. All around us were screams and cry's, with my view of the ceiling we even walked under an area of ceiling that had been torn off, I could watch the clouds pass by.

But something, someone, was missing. 'Aiden?' I whispered, there was no response. I tried to sit up, 'Aiden?!' I said a little bit louder. He wasn't missing completely, I could sense him but it was almost as if he was too far away to hear.

'Bella?' Edward looked down at me concern written over his face, I could see him stop to listen before his eyes widened. 'Bella, look at me. Don't panic, we will figure this out ok, don't panic.'

Too late. I thought as the world went dark once again.

oOo

I woke up to the sound of beeping; my head was pounding along in time with the beeping. All I knew was that I wanted it to stop and the next thing I knew a heard a loud clatter and the beeping stopped. 'Thanks Aiden…' I mumbled.

'Bella?' Edward's confused voice asked.

'Mmm?' I asked, eyes still closed.

'Bella, wake up. Open your eyes sweetheart.' I felt him rub his hand up and down my arm.

'Ok…' I said quietly and forced my eyes open to the bright white room. I rolled my head to the right where he was sitting and smiled at him. 'Hey.'

'How are you feeling?' he asked me.

I thought about it for a moment 'Not great.' I felt absolutely terrible; I could still feel the poison in me, my right arm ached and my chest burned.

'I figured as much. Bella I'm going to tell you something, don't panic ok?' Edward said guardedly.

I nodded, immediately worried. If I was still hooked up to a heart rate monitor it would be going crazy.

'Ok… something happened when you shut down the condenser. I don't know for sure but what I think happened is that Aiden was pulled in but managed to get back out. He's no longer tethered to you.' He finished slowly.

'What?' I listened, I felt a familiar buzz, but it was much farther away than I had ever felt it. 'Is he ok? Where is he?'

'He's great.' Edward laughed 'He's never had this kind of freedom before, he loves it. Although he hasn't gone too far from you, checking in fairly frequently.'

Aiden? I thought at him and waited nothing. AIDEN! At that I felt something and I felt him quickly come back to me, thoughts full of worry, but also something else… glee?

Hey, are you ok? I thought at him, I received thoughts and images from him, flying, freedom, and something else, pure happiness. Now that I thought of it, I don't think I had ever felt him so happy before. I couldn't help but smile at him.

'Where are we?' I asked Edward.

'Only a few miles from the DPA.' He said with a frown.

I slowly sat up 'We have to go.' I said with a groan.

'No, Bella. You aren't in any position to be traveling.' Edward said trying to stop me from getting up.

'I'm not safe here Edward, you know that. I don't know if McGrath is alive or dead, but we know they want me dead.' I tried to reason. I suddenly had a thought 'Wait… if Aiden wasn't here when I woke up, what happened to the heart rate monitor, was that you?' I said confused, my mind still felt sluggish from whatever was in my system.

Edward shook his head slowly 'Bella, I think that was you.'

'What?' I asked, perplexed. 'Did I hit it?'

He shook his head again 'You didn't touch it Bella.'

I just shook my head, no time to think about this right now. 'We have to go Edward.'

He sighed 'I know. Let me call Carlisle and get everything settled.' He rose from his chair and kissed me on the forehead. 'Don't go anywhere on me.' And he left the room pulling his phone from his pocket.

I leaned back in my bed, having trouble understanding everything that's going on. That was when the nausea started again. I looked around for a basin, bucket, anything. Luckily Aiden hadn't taken off again yet, his concern for me winning out against his desire for freedom and a garbage pail rocketed across the room and stopped at the side of my bed. I immediately leaned over and vomited into the pail.

That was how Edward found me 20 minutes later, laying with my head over the bed too weak to move.

'Oh, sweetheart.' He said sadly crouching in front of me, brushing my hair out of my face. 'We can do this later, you need to recover first.'

'Mm-mm. I'm ok, the only place I want to recover is at home, please help me sit up.' I asked.

'Are you all done?' he gestured towards the garbage can below me.

'Yeah, I'm good.' And he sat me up against my pillows, I sighed. 'What's the plan?'

'Carlisle is going to meet us when we land; we have a flight to catch in 2 hours.' He said as he started to gather up my meager things.

'Where's Cole?' I asked, suddenly remembering.

'Helping to rebuild the DPA from what I gathered, mostly just to gain information about their plans for you. He says not to worry, so many people died and the structure was so damaged no one even had a thought of you, and probably won't for a long time.' He said as he finished gathering up my things.

'Now… to sneak out of here. I'll be right back.' He said as he disappeared out of the doorway. He came back a few minutes later pushing a wheelchair in and closing the door behind him. I had managed to sit up on the edge of the bed at this point.

'I need help with my clothes.' I asked embarrassedly, looking down.

Edward froze 'Your nurse?'

'And let her know that we're taking off? You know we can't.'

Edward looked torn, ever the gentleman, then nodded. All I was wearing was undergarments and a hospital gown. He pulled out my pants, guided my feet through them until they were up to my thighs then he supported me as I stood and pulled them up. He helped me pull my arms out of my gown and push them through the sleeves of my shirt and pulled my shirt down.

When I was dressed I slumped against his chest exhausted. 'God I hope this stuff wears off soon, I feel awful.'

'I know.' He said as he rubbed circles in my back. 'We can wait…' he said again, worriedly.

'No, let's go.' He helped to lower me into the chair, peeked out to make sure that the coast was clear and then pushed me quickly towards the elevator. Aiden had pushed the button before we got to it so we were able to step right into it and push the down button.

By the time we got to the airport the pain medication had all but worn off and I was trembling from the pain in my chest and body from the bullet and the poison. Edward quickly tore through one of the bags and handed me some stolen pain medication. He held my hand and ushered quiet, kind words to me until the pain started to fade and I began to relax.

'Thank you…' I whispered as the drowsiness from the medication took effect, Edward helped me into the stolen wheelchair and we boarded the plane towards my life, towards my family.

FIN

My first Fanfiction has officially come to a close! Thanks again to everyone who came back to read the chapters. I will be starting a sequel to this, probably in the new year. It will be less action-y than this one just so you are aware. But I hope you all enjoy it as well. I hope everyone has a safe and happy new year!