True Vamp Chapter 32: "Where Do We Go From Here?"

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Last Updated: 8/1/11 *guilty look, with eyes downcast…* I am so, so sorry about that…

AN: READ THIS PEOPLE! This is the beginning of the end; This is the last chapter of True Vamp—BUT! The story is not over! The sequel's Prologue will be up as soon as is humanly possible, once i finish the third chapter of Phantom Resurrection (danny phantom) and finish editing the first 6 chapters of Nahlgraafkiin, my DP/Skyrim crossover i did for Nanowrimo (and won, too!)

Yes, yes, I know there was little to about no warning that True Vamp was drawing to a close (I only realized I should end it now before I 'get too far off track, and end up messing with my entire story plan' when I ended chapter 31), but I think that this is the perfect time to do it. Those unhappy about the sequel's HIATUS will have to bid their time, and fans of Danny Phantom will probably enjoy my newest stories, Phantom Resurrection and Nahlgraafkiin!

Also, to fans of Lycanthropy, I'm saying this now, 'cause I can't remember if I said this anytime earlier, "Lycanthropy: a Tale of the Children of the Moon" has officially merged with this story, I'm sorry if you really liked that story, but as it is, I can't really take it anywhere, so... yeah.

Chapter Quotes: (From the Lion King; while watching it, I heard this, and thought it was the PERFECT quote for something I've been foreshadowing for awhile now! Can anyone guess?)

NALA: "Have you guys seen Simba?"

TIMON: "I thought he was with you."

NALA: "He was, but now I can't find him. Where is he?"

PUMBAA: "I don't know"

TIMON: "He's gotta be someplace."

RAFIKI: (laughing) "You won't find him here. The king has returned!"

"Emmett gave me a sheepish smile, apparently over his anger, but deep in the back of his mind, where the emotions he wasn't even aware of having, his feelings of distrust and weariness for Alice and I had intensified.

The same was true for the rest; they just weren't aware of it. But someday, that would change, and their acceptance of Alice and I would break, and we would be left behind."-True Vamp, Chapter 20: Exacerbation.

"The water started getting closer and closer, so Rachel and Rebecca tried digging a mote in front, while me and Jake made a wall of sand, but the water kept getting closer and closer. Just as the water was coming up to sweep away the castle we had worked so hard on, Jacob dove in front of the castle to block the water with his body."—True Vamp Chapter 24: Mental States.

. . .

(Renée PoV)

My brow furrowed in worry as I re-read Charlie's last email, describing his life at the newly-established Archangel Detective Agency, talking about all the high-tech computers and other gizmos, all the criminals he had helped catch, and any updates on Bella.

Concerning the last part, there were none.

He also wrote about Dane, his psychiatrist who had quickly become one of Charlie's best friends. And even though I was pretty sure Dane was supposed to have a 'professional relationship' with his patients, I was happy for Charlie.

When I reached the last sentence of the email, I closed it and glanced at the list of replies I had sent him, the numbers adding up, the dates growing later and later from when he had sent me it, until, two days ago, one of his superiors had sent an email that said he had collapsed after a deranged woman had broken into their headquarters, and was now in the hospital.

My first thought had been to immediately rush off to the hospital he was at, but almost instantly after I received the email from Archangel, I had gotten one from the mysterious Dr. Dane Harkness.

Renée,

Don't worry about Charlie; I'm at the hospital right now; the doctors say he just fainted from exhaustion—he hasn't been getting much sleep, between Archangel and worrying about Bella—I would know; I'm his psychiatrist after all, and his friend, but he's going to be okay.

Don't give up hope.

Yours Truly,

Dane Harkness.

A…vision (for lack of a better word) flickered through my mind, and I snorted.

"A friend!" I scoffed, "Yes, because a friend would keep that a secret! How could you not tell your best friend that you're—" Abruptly, my mouth snapped shut, and my vision went black—

Shaking my head to clear it of a sudden dizziness, I looked at my computer and saw that it was turned off. Blinking, I struggled to remember why I had come in here, before I smiled in recollection. Turning the computer back on, I continued working on my newest project—writing a novel.

All in all, it was a perfectly normal day.

. . .

(Charlie PoV)—(Song: Spotlight)

I stared at Dane, bewildered. His words kept repeating themselves in my mind, endlessly, as if repetition would force them to make sense.

Charlie…you're one of them. You're a shapeshifter.

"You've got to be joking, who put you up to this? Was it—?"

"I am deadly serious Charlie!" Dane interrupted in a low hiss, his tone fierce, "You are no longer human, you are a wolf-shifter, descended from the first chief, Taha Aki! Your ancestors and now yourself have all killed Cold-Ones, what you call vampires, but my kind—" Suddenly he froze, as if realizing he had just committed a grave mistake.

I blinked at him in confusion, before running back through his words, and I too, froze.

"What do you mean, by your kind?" I asked, taking a deep breath to steady my nerves—and noticed the strange smell that seemed to hover around Dane. It was a…cold smell, for lack of a better word, not a bad cold, more like strong peppermint, with the barest hint of petrichor.

His eyes widened for a second before he sighed in defeat.

"Just bear with me for now, and once you're checked out, I'll tell you everything I can. Please, Charlie, just…try not to freak out when I tell you?"

I slowly nodded, still trying to wrap my head around the information. A sudden thought struck me.

"Why am I here, anyways?" I asked wearily, "I didn't have a heart attack, did I?"

Dane looked confused. "No, why would you think you had a heart attack?"

My brow furrowed. "Bella was always worried about me having one, I don't know, I just assumed…"

"Yes, well, people really need to stop reading too much into those kinds of things." Dane said, looking a bit irritated.

I just raised one eyebrow; uhh, No clue what he's talking about… I thought to myself as he turned to call for a doctor.

. . .

(Jacob PoV)

"So, mom, where exactly are we going?" I asked looking around the barely illuminated street, before pulling at the neck of the shirt that she'd made me wear in irritation.

Leah and I had been made to forgo the usual attire of the pack, (the bare minimum that we could get away with and still be presentable) and instead we were both clad in jeans and tee shirts, so as to not arouse the suspicions of anyone who saw us.

"There's a ship that's headed this way, picking up normal humans along with supernatural beings like us, free of charge if you're with one of my kind." She said, adjusting the thin black jacket she had donned, all the while fiddling with the zipper absentmindedly.

"Why's it free?" Leah asked suspiciously, as she walked alongside me, holding Christine's hand, their skin tones in sharp contrast to each other.

"Because it's owned by, and most of its passengers are vampires who need transportation, shelter, protection, or financial assistance."

I quirked an eyebrow; "What do you mean by financial assistance? I thought most of you vamps were super rich?"

"Oh, a lot of the older ones are, but most vampires are a member of what we call our 'family account'; whenever we make money that we aren't going to use immediately, we send it to a special account with any major branch of banks, where any of our kind can use the money—for clothes and other such things; frivolous spending sprees are intolerable, and anyone found doing so are removed from the account. If you take money, you are expected to repay it in full as soon as possible."

I nodded, wondering just how much money was in those accounts for hundreds, if not thousands of people to withdraw money whenever they wanted to.

"So, when's this ship supposed to get here?" Leah asked.

"The Night Legacy will be here tomorrow. Several of the Fledglings on board are going on their first hunts tonight."

My eyes opened wide. "They're—they're not going to kill anyone, are they?" I asked urgently. Though we had been traveling with my mother for months, neither Leah nor I had seen her hunt. She always slipped away around midnight, telling us not to follow her.

Mom didn't answer.

. . .

(Bella PoV)—Two Hours Earlier

I smiled proudly as I looked at Markus, whose eyes were wide as he looked up at me in surprise from the floor.

All around us the gathered vampires broke into applause; I was only the second Fledgling to defeat their opponent, who was allowed to use whatever skills they possessed to defeat us. Though the fight was the hardest I had ever had, I had managed to get behind Markus' guard at the last second and send him crashing to the floor.

"Told you I'd wipe the floor with you!" I said, laughing as he jumped to his feet in one fluid movement, and began dusting his clothes off. "Hey! That's bad sportsmanship!" He mock complained, while smiling at me.

I raised an eyebrow. "I have bad sportsmanship?" I asked incredulously, "What happened to the 'master of doom'?" I asked referring to what he had said after one of our previous fights.

He shrugged as he leapt to land on the sidelines of the area marked for training, where everyone else was gathered to watch. Everyone had to fight two people before doing anything else in the 'morning', and Markus had only been my first opponent.

As I surveyed the crowd, wondering who would volunteer to fight, my eyes landed on Ash, who was standing near the back of the group, looking at me with a mixture of emotions on his face; pride, worry, and, surprisingly, sorrow. I wondered what that was about but didn't try and pry into his thoughts. He would tell me if he wanted, though I ached to know what had him so sad all of the time—and why he hated Santino so much.

It was obvious to me now that I had a crush on Ash, though I tried to suppress it; I didn't need any more heartbreak, and from the way Ash and Madeline acted around each other, it was obvious they loved each other deeply. Add on that I was still feeling conflicted about Edward and his family, and you got one whopping mess of confusing emotions, pulling me in two different directions. Most of the time, I was angry with Edward and his family for leaving, but in the minutes before I would fall asleep for the day, I knew I was fighting a losing battle.

A part of me still loved Edward.

And another part of me loved Ash, though he never noticed, and hated Edward for what he did, when he left me.

If only I knew how much more confusion and heartbreaking decisions I would have to make before the night was over.

Behind the crowd of gathered spectators, the door flew open, and in walked the one person I'd never expected to see again, no matter how long I lived.

. . .

(Jasper PoV)—(Song: Lea Halalela)

"Alice, what did you see?" I whispered to her, so that neither Emmett nor Rosalie would have the slightest chance of hearing. We had finally managed to escape from the confines of the house after a week of Alice's 'attack' as Carlisle had called it. Because Alice had told no one, not even me, what her vision had been about, Carlisle had theorized that her ability, which she had had since she was human, temporarily overwhelmed her mind when there was a brief surge in it's power.

Alice paused slightly, before straightening out of her crouch, eyes turning from the stag she had been about to jump on, to stare into my eyes. "I saw my creator." She whispered, and I gasped.

"You saw the vampire that turned you?" I asked in amazement, "How did you know it was them? I thought you couldn't remember?"

Alice shook her head. "Jasper, this wasn't a normal vision. When I have visions, they're always from a third person's perspective; I can watch, but I can't tell what people are thinking, or see through their eyes, and it is always of the present or future. In this one…it was in the past; almost a memory, and I was my creator; I saw everything through his eyes, thought his every thought, I forgot who I really was, and I was him! "

Feeling her emotions spiraling out of control, I pulled her into my arms and held her close as she continued, wrapping her tiny arms around my waist.

"I saw myself, when I was still human. I was in the Biloxi, Mississippi state Asylum, and Xavier worked there. He thought about me a lot; he was always curious about me, because usually, I was quiet, staring into space, instead of raving and screaming like the others; it seemed as if I was constantly having visions.

"He once thought about how I looked like one of the fair folk—he even said that if my eyes had been two different colors, he could have sworn that I was one. Oh! And my eyes were grass green!" She said that last part of her monologue excitedly, and I smiled as I imagined her eyes being a vibrant shade of green, instead of gold or black.

"I saw how James' eyes looked when he saw me; Xavier was trying to protect me, but James was still new; he was stronger, and he didn't care about territories or hunting grounds. James managed to set all the other patients loose to try and distract him, but Xavier picked me up and ran down to one of the isolation cells, where the woman that Percy, the guard, had nicknamed Witch had been.

"He threw open the door, let 'Witch' out, and put me in the back corner. He looked at me and said, "I'm sorry, but I have to do this. I can't let you die." Then he bit me, and when he turned around and closed the door behind him, James was there. He was furious, because I was already changing and he couldn't play his game anymore, so he got revenge— he threw one of the patients he had hurt at him, after setting her on fire with a torch. Xavier tried to help her, but he caught on fire too, and James left him to burn alive."

I sent a calming wave to Alice, letting our closeness increase the power of my ability. "I'm sorry," I said, "It's not right that you should have had to see that. I don't know why your visions would make you live your creator's death—"

"But that's just it!" Alice exclaimed, interrupting me, "He didn't die! I saw him escape! That means he's still alive somewhere!" She took a deep breath to settle her nerves, calm determination taking over her emotional aura in a melody of even notes in my mind.

"Jasper, I think my visions are telling me that I have to find him; I have to go look for him—" Suddenly, she gasped, and her face went blank. In an instant her calmness shattered, to be replaced with pure panic.

She ripped herself out of my arms and raced in the direction that Emmett and Rosalie had headed, and screamed at the top of her lungs: "Emmett! Rosalie! We have to get back to the house NOW! If we don't make it in time, Carlisle could die!" Then she turned and in a flash took off towards the house, and I followed. Behind us, we could hear Emmett and Rosalie following, shouting questions at us that we ignored, and instead poured all of our concentration on moving faster.

"It's them, isn't it?" I hissed to her, keeping my voice low as we soared over the pond in the back yard. She nodded, before diving straight through the wall-length window in a shower of broken glass, before landing in a roll, springing up, and launching herself at Esme, whose deranged face was set in a twisted snarl, eyes filled with fury.

In the opposite corner, the two ghosts stood and watch with obvious enjoyment as Edward's hand, curved into bone-colored claws, ripped through Carlisle's astonished face, leaving five long, deep furrows behind before I could stop him. A half-second later, I had tackled Edward to the ground with a roar of anger, shoving him into the ground as he struggled to crawl his way to where Carlisle was lying on the ground in shock, clutching his face, one hand shakily tracing the deep gashes, golden eyes wide, dazed.

Emmett and Rosalie both burst through the door at the same time. "What are you doing?" Emmett shouted angrily at the sight of both Alice and I struggling to keep our two family members restrained, and an injured Carlisle on the floor.

"It's the ghosts!" I shouted, "They're controlling them somehow! They made them attack Carlisle!"

It was then that Esme managed to get out of Alice's grasp, and she once again leapt for Carlisle's downed form, snarling. Just as she was about to hit him again, Rosalie's hand came out of nowhere and grabbed her around the waist, Alice coming to her aid.

"Emmett, come get Edward!" I shouted, and he complied, taking the struggling, snarling and spitting form of our brother from my arms; I flashed across the room to where Carlisle was, and examined the long scratches; though Carlisle was a certified doctor, I had learned medicine on the battle fields, both the mortal and immortal ones. The gashes were deep—very. You could almost see the steel-hard bones of his skull, and I knew that they would not heal properly, not for many, many years, and even then…he would be scarred for the rest of his immortal life.

Taking Carlisle's hand in my own, I spat some venom onto it and directed him to press it over the gashes. He was still in shock; in his immortal life, Carlisle had rarely been injured, and it took him a couple of seconds to regain his thoughts; with a hiss of pain, he pressed the painful but healing poison onto the wounds, which began to slowly close.

Jumping to my feet, I whirled around to face the ghosts, and if looks could kill, these 'spirits' would have been in the after life by now.

"Leave." I hissed at them, straightening my back and taking on the countenance of the persona I had not assumed for almost a hundred and fifty years. The Major.

The ghost imitating Bella smirked. "And why exactly should we do that?" it asked in a wraithlike voice that was obviously male. No wonder 'Bella' had never spoken.

I let a low, rumbling growl escape in warning, my expression darkening, but I replied in a cool, calm, and collected voice. "You two—you are obviously supernatural creatures, correct?"

'Annie' scowled. "Of course! And I would mind my tongue if I were you, in the presents of those better than you. Creatures!" she scoffed, "If anyone is a creature, it is you, my dear Hybrid!" She cackled from the arms of her male companion.

I bared my teeth at her ignorance. "Then surely you must have heard of the vampire civil wars—"

"Hybrid!" 'Bella' interrupted, and I sent a glare her way, while hiding my confusion at her insistence on using that term.

"Hybrid civil wars of the south?" I asked, incorporating their word for us.

With a roll of their eyes and a smirk they both nodded, before 'Bella' asked "And why exactly is this important?" here 'she' turned to face 'Annie', "in fact, why are we even talking? We should just kill this stupid, little, nameless Hybrid now!"

A sneer spread across my face, transforming it into a mask of pure darkness and power. "It's The Major." I said.

"What?" they both asked at the same time, looking confused.

"You said that I was a nameless 'Hybrid'. But I'm not. My name is Jasper Whitlock; more commonly known among my kind as… The Major!"

I snarled the last two words, sending a tsunami of terror and horror to the two specters, and with a shriek and a shout, both of them leapt backwards, abject terror in their eyes as they shrank back into the shadowy corner, 'Bella' clutching 'Annie' protectively as she struggled to shield the ghostly child from my view.

I smirked; now I was in control. "Show me your true forms!" I ordered, sending a wave of obedience to them, while my family watched in shock: they'd had no idea how fine a control I had over my powers, or how it was I had become the most feared fighter in the immortal civil wars. They'd just assumed it was my fighting skills, which I had never revealed in their entirety.

. . .

(Bella PoV)—(Song: Over You)

"It was just like that sandcastle we had built at the La Push beach with Jacob and his family, and the water just kept getting closer and closer, relentless in the destruction of our castle.

But there was no five-year-old to jump in the way of the crashing waves this time; no—if I wanted to save what was precious to me, I would have to stand up and take charge; no more waiting for a knight in shining armor to rescue Isabella Swan, the perfect damsel in distress who didn't think about herself, always focusing on how to help others, not even trying to help herself—I could and would solve my own problems; face my own fears, fight my own battles, learn my own lessons and struggle to reach my own solutions. It was time to make my own way in life.

Starting now.