1,080So this is the first fanfic (or any piece of writing) that I have published in about eight years and I'm terrified. I've been trying to write something original for the past six months and found that I just didn't have the confidence in my ability to keep going with it. So I figured I'd go with something easier!
This started out as an idea for a one shot and now it'll probably go near 100k words so that's fun. Incidentally, this chapter was a nightmare to write and doesn't match the tone of the rest of the story at all, so please don't judge the entire thing just on this.
A quick thanks to my best friend and my boyfriend for reading through this thing multiple times and giving me head pets and encouragement!
(Constructive) criticism and advice welcomed!
[Edited 01/07/2021 for quality, corrections, clarity, foreshadowing of future events and to better show the tone of the rest of the fic.]
Credit to other works that inspired this one:
The idea of the Volturi having someone who can turn back time was entirely ripped off from 'History of the Forgotten' by bluesands22. If you haven't seen it, then I beg you to close this fic and go read that one. (then come back tho)
Carlisle's entire character was inspired by one moment in 'A Whole 'Nother Ballgame' by GeezerWench where he hears his name and waves. It's the most adorably dad thing I've ever seen. (both of these fics are in my favourites if you look)
Someone specific came up with Peter just knowing shit and if I remember their name I will put it here - kudos to them for changing the whole fandom though!
And obviously; credit to smeyer, who came up with this wonderfully underdeveloped world and cast of characters for us all to play with.
OH, AND AN FYI TO ANYONE WHO FEELS THE NEED TO ASK: CHARLOTTE WAS CANONICALLY TURNED IN 1932.
… Okay, proceed.
August, 2007.
Bella wasn't sure how she kept getting herself into these situations.
Well… yes she was. It started with E end ended in Cullen, but that was beside the point. There she was, on top of a mountain. Good people were ripping each other apart at the base, while all that stood between her and her imminent death was her boyfriend and a fifteen year old boy. How was this plan supposed to work again?
Thorns poked at her arm and she grimaced, willing herself not to bleed. Crouching behind a bush was absolutely futile, as if her delectable scent and thundering heartbeat wouldn't give her away to any vampire within half a mile. But instincts were instincts, and her's screamed at her to hide.
Edward stood between her and Victoria anyway. They had reached a standstill, each trying to predict the other as the red headed demon tried to find a way to her human prey.
Bella was kind of sick of feeling like prey.
The standstill brought an impossible silence; although the sound of Seth and Riley fighting to the death still rang out to her left, and there was the occasional thundering crash from the battle down the mountain still raging on. It hurt though, waiting for something horrible to happen. Bella clenched her teeth and counted her heartbeats.
One, two, three…
A crash, a snarl, a creak as a tree came crashing down in Bella's direction. She jumped to her feet and scrambled away just in time. Riley came out of nowhere, leapt off the fallen trunk and tackled Edward from the side. They went clattering down the mountainside, telltale screeches of limbs being torn coming in their wake. Bella could only hope that it wasn't Edward being ripped apart.
Victoria had her eyes on her now. Deep red, demon eyes. The colour of death. Bella stared right back, trying to hide how much she struggled to keep her composure. The sweet smell of burning vampire flesh had begun to waft up to them. Hopefully that meant the fight with the newborns was over and they might get some backup.
Hopefully.
Victoria took a step forward. One menacing step. As if she had all the time in the world. But with a heroic leap and wonderful growl, Seth appeared from the same place Riley had. Bella could almost see his jump in slow motion; posed in the air above Victoria, jaws open to rip her neck.
Victoria didn't even look in his direction as she jabbed his throat. He went flying back into a tree with a sickening snap that Bella quickly realised was his spine. His huge wolf body had turned human again before he even hit the ground. Gone was the killing machine, in its place was a sweet fifteen year old boy.
That did it.
Bella couldn't help but scream his name and start in his direction, but Victoria was on her before her tearfilled eyes could catch the movement. Her razor sharp jaws were artery deep in Bella's neck before she had time to scream. Through the raging heartbeat in her ears, Bella realised she was about to die. All of this was for nothing. How many people had died to save her? What was the point?
She took a breath and waited for death.
One, two, three…
Victoria gave a mammoth snarl as she was bodily ripped away, bringing a chunk of Bella's neck with her. That's when the pain truly kicked in. Bella cried out as loud as she could as her blood poured from her body and soaked the ground around her. She almost drowned out the screech of a vampire's death and Edward's heart wrenching screaming.
"Carlisle! CARLISLE!"
Hands were on her. Touching her face, putting pressure on her neck. They were Edward's at first, but then more. One on the inside of her wrist, one holding her hand. One touched her leg and sent a shock of adrenaline through her.
"Stay awake, Bells!"
Edward's voice bled through the haze. "She's been bitten! We can suck the venom out!"
"She's bleeding out!" Carlisle replied. "There's not enough venom in her to turn her in time! You need to bite her again!"
"I don't know if I can! What if I can't stop?!"
"Edward, now is not the time for second guessing!"
"But I…"
"Carlisle!" Alice gasped. "You need to bite her now or she's dead!"
There was no hesitation. Sharp teeth clinically cut into the other side of her neck. There was too much pain everywhere for Bella to even wince at the addition. All it was was cold, pumping through her neck, up to her head and down her arm. It was numbing, almost pleasant. Until that searing cold brought a blistering heat and she couldn't help but scream again.
The teeth retracted. "Is that enough, Alice?"
"I think so… We've got you Bells. It's going to be okay."
The pumping adrenaline faded into a calm that barely took the edge off the burning in her veins. Their hands began to stroke her, hold her. As if they could love the pain away. They kept talking, but Bella could barely hear anymore.
"Keep the pressure on her neck…"
"... she can't turn here…"
"Is Seth okay?"
"Edward, where are you going?"
Bella drifted, under a heavy blanket of lethargy. She would wake up dead.
November, 2012.
It was a normal day of a normal week. The Cullens were spread about their Montana home, where they had lived since Bella's turn five years earlier. It had been just about demolished in Bella's first year; when everyone was too deep in grief and guilt to care. But all things come to an end. Edward came back to them after six months of running from his own depression, Esme stopped worrying about him, Alice forgave herself, Jasper stopped having to wallow in everyone else's pain. The family returned to a new normal.
Boredom was commonplace in a life that would last forever, so they busied themselves with the little things that made it worth living. Rosalie and Emmett were off doing unimaginable things to each other in the guest house; Carlisle, Esme and Edward were out hunting; Alice and Bella were doing business in the sitting room while Jasper read nearby.
They were quite proud of their joint venture. Once her newborn brain had settled down, Bella directed her excess time and energy into reading every book in the Cullen house. However, she very quickly ran out of books that interested her; in the house and the world. That was when she decided she may as well write them herself. She had written several so far, under a pseudonym; and preferred to keep to adult contemporary. No paranormal in sight, much to her family's amusement.
Alice was preoccupied with the timing of the next release. They liked to make the themes of Bella's books as uncannily appropriate for the times as possible. Almost like a hobby within a hobby. Alice loved doing it, using her gift to find every seemingly insignificant detail. Maybe that was why she didn't see their visitors in time for them to run.
Jasper raised the alarm. His gift was complicated and nuanced, sometimes coming to him in waves, sometimes in colours. From this range, much further than anyone else's senses, all he could feel were vibrations; enough to be a small crowd, about two miles away, projecting potent feelings of fear and rage that carried through the air.
He shot from his seat by the window and ran to his wife, who remained unresponsive even as he shook her arm.
"Alice, we need you!"
Bella was quick to stand. "Jaz, what's wrong?"
"I can feel people coming," he said, "vampires. Edward will be able to hear them soon, I think. But there's at least twenty, maybe more. It has to be the Volturi."
"The Volturi?" She gasped, an icy fist of fear gripped in her chest. "Why would they come here? We haven't done anything."
"I don't know…" He gathered his authority and drew himself up to Bella's eye level. "It can't be good, but there's no time to run. We'd be too easy to track, especially if they have Demetri with them. But without the others we're sitting ducks. Go get Rose and Em from the guest house, keep an ear out for Alice. I'll run out and find the others."
She hastily obeyed his commands, running east as he went west. Rose and Emmett were locked in an unyielding embrace when she burst into the pretty cottage Esme had specifically built for them to destroy. They quickly detached when she informed them of the situation and insistently asked her questions she didn't know the answers to as they ran back to the main house.
The others were all there when they got back. Of course, Jasper hadn't had to wait for anyone to get dressed before leaving. Edward sat beside Alice, his eyes closed in concentration as he scanned the area for wayward thoughts coming into his range. He still opened up his arms as soon as he sensed his wife, which she gratefully climbed into.
They waited in terse silence for any sign of information from three of their gifted members. Esme started fluttering around collecting their escape supplies, brimming with nervous energy.
Emmett was fit to bursting too. "If Jaz can already sense them, how aren't they here yet? It's been minutes."
"They're walking at human pace…" Jasper muttered.
"What? Why?"
He shrugged. "More intimidating, I suppose. But with the amount of fear and pain I'm getting... maybe they're trying to hide some injuries?"
Edward sharply inhaled. "I've got it! Aro's leading them. You're right, there was an attack… the Romanians rebelled… and won. Volterra is in ashes. Aro's forces are severely depleted."
"Enough that we stand a chance?" Emmett asked.
"No, the fight would still be three to one..." Edward frowned. "I think Aro knows he's within my range. He says they come in peace, that he needs a favour."
Carlisle had been a statue in the centre of the room since Bella came in; he finally moved to sigh. "Any favour Aro Volturi needs from me is unlikely to be one I can easily grant. What if he-"
Alice gasped. Her eyes flew open and wide enough to see the whites, her hand clamped over her mouth to smother a cry.
Her family surrounded her in an instant, her husband fell to his knees at her feet and grasped her hands.
"Are you okay? Did you see anything?"
She stared past him, her eyes unseeing. "No, no I didn't see anything… everything went black…"
"You mean there's a blind spot?" Bella asked, stroking her sister's short inky hair back behind her ear. "Like with the wolves?"
"No…" Alice gasped, "like someone died, but as if it's… everyone. As if the entire future is gone. All I can see is black."
The family fell into silence, their minds blank with shock. They could hear the distant footsteps of the Volturi guard now, there was no time to run.
"What do we do?" someone whispered.
"We show a united front," Carlisle murmured, "and we hope for the best."
Moving at human pace was a genius move in a way. It gave the enemy time to get really riled up from the tension. Bella was grateful that there were still trees hiding them from view, so she still had a few minutes to truly express her fear.
Edward hadn't stopped touching her since they reunited. She couldn't help but be grateful for the comfort his presence gave, then bereft when Esme gently nudged her and drew her away to a position beside Alice; in the back behind Emmett where they could be more easily defended. Edward moved to the front beside Carlisle and Jasper, where he could whisper insight.
Bella gulped. Four years before, Jasper went through his 'safety' phase and came up with contingencies for every apocalyptic possibility. She had hoped none of them would ever come to pass. She'd never imagined that 'unexpected invasion by the Volturi' was even possible.
It felt like it took an age, but eventually the charred grey cloaks of the guard appeared between the trees. Aro walked at the helm, his most intimidating servants on either side of him.
"Almost all his gifted members are dead," Edward whispered, "all of them except Alec and Demetri… It looks like the invasion of Volterra was very well planned… And Marcus is dead."
"A shame…" Carlisle sighed, "Marcus was a kind man, deep down."
He turned to his youngest daughter. "If Alec is here it might be necessary for you to shield us, sweetheart."
Bella nodded and enthusiastically stretched her shield over her family, thankful for the only thing she could do in these situations.
"Can you see anything, Alice?"
The seer only shook her head and continued to stare into space.
The guard were close enough for Bella to smell them. The wind picked up the acrid smell of smoke and sweet venom from their cloaks and carried it towards the family. They looked as if they had come straight from the fight. Their clothes were torn, some entirely to pieces. Many soldiers were missing limbs, either ripped off or burned. One was missing his entire jaw. Though their normally immaculate procession was mangled, their footsteps were in time and gazes never wavered. The march carried on in perfect harmony.
With a glance on either side to his advisors, Carlisle called out, "Aro! Please accept my sincere sympathy for your losses!"
Aro shuddered to a stop twenty feet from the Cullens, signalling to his followers to wait behind him.
"Carlisle, my dear friend," he said, "my apologies for not warning you of our visit. If you are aware of recent events, then I am sure you understand I no longer have the luxury of courtesy."
"Yes, although I don't know the full story-"
"A rebellion!" Aro burst out like he'd been struggling to hold the mania in. "A revolution! That's what they called it! The damn Romanians want to corral humans in pens again!"
"Aro, I am so-"
"And there is nothing we could do to stop them!" Aro interrupted again. "Nothing! I tried everything! I bent the laws of nature to destroy them but nothing worked! I come to you today my friend because you are my last hope!"
"Of course I will help if I can Aro, but I don't know how."
"Well then it is a good thing I do!" Aro cried, his eyes wide and unblinking, rabid smile stretched across his mouth. "My last hope is your coven's newest member. Isabella."
Aro's demented gaze fell through the Cullen ranks to Bella's surprised face. Carlisle stiffened, Emmett flexed and subtly stepped in front of her.
"Why?" her sire asked.
Aro ignored him. "My dear, do come here so I can see you properly."
Bella hesitated. In the back she was safe, and her role was to avoid all danger so she could protect the others. But they were so outnumbered that it seemed almost suicidal to say no. She looked out at the enemy soldiers, all glaring at her like they dared her to disobey; then she turned to Jasper, who surely knew what to do. He nodded, go.
She made her way to the front, feeling the vibrations of Emmett's suppressed growl as she brushed past him. She stopped between Carlisle and Edward, but Aro immediately swept towards her and cupped her face with reverence, cutting off her view of them.
"My dear Bella…" he whispered, "how intriguing you are still; even as a vampire. Your mind is as closed to me as ever. And I hear that your powers have only grown since we met last - is that right?"
Edward looked like he wanted to rip Aro's hand off his arm, but was held in place by the smirking face and threatening thoughts of Caius and the rest of the guard. Bella nodded in Aro's hold, unable to move otherwise.
He grinned, eyes flashing. "That is excellent my dear, truly excellent. You are such a blessing to us all."
Bella couldn't respond, Carlisle did it for her. "What do you want from her?"
"What if you didn't need to give me sympathy, Carlisle?" Aro's voice sped up, his fingers squeezed Bella's jaw. "What if we could change it?!"
"That would be wonderful, but I don't know how…" Carlisle cast a wary glance between the hand tight on his daughter's face and the poised fighters behind him.
Aro laughed, he moved his grasping fingers from Bella's face to her waist, where he gripped her close to his side and gestured to the crowd. "When we escaped, we managed to take with us our greatest asset."
One of the guards reached behind him and pulled out a tiny looking girl, swamped in a dark grey hood far too big for her.
"Selina here," said Aro. "Can turn back time."
"What?!"
"We found her in 1925! I believe you know Eleazar? He just stumbled across her on the Canadian border, what luck! We have tested it, of course. Numerous times! I had a great many notes on the subject that I would allow you to peruse Carlisle, but alas! They were destroyed in the fire!"
Carlisle spluttered. "This is unbelievable!"
"You have a girl who can see the future but cannot believe that I have one who can turn back the past?" Aro laughed. "Foolish."
"So your plan…" Carlisle ventured, "is to rewind time and prevent the rebellion? Forgive me, Aro. But I don't see why you need my daughter for that."
"Oh because you see..." Aro finally let Bella go and began to pace. She shot backwards to the safety of Esme's arms.
"Selina on her own is useless! She cannot maintain a corporeal form in the past! We tried many times. The girl has relived history from the moment of her birth in 1885 to today dozens of times, as some sort of invisible phantom so she says. However, if she touches another person at the moment time is reversed, that person will go back too!
"It is not without cost, a normal vampire can go back only a few days before his mind and body fail. But we found, through our testing, that shields can go back without ill effects - the stronger the shield, the further they can go. That is where your Isabella comes in."
"You want to send her back several years to stop a rebellion?" Carlisle whispered, his hands clenched into fists behind his back.
"Not just several years, Carlisle!" Aro cried, laughing at his friend's foolishness. "We tried that! We lost our last shield trying it! You see, the Romanians have a weapon - a powerful member of their coven that we were previously unaware of. The second they recruited that man, they became too powerful for us to defeat. I plan to send Isabella back to before they found their weapon. To stop their recruiting him! Then, when the time comes, they will not stand a chance against us!"
"But why Bella?" Carlisle gasped, "There are other shields! Please, Aro. As my friend, do not put my child in such danger!"
"Darling Bella is the only shield I know of who is possibly strong enough to withstand such a journey through time, Carlisle." Aro put on a simpering smile that was clearly intended to be comforting. "You understand, I have my own coven to think of as well. And time is relative, she will come back!"
"Hardly." Edward finally muttered, "What he isn't telling you is that it's a one way trip. The only way for her to come back will be if she survives all the way to the present, and that's from 1942."
"1942!" Carlisle gasped, "That's seventy years! Aro please, surely you can see how this is unreasonable! She's still a child! I can't allow it!"
There was a murmur amongst the guards, Dimitri inched forward. But Aro wasn't looking at Carlisle, his eyes were directly trained on Bella, that manic glint faded to a calculated edge.
"I believe you have more agency than your father allows, my dear. So I will speak directly to you. I do not expect you to do this favour for me with nothing in return."
"What's the point in offering a reward if she dies in the process…" Edward grumbled. Aro waved him off.
"Bella, you will find yourself in an incredible position, seventy years in the past with full knowledge of what will come. I give you my blessing to do as you like!"
Bella thought for a moment, her brow furrowed. "Anything I like…"
"Absolutely anything!" he cried, "think of the riches! Think of all the things you could see and the people you could meet! Have you never looked back at history and wished you were there? What an incredible opportunity!"
Aro was trying really hard to sell it, but Bella's head was in a different space.
"Do I have to go back to 1942?" she asked, "Or can I go further?"
That took him a little off guard. "I'm sure you can go back further if you wish, my dear. Is there something in particular that you yearn to see?"
"No, but if I can do anything then surely I can change things?" She faltered. "Unless... What if I accidentally stop my own birth and wipe myself out of existence?"
"You can't wipe yourself out of existence." Aro said, appearing a little more serious now that someone else had the big ideas. "Allow me to explain the way it works. Selina, in conjunction with your shield, will make you a fixed point in time. What is the past for us will simply become the future for you, there is no way you can create… what is it those silly television shows call it?"
"Time paradoxes?" Bella replied.
"Yes, those. Even if you murdered your own parents and were never born, you would still exist. You would be completely immune from time paradoxes. That is why there cannot be a return trip. When you are sent back, the present will cease to exist. It would just be a hypothetical future, just as the future is to us now."
"So I can change things? Anything I like? How far back can I go?"
He opened his hands. "By all means, change what you like. I believe the limit is the year Selina was born, 1885."
"Okay!" Bella nodded, a smile growing. "1885's good!"
"Woah, Bella wait." Edward stepped back from his position by Carlisle and touched her arm. "You're making me nervous here. You can't possibly be considering…"
"Think about it, Edward!" She caught hold of his hand. "If I'm going back seventy years anyway, why not go back a bit further and change some things?"
"What kind of things? What are you planning?"
"Everything! All the bad things that have happened to us! I could stop them!"
"What?" Edward shook his head as if to clear the offending idea. "No, Bella... You can't stop every bad thing from happening. Even if it wasn't literally impossible to do, that's way too much to take on yourself. And besides, you're not going. There is no way you are going."
A growl rumbled through the guard, Jasper turned and sent Edward a warning look.
"I don't think I have much of a choice, love." Bella told her terrified husband. "But if I'm risking my life anyway, I might as well go back and stop Rose and Esme being attacked, or Alice being tortured, or your parents dying. What kind of person would I be if I didn't at least try?"
Edward sighed, his face distraught. "But why 1885? Surely the earliest you would need to go is 1910! Why the extra twenty five years?"
"Well…"
"Bella, you can't."
Jasper had finally taken his eyes off the Volturi guard for long enough to participate in the discussion. Bella turned from where she was still nestled against Esme's chest to look at him properly.
"Why can't I?"
"I…" he sighed, "I know what you're thinking. And I appreciate it, Bella. I really do. But I can't let you go anywhere near the Southern Wars. It was more brutal than anything you've ever seen and anything I could ever bear you seeing. Please, you'll die. Leave me out of this, you can come get me when I break myself out."
"In what? 1935?" Bella gaped. "I'm not letting you stay in a war camp for fifty years longer than you have to!"
"I doubt you would have a choice even if you tried! You've never seen conflict on this scale before! You've never even won a fight!"
"I'll ask for help!" she insisted, "I'll find Carlisle first, there's nomads, maybe even the Volturi. I won't just jump in blind, I promise."
Jasper sighed in indignation.
"But… Bella," Alice said, her eyes darting between her sister and increasingly distressed husband, "there would be no coming back, if you change things we won't be the same people. The family would be gone. At least if you only go to 1942 we would still all be together."
"We will still be together!" Bella said, "You've told me yourself, Ali. Some things are meant to be and some people are meant to be together and that's us. You'll have different experiences and to a point that will make you different people, but your cores will be the same! Besides, I'm the only one who would notice any differences!"
"I don't think it's that simple, darling…" Esme whispered, her forehead resting on the top of Bella's hair.
"But at one point or another, you have all said you wished you had a choice. This is my chance to give that to you. I have to, please understand that I have to."
Her family stood silent, she continued on.
"Just think. Every tragedy, every slip up, every human we've accidentally hurt or killed. I could stop it, make it so it never happened. I could even stop some of you becoming vampires if that's what you really want."
Nobody replied, but Esme tightened her hold around Bella's waist and Edward raised her palm to his cheek and then turned his face into it.
"My mind is made up." She said, "I'm going. Either tell me what you need me to do or I'll wing it and mess something up."
Carlisle let out a loud sigh and turned to Aro. "Are you in a particular rush, or do we have time to prepare her?"
He waved his hand dismissively, "I don't have anywhere to be. But don't take too long, if you please. Our situation is somewhat… uncomfortable. I'll give you two hours."
"Right…" Carlisle turned to Bella. "I guess we need to form some kind of plan."