Blood Moon [a Twilight Saga FanFiction]

Buried Underneath

(TRIGGER WARNING: the following chapters consists of topics of war and grief that might be sensitive to some readers. Reader discretion advised.)

EDWARD WASN'T SURPRISED WHEN ESME, MARY, JASPER AND I ARRIVED AT THE HOSPITAL. Though, I imagined that with all of our thoughts, he should have been pretty well informed. So much so that he didn't ask for an explanation. Emmett, however, did when he and Rosalie joined us.
     "We're getting Carlisle out," Esme muttered the answer.
     "Okay," Emmett muttered back and looked around to the humans who still worked. "How?"
     "We're waiting for Mary's sign," Edward asked.
     Emmett looked at Mary Alice who gave him her signature big grin and waved at him.
     "Okay."
     I had to smile at how accepting Emmett was of the situation.
     And as the sun finally began to set, all of our eyes were on Mary Alice and her distant eyes seeing what only Edward could see.
     As the moon got higher, Esme became more anxious, and the feeling in my gut, something in the back of my mind telling me that Carlisle was not okay, and the longer we waited, the more not okay he was becoming.
     "Mary Alice, I'm about to implode here," I hissed. I was resulting to holding my breath for my control.
     "Just a little bit longer. Don't worry, he'll be okay," Mary said calmly to me. "I promise you, Lizzy. I'd never let anything happen to your brother."
     His words did nothing to top the knotting in my throat. The fear that rose like bile, that grew like flames heating my whole body. Or was I really hot?
     Self-evaluating, I felt hot. Yes, I was afraid, my stomach was tight, my every muscle was tense in fear for my brother and the constant feeling of dreed and that something wasn't right. But I was truly feeling hot. Instinctively, even though it was useless, I held my hand to my head and felt relief from my own cold. The feeling of dread was overwhelming, was that what was making me hot?
     "How are y..." Edward cut himself off, but it was enough to all look at him, looking at me with a look of confusion.
     "I've seen it before," Jasper said, his arms tight over him.
     He was the only one not looking at Edward, because he, too, was looking at me.
     Why were the telepath and empath looking at me? Why weren't they paying attention to Mary Alice and her visions?
     "The only time my talents were not able to affect someone, is when they felt the pain and fear of their twin," Jasper continued.
     "You're trying to use your talents on me?" I asked.
     "But it's not working because of a connection with your brother."
     "What?"
     "It's what I was saying," Edward said softly. "You're feeling hot and a rising sense of dread and fear. Carlisle is also feeling the same things." Jasper nodded one, singular, small nod.
     "An empathetic twin connection," he added.
     "What?" Esme repeated for me.
     I had seen cases, had heard stories of twin empathy but had never really believed it. One twin breaking their arm and the other feeling their pain literally. One twin dying and the other being able to say exactly when they died.
     Was I witnessing it first-hand for myself? If so, why hadn't it ever happened before? Like when he injured himself while we were humans. He couldn't walk but I felt nothing.
     Was it a trait our immortality heightened?
     And had we just not noticed it before now because neither of us had been in true, unrelenting danger until now?
     Is that how close Carlisle was to death?
     "Trust your instincts," Mary Alice suddenly chimed, breaking through my internal panic. "Our goal is to get Carlisle out."
     "Do we know where he is-"
     "In the centre," I stated and began walking over the rubble. Mary didn't stop me. Esme was close on my heels. "Deep."
     "He's not sure of where he was moved to in the explosion," Edward stated.
     "So trust the twin sister?" Rosalie asked.
     "I know I do," Esme added, I felt her hand brush against mine.
     "Now or never," Mary said. "Remember to clean up."
     My eyes were targetted a large slab of concrete that I tore through and as my hands threw one slab away, Esme's were there to tear away the next.
     Every broken slab of concrete, every heavily damaged piece of Hospital equipment, intensified the urgency I was feeling, increasing the heat I was supposedly feeling with Carlisle.
     After a moment, Mary stopped the others digging around me and after only a few slabs, I reached him. 
     Carlisle was with a long-deceased human. The building had broken around his naturally harder than a stone state. Carlisle and I had to work together to push the last slab of Hospital away from him so he could stand. 
     It was insanely hot where we were standing, a heat I had never felt before and I was sure I didn't want to.
     "You first," I said. "You've been down here longer."
     There was a sense of imminent danger in that hole of debris and heat. But I couldn't smell anything out of the ordinary, nothing besides a broken building was out of the ordinary.
     As Carlisle climbed out of the hole, I quickly looked around and when I felt the rising sense of dread and danger, I follow Carlisle out of the debris.
     I had to chuckle as from above, Carlisle was practically heaved from the hole by Esme. I could hear the kisses and tight, squeezing embrace.
     Jasper helped me out of the hole.
     "We all need to get back," Mary said quickly, already getting back away from the rubble.
     Rosalie, Emmett and Jasper began to follow her, Edward and I stopped to watch Esme and Carlisle.
     I'll grab her, you grab him, I ordered in thought to Edward who gave an affirming nod in response.
     The most trialling aspect of the disentanglement was getting Esme's hand off Carlisle without taking his head off. It was also the most humorous part of the disentanglement. Just how eager Esme was to get to her husband.
     "You've got an audience, Esme," I whispered in my sister's ear. "Rose, Em, and Ed will give you two some privacy tonight. Come on, get a hold of yourself."
     She hung her head in what only could be in embarrassment, and walked with me to safety. Once more I was impressed with Mary's impeccable timing and reminded of her amazing talents. Once Carlisle, Edward, Esme and I were far enough away, the hole we had created very suddenly and very frighteningly erupted into flames, quickly engulfing the burnable debris, including highly flammable cleaning chemicals, medications and supplies.
     Though I looked at the flames billowing out like a fountain, and my mind travelled back to another fire. A memory crept up on me from the other timeline and the sting of the flames tickled my cheek, my arms... I took a few steady steps back away from the flames and found myself suddenly holding my hair. The hair that had been singed short in the hospital fire that nearly took my life when I stupidly went back in for Carlisle.
     "Elizabeth," Carlisle said softly from my side.
     I turned to my brother and his dark eyes. He smiled and pulled me into a quick embrace and just like that, all fears for my life and his were gone, like the smoke rising from the destroyed hospital.
     "Thank you," he muttered in my ear. "And I am sorry."
     "In the last timeline, it was Igor and me. Let us not make a pattern of this and have Esme in a dangerous fire hazard, okay?" I suggested.
     Esme laughed.
     "I can agree to this."
     I laughed with my sister and kept holding onto my brother. Though, as my hands tightened on his shoulders, his tightened on my back.
     I held onto him and every fear I had experienced, from the Hospital to the war, seemed to be okay. The confusion about Hitler, the fear of Demetri and Felix, grenades, bombs... everything evaporated when I was with Carlisle.
     "W-"
     "Give them a moment," Mary quickly interrupted Emmett. "We have time. She needs this."
     "Fascinating, I've never experienced something like this before," Jasper whispered.
     "Like what?" I asked, finally able to pull away from Carlisle.
     "I was ready to intervene if needed. With both of your fears and concerns, but you didn't need me to. It was as if simply holding one another, healed all negative emotions," Jasper explained.
     "That's different from the last timeline," Carlisle noted, his brows pulling together.
     "I didn't get a few years to grow up with you in the last timeline," I stated. "That was bound to affect our relationship."
     "And on your supernatural twin power, it seems," Esme chimed, making us all look at her. "It's something I remember from my repetitive dream. The panther, bear, viper, and bat. The twin power that was used to-"
     "Win against the Volturi," Carlisle muttered.
     It was hazy, but if I searched in my memories, I saw it. Renesmee showing us what she saw, when the bear shot like a spirit over my head, panther above Carlisle's, viper above Jane and bat above Alec. 
     "Don't forget, that power also helped us fight the you know what, with the you know who," Mary Alice said with a confident smile.
     Of course, the same talent that saved us against the medusa. But still...
     I was reminded of the pain I felt to use that power in proper action. The crushing grief... the fear... the pain... the emptiness of Igor's death. The hollowness I had felt watching him burn...
     "He's okay," Jasper quickly said as the feeling began to overwhelm me. Even start to make my legs weak.
     He wasn't here. Where was he? I needed to know he was okay.
     I felt the touch of Jasper talent, but it didn't penetrate the overwhelming, blinding grief.
     "Mary, can you see Igor?" Jasper said, grasping my hand. It heightened the strength of his talent and I felt calm, sane again. I had the strength to stand now, to understand.
     "Yes," Mary stated with an annoyed huff. "Not well because he's with Verity, but I know he is alive."
     "See?" Jasper said softly. "He's okay. He's waiting for you, they all are."
     "I should be getting back," I stated.
     "What's wrong?" Carlisle asked.
     "She was remembering the pain she had to feel to use the power," Edward explained quietly.
     "Elizabeth..."
     Carlisle took my other hand, and Esme wrapped her hands around his on mine. So I had my brother and sister on one hand, and Jasper was still using touch to have a handle on the emotion that came avalanching with the memory.
     "He'll be waiting for you in Germany, Lizzy," Esme said softly. "I know he will."
     "You should go to him, Elizabeth," Carlisle continued. "Remind yourself that he is alive and well."
     "And come visit us when your new song has control of himself," Esme added with a smile. "We can't wait to meet our nephew."
     I couldn't help but smile when Esme gave me the most heartwarming smiles. It was just one of those smiles that made you feel warm inside, even when dead.
     So with the strength that I was ninety-eight per cent sure was mostly Jasper's gift, and Esme's and Carlisle's pure kindness, and the acceptance that Carlisle was once again safe and out of danger (for now), I finally began to make my journey back to Germany.