Eclipse
2008
Jasper gave Bella a glance before looking back straight ahead wondering if he should reveal his past to her. "I didn't have quite the same upbringing as my adopted siblings." Wishing to end the conversation just like that, Jasper started moving away to get Dorothea's snack she had left on the training ground but Bella went to follow after him.
Jasper let out a sigh, stopping mid-way through his destination to look back at the mortal, taking in her emotion and slightly irritated that he knows she won't leave until she gets what she wants.
He slowly lifted his sleeves to show the mortal. At first, Bella sees nothing in the overcast grey light. Then it becomes clear that his arm is feathered with hundreds of white, half-moon-shaped scars. Bella is aghast. "Those bites are like mine."
"Battle scars. All the training the Confederate Army gave me... Was useless against the newborns. Still, I never lost a fight"
"This has happened during the civil war?" Jasper nods as he starts to walk slowly, Bella had walked apace with him "I was the youngest major in the Texas cavalry. All without having seen any real battle."
"Until?"
"Until I met a certain immortal. Maria." Jasper's face darkened when he starts imagining the past, disgusted as he spoke of her name. "I was riding back to Galveston... After evacuating a column of women and children. When I saw her..." Jasper remembered clearly that day as if it had happened yesterday. How he slows when he sees three women in frayed dresses and bare feet, their beauty overwhelms him that thinking now he starts getting mad at himself.
"I immediately offered her my aid."
"Lovely. And an officer." / "You'd better do it, Maria. I can never stop once I've started." Jasper remembered how he was so confused but mesmerized when Maria moves closer. "What's your name, soldier?" / "Major Jasper Whitlock, Ma'am." / "I hope you survive. You maybe be of great use to me."
Jasper stops his action as pain clears on his face of the painful memory showing itself clearly in his mind, Bella had sat on a fallen log before questioning the vampire. "Maria was creating an army?"
"There were very common in the South. And cost brutal battles for territory." Talking about this he saw clearly his then-red eyes. He's almost unrecognizable in his ferocity as he tears through an opposing army of newborns, ripping off limbs, arms, and heads. He's a terrifying warrior that he started thinking what did Dorothea see in him?
"Maria won them all. She was smart and careful. And she had me. I was the second in command. My abilities to control emotions served her well." Jasper zoned out as he recalls he was training a group of newborns, demonstrating defensive and attack maneuvers.
They're a feral-looking bunch.
Jasper's eyes are burgundy-red, his face hard, and cold until he crosses a young, innocent-looking boy, 15. Jasper softens ever so slightly as he encourages the boy, who looks up to him.
"I trained her newborns. An endless occupation since she never let them live beyond their first year."
A stronger newborn easily pins the boy. Maria appears behind Jasper and grabs him into a kiss, dominant and salacious. She whispers to him regarding the boy.
Jasper's despair was clear as he restrains the boy in a chokehold, almost an embrace before twisting the boy's head off.
"It was my job to dispose of them. I could feel everything they felt." Unknown to the two, Dorothea slowly walked her way toward them. Waking up not seeing Jasper panicked her a little, but soon after hearing his voice made her calm down.
"I thought what Maria and I had was love. But I was her puppet. She pulled the strings. I didn't know there was another way... Until I found Dorothea. Now, Alice did see her coming, of course. But I had a hard time believing at first, till we met."
"It hurts that you don't believe in me. Kept me waiting long enough." Dorothea wraps her arms around Jasper from behind him with her famous cheeky smile, hanging her body on him which Jasper didn't seem to mind, her smile grew twice than normal, "My apologies, Ma'am."
"I don't know what I'd have become without her," Jasper said to Bella but his eyes were on Dorothea with a smirk that could make anyone fall for him. "You'll never have to be that again." Dorothea tries to kiss the pain away, Jasper accepting the kiss while Bella stares at them in fondness and jealously.
Hoping one day she and Edward can be the same as the couple in front of her.
"Dorothea, what about you? Can I know your past?" Dorothea and Jasper froze their kiss to look at the mortal, both shocked at what to answer. "My story isn't as impressive as Emmet, Edward, Dean and Carlisle who died for a reason nor as sad as Rose, Alice, Jasper, and Esme. I'm sure my story isn't worthy."
Jasper frown at this, as he sees Dorothea's story as something cruel for her age to handle. Bella wasn't pleased with the answer so Dorothea spoke again. "You'll know in the future. Everyone will."
( • ͜ʖ • )
Jacob faces Bella and Edward. They're in the center of the field.
Jasper stands several paces behind Edward with Dorothea beside him. He was they to make sure the two lover boy wasn't going to start a fight when they needed to try a strategy in action. Dorothea was merely for moral support for her lover, knowing how annoying Edward, Bella, and Jacob could be.
A very annoying combination.
"You're not fighting? What, you pull a muscle or something?" / "He's doing it for me. Okay?" Jacob looks at Bella, at Edward, and shakes his head with disdain.
Dorothea carefully leans to Jasper's side to whisper. "Is it bad if I'm rooting for Jacob to win over Bella than my own brother?" Jasper chuckled with a smirk but his eyes kept on the 2 males in case they broke into a fight. "It is darling." / "But I'm just saying what I see as the perfect couple!"
Before Jasper could respond Jacob asked him, cutting the couple's conversation, "Whatever. Just tell me the plan." Jasper steps forward slightly, his serious mode on, to tell the group that he wasn't here to play around, "This field will give us an advantage in battle. We need to lure the newborns with Bella's scent. It needs to end here."
"Edward and I are going to a campsite. Even if he carries me, they'll still pick up our scents." / "Your stench, however, is revolting."
Jasper and Dorothea sigh at their brother's childish act when they are trying to get Jacob to follow their strategy, not the other way, Dorothea was the one who took action since she is standing behind the male, she smacks Edward at the back of his head.
"Dude, you really don't want to start comparing stinks!" / "What he means, is that your scent will mask mine if you carry me."
"Done." Jasper looks back at Dorothea to see her smirking at him with an eyebrow raised. They made a bet before that Jacob would easily follow their plan while Jasper thought he wouldn't.
"This is not a good idea," Edward said to Jasper, hoping he would second guess the plan but he didn't. "Edward. They won't want to get anywhere near his... odour." Jasper smile trying to put words nicely but awkwardly that Dorothea giggles behind him.
"Ok, Let's just try it." Edward finally agrees after a quiet minute. Bella extends her arms to Jacob who grins, picks her up, holding her tight, "Eau de wolf, comin' up." Jacob smirks at Edward while the man scowl at him, "Run."
Once they are gone Dorothea spoke up "Ah, nothing like some love triangle drama early in the morning, right Jas?" Jasper just shook his head at his wife with a smile while Edward glared at her, "For your information, I heard what you were talking about with Jasper early."
"Oops, caught red-handed." Edward let out an irritated sigh, today was just not his day. "Don't you have some talking to do with Charlie?" Dorothea stops laughing as she forgets her today's task, giving Jasper a quick peck before rushing off to find Emmet.
"I question sometimes how you handle her."
"I'm not complaining."