There was one second when nothing moved, when no sound was made.
Then Georgiana lurched forward the same moment Maria did, and the two of them collided with howls of anger and hatred. Jasper wanted to move forward and take Maria down himself, but knowing Georgiana he also knew that this was her battle, and that she wanted her revenge. She would not give up fighting Maria to anyone. Even if it destroyed her.
Georgiana had entered this war planning to destroy her enemy along with herself - but now she had reason again to live. She did not want to die anymore, not now that her world was about the be restored... her children had a father, she had a husband... She could not die anymore. Whether or not she could escape the trap she had laid for herself or not, however, was still written in the stars.
One powerful weapon had been handed to her, however; love. And therewith her fighting spirit.
"You seriously think you have a chance against me?" Maria screeched, madness in her eyes. "When was the last time you actually fought a battle yourself and not sent forward your lackeys? A century ago?"
Georgiana didn't reply, but hauled Maria off of her, sending her several metres in the opposite direction.
"Face it, bitch, you have no chance against me." Maria hissed, burying her claws deeply into Georgiana's arms, only to be kicked away. She had left deep wounds on her opponent anyhow.
Jasper could just stand by and watch helplessly. Maria was the best fighter he had ever encountered, there was no denying in that. There was nothing he'd rather do than take Georgiana's place so that she would be safe, and then he'd fight Maria. Whether or not he survived it wouldn't matter then - as long as his beloved wife would be safe and alive.
"One should never make the mistake of underestimating women." Aro said as if he were commenting a football match. "They can turn out to be the fiercest fighters."
"What do you think you hold against me?" Maria taunted, having ripped a deep hole into Georgiana's side - blood was staining her shirt, the spot quickly growing larger. It would have knocked out the toughest of fighters.
Felicity watched her mother numbly. All her life, she had seen her strong and controlling, but never revealing emotions. The woman fighting there now was someone different; Felicity felt that it was the woman her mother had been before her world had shattered. And she was stronger than the ghost her mother had become.
Jasper prepared to lunge forward when Georgiana was cowering on the ground, her blood drenching the grass below her. However, she did not even flinch at the pain, but just jumped up again in a movement too fast for even vampires to perceive - and a second later, she held Maria, who was already light-headed from her alleged victory, firmly in her grasp, her deadly teeth near to her throat.
"If you would have saved your energy for thinking instead of whining, you might have seen that it's not the wings of the eagle which kill the mouse." Georgiana hissed quietly. "So here's the answer to your question: An eagle with broken wings uses its beak."
Therewith she sank her teeth into Maria's throat, ripping her apart mercilessly.
Bella turned Renesmee away so that she would not see, while the Volturi wsere looking at the scene in interested but shocked surprise. Never would they have expected an outcome like this, and they were glad now that they had not joined this war alongside Maria, but had just given her the pretext she needed.
"Leave." Georgiana growled, the pain making her worse than ill-tempered. Aro didn't need telling twice, and waved for retreat.
Georgiana watched them leave, then she turned her eyes on Jasper - and she did not see topaz eyes looking back to her, but silver ones.
Her memory didn't come back to her, but she knew that he was the man she loved, had always loved. The only there would ever be for her.
Georgiana's P.O.V.
Jasper was alive... he had not died all those years ago, but had lived... this whole time when I had been losing myself in grief had been for nothing. Felicity and John had missed their father because that bitch had Changed me and robbed me of my memory, after having assured my husband his family was dead. I wished I could kill her another time.
A growl rumbled in my chest as I clutched my bleeding side, and I felt my strength leaving me, in every way. I was weary of controlling, of my wasted life, of my emotional coldness, of everything.
Jasper's arms were around me when my legs gave way beneath me, and he was beside me when I was crouching on the ground, leaning against his chest. It was precisely this feeling of being protected, of nothing being able to harm me, that I had missed all these years, along with Jasper's smile, his touch, his presence... I was certain that all this had not changed over the years, it would just have to be found again, just like it would take time until I was the woman I had once been again.
Still there was this part in me that always rebelled, that always fought on, that was fighting yet with my fate. I drummed against his chest, trying to push him away. "Why didn't you come back!?"
"Georgiana." His voice was a calm counterpiece to mine, yet I refused to be soothed so easily.
"I needed you, Jasper! We all did!"
"I know, love. I know."
Jasper said nothing as I buried my face in his chest, clasping my arms around his neck, he just gently stroked my hair and kissed my forehead. It was then that my self-control that I had kept up for so long crumbled together like a house of cards - I cried in Jasper's arms.
No P.O.V.
Seeing Georgiana, the tough warrior princess who had just cold-bloodedly killed Maria, crying triggered various emotions in Bella; for one thing, surprise at that this woman was able to show weakness. Pity for all that she had lost. Highest respect at what she had achieved, at what she had endured and was still enduring. Admiration at the beauty of Georgiana when she was crying, when she was in the arms of the man she loved. Never had she been more beautiful than in this moment.
Edward gently took her arm and motioned her to leave. Only then Bella noticed that they were the last of the Cullen family to be on the clearing, and only John and Felicity were left.
"Come, love." Her husband quietly said. "This is their well-deserved moment."
Bella nodded, picked her daughter up and followed Edward back to the house.
Jasper meanwhile admired his wife as she cuddled into his arms, her tears slowly subsiding. Never before had he seen her cry, not in her human life, and he did not wonder that she was able to do so when she shouldn't be anymore.
"I love you, Georgiana." He said and with his thumb wiped away the last remaining tears from her cheek. She smiled, and it had never looked so happy and sincere. "As I love you, Jasper Whitlock."
It was all like it has been; it didn't need words between them.
Georgiana kissed her husband, then became aware that she was not the only one who would be effected by his appearance in her life. She turned and looked at her children. Their children.
Shortly before Jasper had died, or been Changed, she had just presented him the fact he was a father of two - now she would have to do so again.
Apparently, though, she would get help by Felicity this time, however unconventional and un-soft. The moment Georgiana had moved away from Jasper, Felicity stormed towards them and threw her arms around Jasper, not caring that he might not even know he had a daughter and a son. She was just abundantly happy that she had a father, that she finally had her father back. "Dad."
Jasper looked over Felicity's shoulder at Georgiana. "I would have given you a softer landing." She said apologetically. Jasper smiled at having his beloved wife back, and then closed his arms around his daughter. His full memory did not come back, but small patches of his human life reappeared in his mind, one being the first time he held his daughter in his arms.
"You've grown, Felicity." He stated with a smile.
Felicity broke their embrace so that she could look at him, smiling all over her face. Georgiana wondered then why she had not seen the resemblance before: It was striking. Felicity was the spitting image of her father.
Georgiana turned to John. He was her son through and through, and like her, he had not taken the absence of his father well, missing him in his life. How would he take that he had returned? Georgiana could not say, and was even a little worried.
It turned out unnecessary. Jonathan might not welcome his father as warmly and abundantly as Felicity, but he did welcome him - that was more than Georgiana could have asked for.
Finally, after 144 years, she had her family around her. Yet it would take an equal amount of time to become what they had once been. The wounds were deep and the scars numerous.
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