𝗕𝗟𝗔𝗡𝗞 𝗦𝗟𝗔𝗧𝗘 | 𝗧𝗪𝗜𝗟𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧 𝗫 𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗩𝗘𝗟

𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝟮

Despite the blood seeping from multiple wounds on her face, there was no denying it.

"Isn't she meant to be dead? We just watched her be pronounced dead." Alice nudged Emmett to keep him quiet as the billionaire's gaze darted towards him, the fear clear in her eyes.

Jasper tapped her cheek, ignoring the blood and tears on it, bringing her attention back to him. "Focus on me. It's okay, we're helping you."

She trembled beneath his hands still crying out and writhing against the pain despite Rosalie and Edward's attempts to hold her still.

Her teary eyes met Jasper's as she managed a broken whisper, managing to control her screams with Jasper's help. "Please don't let me die. I don't want to die."

Esme let out her own quiet sob, Emmett wrapping his arm around his mother-figure.

The others could understand her despair. Rosalie and Emmett were the only transitions she'd seen and they'd both been unconscious when Carlisle brought them in. They hadn't had the chance to beg for their lives to be spared.

Jasper brushed away a tear. "Are you sure? No matter how painful it is to live? Even if you beg for it?"

She managed to meet Jasper's gaze. "Don't let me die. Not even if I beg for it."

Jasper nodded slowly. "You have my word."

Carlisle gave a firm nod as the decision was made, looking around at his family. "Let's take her home."

As Emmett stepped forward to take the human, so delicate and frail looking compared to his gigantic, strong frame, Alice pulled Jasper aside, fitting her hand in his. "I'm proud of you."

Jasper shook his head. "It's different, for some reason. Her blood isn't sweet, or very desirable compared to any other human I've come across before. It's more... chemical, almost."

Alice nodded, wincing at the fresh scream that ripped through the woman as Rosalie helped Emmett lift her up, trying not to aggravate any of her wounds. "I noticed it too. She's a scientist, though, she might have done something herself to make it that way. We can ask her when she's completed the transition."

She looked at her husband with affection. "Now come on, she's going to need you. It'll all work out. You'll see."

~

It didn't take long for her to change her tune. The pleas to live turned into pleas to die, begging them to "just make it stop."

As they settled her down onto Carlisle and Esme's bed she was thrashing, desperately trying to get away from the invisible pain.

Her screams of agony didn't stop, not even with Jasper's help, the only interruptions being the frequent sobs and broken pleas.

Carlisle gently cleaned the visible wounds, washing away the blood as Rosalie stroked her hair from one side of the bed and Jasper held her hand on the other, a grounding point as he tried to subdue the intense emotions of pain, fear and despair.

Alice silently stood beside her husband, a supportive hand on his shoulder as he continued to be hit by painful waves of the woman's emotions.

Edward lingered at the doorway, not wanting to leave, but not wanting to hear her thoughts either.

Emmett stood by Rosalie as Esme helped Carlisle as much as she could.

Apart from Alice, they could all remember the traumatic experience of going through the transition, and they only had sympathy for her.

As her heart rate sped up, a faint blue glow they hadn't noticed before began flickering beneath her shirt.

Emmett raised an eyebrow. "She glows now, too?"

He was ignored as Rosalie took a hand away from the brunette's hair to shift her top enough to see what the cause was but still keep her modesty.

A few sharp inhales sounded at the sight of the arc reactor, usually only seen on the suit, built into her chest, faded scars surrounding it.

"That's actually in her?" Emmett muttered in disbelief, even Edward drifting closer to see it properly.

Carlisle reached out to carefully touch the flickering light, but as his fingers brushed the edge of it the genius immediately recoiled, trying to scramble away despite the pain.

"Don't touch it!" She shrieked at him, quickly becoming hysterical.

He quickly drew back his hands, holding them up in surrender, although he wasn't sure she was coherent enough to comprehend it.

Jasper moved closer, gently grabbing her face and forcing her attention onto him as he worked to calm her.

Carlisle glanced helplessly at Edward. "What was that?"

Edward let out a sigh, looking horrified at whatever it was that he had seen in her mind. "It's keeping her alive. A bomb exploded too close to her. It's keeping pieces of shrapnel from entering her heart." He shook his head. "Someone's tried to take it out before. She almost died. I don't want to tell you anything else without her permission."

"A natural reflex to keep herself safe then." Carlisle murmured, ignoring the horrified looks from his other family members at Edward's words. "Influenced by ptsd from that encounter. It's probably why her blood smells different - less potent, more chemical."

He sighed, glancing up with a grim expression. "I'm going to have to take it out. Otherwise I don't know what will happen when the venom tries to heal it, but it won't be pleasant."

Esme glanced anxiously between her husband and the panicking woman that their foster son was attempting to comfort. "While she's like this? We won't be able to knock her out. The pain is too strong, it will keep her awake."

Carlisle swallowed, looking up at the pixie-like vampire hovering over Jasper's shoulder. "Alice?"

Alice's vision blurred for less than a second before she nodded. "If Jasper keeps her subdued as much as possible and we hold her down it'll be fine. It won't be fun, or pleasant, but it'll work, and the venom will heal it easily enough."

"Right. Then that's what we have to do. Let's get this over with."