Pain and Psychic Suffering

Twilight in Sunnydale

Chapter 12: Pain and Psychic Suffering

Summary: Instead of James, Victoria & Laurent finding Bella & the Cullens in the field, The Bringers do.

Disclaimer: I certainly don’t own any of these characters. Twilight characters belong to Stephenie Meyers and BtVS, of course, belongs to Joss Whedon.

Notes: This story is set during S7 of BtVS and begins during the baseball game in Twilight. I have since seen the movie, but this is still based on the book, hence why it is included under the Literature section. I don’t usually write 1st person POV, so please wish me luck on remembering to do so!

Note: This chapter does actually contain something from the movie that wasn’t in the book.

Thank you to MaraLiz and Rorylondra for your excellent beta assistance!

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Edward’s POV

The rest of my family arrived shortly after Buffy and I did and it took both Jasper and Carlisle to hold me back from leaping right out the window and taking off after the vampire who took Bella and Dawn. I could smell the vampire and my instincts were to give chase. As soon as I calmed down, I could hear Buffy on the phone with Willow. I turned to face her and saw the fear in her eyes. Her mind was closed to me again and by the ruckus in the living room, Willow had teleported herself and a few others to the lower level and they were waiting for us.

I caught Buffy around the middle as I blurred downstairs. I found everyone in the dining room with a map of Sunnydale spread out on the table. Willow was muttering in a language I didn’t know, but I recognized her frustration easily enough when an invisible force shoved her out of her chair. She would have hit the wall if Jasper hadn’t caught and steadied her.

“Were you able to locate her?” Buffy asked.

“No, something blocked me and then handed me my brain,” Willow replied, gasping for air. Jasper offered his support, but I could hear in his thoughts that he really would rather be helping Alice, who was standing in the doorway, pinching the bridge of her nose.

I blurred over to Willow and told Jasper, “Go on. Take care of Alice, I have Willow.”

Jasper nodded and released Willow into my care. Her knees buckled and I caught her easily, my medical training taking over at the same time that Carlisle moved to examine her.

Emmett arrived at that moment, a flurry of activity, shouting, “There was a vampire here. He tried to get the girls, but I chased him. He’s resting in pieces now…”

He stopped short and looked at all of us, asking, “What’s everyone doing here?”

“The first vampire was a distraction so another vampire could take Bella and Dawn,” Carlisle informed him.

Rosalie stepped over to him and told him, “A third vampire sabotaged one of the generators at the house on Revello Drive, but Spike thought it was a diversion to keep our attention there instead of here, so I left Faith and Spike to protect the girls and came here just in case no one else could get here in time.

Carlisle’s gentle hands examined Willow for any damage from the magical attack. Her nose was bleeding slightly and her eyes were glazed, but they were clearing quickly. Her control wavered slightly though, and I began to hear some of the stray thoughts as they escaped from her spell.

Even as she had been trying to locate the girls, she and Buffy must have been having a conversation in their heads and it was still ongoing, although they didn’t realize that I was beginning to be able to hear them.

Will she use the pepper spray? Willow asked.

God, I hope so, Buffy responded. You did replace the one her father gave her with the one you made, right?

Yeah, when she was sparring with Spike, Willow confirmed.

Then it’s the only chance they have, Buffy told her. We need to get a message to Dawn to use it.

“What?!” I exclaimed, glaring at the two women. They shrank back; well, Buffy did. Willow was still in my arms and couldn’t go anywhere. I pulled her away from Carlisle’s attention and turned her to face me, demanding, “What did you do?”

*****

Bella’s POV

Silent tears made their way down my face, but I wouldn’t cry out again. I made that mistake once and Dawn paid the price for it. If it wasn’t for the spell Dawn had done, her body would be a mess of blood and broken bones. It seemed to infuriate James when Victoria started to play with her new toy only to find that Dawn wouldn’t bleed for her. What I couldn’t understand was why they only seemed to be interested in hurting Dawn. So far, they hadn’t touched me. Dawn still couldn’t speak and her mouth opened in a soundless scream as Victoria made a quick motion toward the girl’s sternum. It looked like she flicked her in the ribs, but knowing vampire strength, that probably meant that Dawn had a broken rib now, even if her skin wouldn’t break or bruise.

All of a sudden, Alice appeared next to me in my cell and I jumped. Oh, thank God! I ran to her and threw my arms around…thin air. What? Alice? I turned and Alice was watching me. She looked almost disappointed, but mostly curious as she studied me. I realized quickly that it wasn’t Alice who was visually dissecting me, but The First. “What do you want?” I demanded.

“Hmmm,” The First answered. “So many things, but I’ll settle for this world in rubble at my feet.”

The words seemed so strange coming out of Alice’s mouth. I had only known the little pixie vampire for a short amount of time, but Alice genuinely seemed to enjoy life and I couldn’t imagine her planning to end the world.

I was still horrified by the sight in front of me, but absently, I felt some kind of tugging on my pants pocket. I quickly forgot that as The First turned toward Dawn and giggled. Alice’s voice taunted me, “You can’t hear her scream, but I can taste it and believe me, there’s nothing sweeter. Well, maybe her blood, but you wouldn’t know what happened to that, would you?”

“Go to hell,” I spat at her. “Or go back there, or whatever.”

“That’s not a nice way to talk to your new mommy,” The First chided me, clucking her tongue in my direction.

“You’re more nuts than I thought,” I informed her.

That strange tugging was happening again and I realized that the canister inside my pocket was what was moving—the pepper spray. I forgot all about it. I didn’t know if it would work on vampires, but what other options did we have? I didn’t even know that Dawn knew about it, but she must have because she had to be the one moving it. I looked around to survey the scene: Victoria was tormenting Dawn, leaning in close to her and poking her finger into various muscles and laughing as Dawn’s face contorted in pain.

She turned to James, “Look, lover. She’s soft and squishy, but she doesn’t bleed. I wonder if she’s impervious to all of our weapons.”

Her teeth flashed ominously and I was suddenly very terrified for Dawn. She wasn’t even officially my Watcher yet and I was already failing her. She was broken and, well, not bleeding and the only thing I could think to do was help her get the pepper spray. I wouldn’t have the protection anymore, but they didn’t seem to want to hurt me and besides, I couldn’t justify keeping the protection for myself when someone else obviously had more need for it. Too late, I realized, as Victoria sank her teeth into Dawn’s neck. Her soundless scream reverberated through me, but I managed to use James’ distraction of watching Victoria to pull the pepper spray out of my pocket and that was the only opening Dawn needed.

As soon as Victoria released Dawn’s throat, her eyes opened and latched onto mine. For once I really wished that my mind wasn’t closed off and that Dawn could communicate with me the way she communicates with Edward. A plan formed quickly in my mind. Victoria and James were still contemplating Dawn’s spell and what else they might try. The First was watching me, but I knew what I could do to get her attention drawn elsewhere.

“So, the wonder twins over there are your great big plan?” I asked her, letting her hear the contempt in my voice. “I don’t know. They seem to be thinking with their teeth.”

The First turned toward the vampires and I pulled the pepper spray free, tossing it lightly into the air and trusting Dawn’s ability to catch it in mid-air. She didn’t disappoint and I was grateful that The First didn’t see the canister as Dawn moved it into place behind Victoria. All we needed was for her to turn around; without thinking, I called out, “Hey, Bitch.”

Oh, crap. Bad idea, bad idea, I thought as both of them turned to face me. Except, it was a good idea because it was exactly what Dawn needed. As soon as Victoria turned toward me, Dawn telekinetically pressed the lever on the pepper spray and caught Victoria in the face with a full dose. Time seemed to slow as James turned first furious eyes at me for daring to insult his lover and then began laughing as he saw what we had done. When Victoria screamed and steam began coming off of her, his laughter lapsed into a horrified silence. The vampire skin I knew to be rock hard and impenetrable began melting off of her as she shrieked in agony. It reminded me of the scene where the Wicked Witch of the West melts after having a bucket of water thrown on her. Piece-by-piece, Victoria folded in on herself until there was nothing left, not even her wild red hair.

James turned back to me and was about to rip the bars off of my cell when The First stepped in front of him and said, “No! She has a part to play. You will not kill her.”

I don’t want a part to play, I thought reactively. With horror, I watched as James swung around and glared at Dawn, “I can’t kill her, but this one…”

I barely saw James’ foot move when suddenly Dawn went flying out of the window, the chains that held her in place broken away. I screamed the loudest, longest scream I could, praying that one of the Cullens was close enough to hear me and get to Dawn before it was too late. After a moment, James turned ruby, violent eyes in my direction and smirked, “That one doesn’t matter. We’ll be long gone when they find her.”

The last thing I saw was James tearing away the bars of the cell and his large hand coming toward my face.

******

Edward’s POV

I tightened my grip on Willow’s arm, hard enough to cause her pain and keep her from reestablishing the shields around their minds, but not so hard that she wouldn’t heal quickly enough. I dragged her over to Buffy and demanded again, “What did you do?!”

Immediately, a thousand thoughts flew through her mind and if I wasn’t a vampire, I never would have been able to catch them all, but as quickly as they formed, I was able to hear them all. She was remembering a conversation with Giles, Willow, Anya and Xander. Dawn was conspicuously absent and I recognized their clothing from right after my family arrived in Sunnydale. I ran through their entire conversation, trying to hold in my anger:

“I don’t like this, Giles,” Buffy complained. “I know what Willow said about being able to feel their souls, but that doesn’t make them good people…vampires…whatever! And, I don’t like Dawn over there. ‘Vampires-lite,’ she says. They’re something we’ve never encountered before. If things get out of hand, we don’t even have a way to kill them.”

Giles let her rant as he moved around his living room. He looked into an old vase, underneath a table, behind the entertainment center and then snapped his fingers, moving over to his enormous bookcase. He pulled down one of the volumes and opened it to reveal an apothecary’s jar hidden within the cut-out pages. Of course, Giles hides the good stuff where he knows I’ll never look, Buffy thought.

“Buffy, these types of vampires are certainly more rare than your standard demonic vampires, but they are hardly unknown nor are they undefeatable,” Giles informed her, placing the jar on the counter. “They simply hide themselves better, so it is rare for a Slayer to come across one.”

“But, they can be killed?” Buffy asked.

“They are a bit territorial, and they kill each other over hunting grounds on occasion,” Giles confirmed.

“Well, we can’t exactly call up some other blood-sucker and ask him to come kill these blood-suckers,” Xander commented. “That would just be like inviting them to come party on the Hellmouth.”

Giles glared at Xander and held up the jar with the mysterious substance. He gave it to Willow and began rattling off the names of various herbs and other items. She met his eyes gravely, “A spell?”

“Yes, Willow,” Giles told her. “A spell.”

“We need to get on this right away,” Buffy instructed. “We need to figure out a delivery method.”

“The pepper spray,” Xander cut in. They all turned to look at him and he continued, “Bella said she thought it was cute that her father gave her a can of pepper spray, even though it would be useless against her boyfriend.”

“We make it not useless,” Willow nodded. One-by-one, she gave out assignments, “Giles, you and Buffy keep the girls occupied. Xander, Anya, you have the Cullens. I’ll get the pepper spray when Spike is tutoring Bella.”

“How long will you need to have her spray?” Xander asked.

“Actually, we’re going to do the spell tonight and put the magical compound into a pepper spray can for each of the girls,” Willow told them.

“Good thinking,” Buffy nodded. “We don’t want Bella to be the only one to have protection if the Cullens go off the ranch.”

“Um…” Xander caught their attention and gestured to himself and Anya. “We’ll take two…each.”


“Pepper spray,” I spat.

“What?!” Esme asked, confused but alarmed at the harsh tone of my voice.

I could hear all of my family’s thoughts and most of them didn’t believe that the pepper spray would have any effect. I had to tell them what I knew, “They did something to it. It can kill us.”

Esme turned wide eyes on Buffy and my heart went out to my mother for a brief moment. I knew she would feel betrayed, especially after she had spent so much time mothering the Potentials. She always loved with all of her being and this must cut her deeply. But, I had no more than a fraction of a second to empathize with my mother because two people I cared very much for were still in danger.

“Look,” Buffy said. “We did what we did before we got to know you and we all hoped we wouldn’t have to use them, but we’d be stupid not to do whatever we could to protect ourselves.”

“Well, now we need to use that to our advantage,” I told her. “How do we do that?”

I released Willow’s arm and helped her sit down again. I didn’t have the time to divide my attention between her and the situation at hand. She rubbed her arm and I refused to feel guilty about the minor amount of pain I caused her. No wonder they didn’t want me to hear their thoughts. We were helping them and they had a plan in place to kill my entire family if we stepped out of line even a fraction of an inch. They deliberately kept Dawn in the dark because they knew she would tell me. In fact, she had warned me, I remembered and a growl ripped through my chest.

“I need to get a message to Dawn,” Willow told them.

“Can you reach her?” Jasper asked. His arms were wrapped around Alice and I could see the venom glistening in her eyes as she cried the only tears we had.

I can’t see them, Edward, Alice cried to me telepathically. I can’t see anything. Why can’t I see, Edward?

I moved over to Alice and pulled her into a hug, running my fingers through her unruly black hair. Willow concentrated and I followed her efforts in my mind. She wasn’t getting through for some reason. She wondered if she was too far away or if Dawn’s recent use of magic was blocking her in some way.

“No,” I told her. “It’s your magic, not hers. She told me that you were keeping something from her and she was angry about it. I think she’s unconsciously blocking you.”

“So, then what do we do?” Buffy asked.

“I’ll try,” I told them. “Dawn touched my mind. She left a link for me to be able to speak with her. I don’t know if it will work across a far distance, but it’s worth a try.”

I could hear Buffy and Willow’s shock in their thoughts, but finding Bella and Dawn was the priority and Buffy nodded. I wasn’t about to wait for her approval. Bella and Dawn mean a lot to me and I love them both dearly. I would do whatever I needed to if it meant bringing them home safely. I met Carlisle’s eyes and read his silent encouragement.

I took a deep breath and reached out, picturing Dawn in my mind. I hadn’t tried to contact Dawn over a distance before, but I had to be able to do it now. The first thing I felt when I finally connected with her was unbelievable pain. I have heard the thoughts of people in pain before and Dawn was in excruciating pain.

“I’ve got her, but I’m not going to be able to get much through to her,” I announced. “She’s in pain.”

Willow reached out and touched my hand. I could feel the pain Dawn was feeling leech away. It passed through me like a ghost and Willow’s face contorted as she took the pain into herself. “Do it now,” she told me through gritted teeth.

I quickly focused on the telepathic link, Dawn! I know it hurts and I know you’re scared, but there’s something you have to do. Get the pepper spray and spray them with it. It will work. Trust me.

I got a response. It was shaky, but it was a response, Edward, this is like ten kinds of heinous. God I hope this works. We’re in a church with a large bell-tower. It was dark when he took us. I couldn’t see which way, but I think I know how to let you know where. Listen carefully, Edward. Bella’s okay. They’re saving her for something. Don’t know what.

She was quiet for a moment, but then she came back ‘on-line’ in my mind, Okay, Edward. I’m ready, but the pain is getting worse, so after this, I probably won’t be able to talk anymore. In fact, something tells me I won’t be able to do anything anymore. Tell Buffy I love her.

Before I could form a response in my mind, I felt Dawn close down the connection. I was moving without even realizing it. My throat closed and all I could do was grab Buffy around the middle and run out of the house, shattering the front door in my path. I wasn’t sure where they had been taken, but I started following the scent trail as best I could. Another moment more and I had a direction to run in as I heard the female vampire shrieking in agony followed by the unmistakable sound of Bella’s scream.

I could hear the rest of my family following behind me, but my speed was unmatched by anyone else in my family and I arrived at the church just as a thin figure came flying out of the window. Instinctively, I dropped Buffy and launched myself into the air to catch the delicate human body. Dawn! She was fragile and, as I landed, I noted that the rest of my family had arrived. Alice and Jasper leapt into the window Dawn came flying out of and I heard Alice’s wail that Bella was gone. At the same time, Emmett spotted James fleeing through the woods and he and Rosalie sped off after him. Jasper and Alice followed them and I was torn between going after my love and staying with my new baby sister.

Buffy had come up next to me and was calling her sister’s name frantically, but Dawn was unresponsive. Her thoughts were quiet and I knew she was unconscious. It was better that way anyway, I told myself.

Carlisle’s hand on my shoulder steadied my raging mind and I looked up at him. He must have read the indecision in my eyes because he squeezed my shoulder and said, “Go, Edward. I’ll take care of Dawn.”

I pressed a kiss to Dawn’s temple and whispered for her to be strong and then sped off in the direction my family had gone.

*****

Esme’s POV

As angry as I was with Buffy and her people’s betrayal when we had done nothing wrong, I couldn’t help but feel her pain at seeing her sister lying broken on the ground. She was still breathing and her heart was still beating, but the light I had come to associate with Dawn was missing. I’m not sure when I first noticed that she was bleeding, but when I did, I quickly stopped breathing. Dawn was very clear that her spell had made only her blood desirable to us and I couldn’t take the chance that I would hurt her further. I didn’t like having my sense of smell cut off when there was still danger in the air, but protecting Dawn from myself became more important to me at that moment. I had already begun thinking of her as one of my children and it pained me to think that we might lose her. But, she had said that if she was too weak to maintain the spell, she would bleed again and we would all want her blood. Removing the ring would be pointless because I would still want human blood and hers would be the closest.

“Oh my God,” Buffy cried. “Dawn, you can’t leave me. I can’t do this without you.”

“Esme,” Carlisle called. He had his hand pressed against Dawn’s arm, which was suddenly pouring blood out of a vertical slice.

Oh, no! She’s going to bleed out, I thought as I moved to Carlisle’s side to ask him wordlessly what he needed. I marveled at his strength, to be so close to the blood that his body craved, but to resist the temptation so thoroughly that he could be covered in her blood and still focus. Covered. Oh, God. Carlisle was well and truly covered in Dawn’s blood.

“Esme,” Carlisle caught my attention as I started to panic and I forced myself to listen to him. “I can’t reach my bag from here, but I have to stitch up this wound if she is going to make it through.”

I had already grabbed his bag and pulled out the suture kit he kept in there when his words sank in. Make it through? Make it through what?

Buffy voiced the same question that ran through my mind and I wondered for a brief second if she hadn’t plucked it from my very thoughts as my son could have.

“Esme, I need you to put your fingers right here, just as I have them. Can you do that?” Carlisle asked. I looked at him, understanding beginning to dawn in my mind and my heart broke again for the dear girl in front of us. I knelt down and did as he instructed. My hands were now coated with Dawn’s blood and as soon as I could lift my hand away from Carlisle’s stitches, I brought my fingers up to my face and sniffed, knowing what I would find. I could feel the venom stinging my eyes as I cried the only way I could.

Buffy interrupted my thoughts by repeating her earlier question and this time Carlisle was able to divide his attention to answer her.

“Buffy,” Carlisle began. “I need you to focus right now. Your sister is in grave danger and I only have a few more minutes where I will still be able to save her.”

“You want to bite her, don’t you?” Buffy asked, tears filling her eyes. “That’s what you mean, right? That you can save her by making her one of you?”

Carlisle sighed and turned sad eyes toward Buffy. “No, she’s already been bitten. If we had been there when it first happened, we could have tried to get the venom out, but it’s too late. The only way to stop the change now is if we killed her. The venom hasn’t repaired her body yet and she would have died if I hadn’t sewn up her arm because the venom hasn’t reached her heart yet.”

“Dawnie,” Buffy cried and pulled her sister into her arms. She keened her sister’s name over and over, rocking her back and forth.

“Buffy, your sister is incredibly brave and has a beautiful heart that I cannot watch leave this earth so soon,” Carlisle told her and I understood what he was trying to tell Buffy even if she couldn’t see through the haze of the pain of her sister’s death to see that her sister would still live, if not exactly as she had.

Carlisle slipped the ring Dawn had given him off of his finger and placed it gently onto Dawn’s, the magical ring contorting to fit her finger perfectly. When Buffy looked at him in surprise, he offered her a tender smile, “I cannot help the pain she is going to go through when her body heals enough to regain consciousness. I don’t have any morphine and I think it is too late to be of any help anyway. But, I can make sure that my newest daughter doesn’t spend even one day so desperately thirsty that she would hurt anyone that she loves.”

“But, don’t you need the ring?” Buffy asked him, her tears beginning to abate slightly.

“Buffy, I spent centuries learning to control my thirst and I have never faltered,” Carlisle told her gently. “Have no fear. You and your friends are safe from me and the tiny amount of discomfort it causes me is nothing to the anguish a newborn would go through.”

I looked around at the unkempt grounds of the abandoned church and couldn’t bear for another moment to see Dawn here. I moved over to Buffy and wrapped my arms around her, heedless of my cold skin. She needed comfort more than anything else and she was already covered in her sister’s blood, so my bloody hands wouldn’t make a difference. I let go of my earlier anger at the thought of what I would do if one of my family was in danger. I would protect them with everything and anything I could. Besides, if The First succeeded in ending the world, none of this would matter anyway.

“Come,” I whispered to her. “Let’s get her back to the mansion where we can make her as comfortable as we can. At the very least, we can clean her up so that when she wakes, she won’t be covered in her own blood.”

Buffy nodded absently and I could sense in her breathing and her heartbeat that she was going into shock. I rubbed gentle circles onto her back, just as I would have done for my baby boy if he had lived, and offered what little comfort I could. “We’ll take good care of her, Buffy. I promise.”

TBC