Twilight Soldier (10/37)
Title: Twilight Soldier
Rating: T
Summary: Dark Angel/ Twilight Crossover. X5 Bella/Edward. No Pulse. After escaping the harsh treatment at the hands of a secret government organisation known as Manticore, X5-472 has tried to settle into life as an Ordinary with varying degrees of success. Going by the name Bella, which was given to her by the CO of her unit, Zack, she comes across the Swan family and is soon adopted by them.
Years later, after an Eyes Only broadcast revealing the possibility of her location being compromised, she decides to go to a small town called Forks. There, she meets Edward Cullen. They both have their seeming impossible secrets, but that doesn’t stop them from being drawn to each other. However, when Bella’s past finally begins to catch up with her after ten years on the run, she finds that her life just got even more complicated.
Masterpost
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Chapter 10: Intruder
A gun shot sounded from behind her, spurring Bella on faster. She dashed through the openings in the trees, her heart pounding wildly in fear. Images of her siblings lying on the cold, hard forest floor flashed before her eyes and she blinked back the tears that were threatening to flow. She couldn’t be blinded by them, not now. Zack would have wanted her to continue to escape. Somehow she managed to escape the deadly massacre at the forest clearing. There were many TAC soldiers, who had turned their guns on her when she had entered the clearing. Something had stopped them, though. It was something that went too fast for even her enhanced eyesight. And whatever it was left them dead, laying unceremoniously on the slow, near her siblings.
She raced on, determined. In front her she could see her freedom - The Wire, as her unit mates called it - the fence that ran across the perimeter of the entire facility that she and her siblings were kept in. Behind her, she could hear the footsteps and the engines of the snowmobiles following the trail that she had left in the snow.
Once Bella got within a few feet of The Wire, she leapt onto it, starting to climb over. She didn’t get very far, though. Manticore TAC soldiers had closed in on her. They sent out a tazer shot. It landed in the middle of her back, sending electrical pulses throughout her body. She was determined to withstand the intensity of the electricity and continued to climb up the fence, but soon she felt several more tazers land on her back. The sudden and sharp pain caused her fingers to lose grip of the fence. She fell through the air, landing in the snow with a small thud. She looked up at Lydecker who had closed the distance between them and saw that he had a cruel smirk on his face and her trembling form reflected in his eyes.
“You shouldn’t have run, 472,” Lydecker scolded cruelly, shaking is head in disappointment. He then turned to the TAC Leader next to him. “Terminate her. She’s not even worth sending to the Nomilies.”
Fear shot through Bella’s body, not unlike the tazers earlier. She tried to move, but she couldn’t, still weak from the tazer shots. She could only watch on in horror as the TAC Leader raised his handgun, aiming at her heart. His index finger hovered over the trigger, ready to pull it at any moment. The TAC Leader looked at Lydecker once more to confirm the order. Bella moved her gaze to Lydecker, too. She could only watch on as Lydecker nodded, the smirk still wide across his face. Heart pounding, adrenaline racing, Bella waited to hear the gunshot.
Seconds passed by, but there was still no movement.
Bella turned to the TAC leader, to see him sprawled out dead. Bella glanced back at Lydecker. He was staring at the TAC Leader in disbelief. He didn’t know what was going on any more than she did.
After several moments, Lydecker finally sighed and reached for his sidearm. Still shaken from the tazers, Bella could only watch for a second time as she stared at the gun barrel, pointed at her heart. Before Lydecker fingers could even go near the trigger of the gun, his weapon disappeared right before their eyes. The movement was too fast for Bella to track. Lydecker stared at his empty hands, eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
“You should not have tried to hurt Bella,” a strangely familiar voice said from behind Lydecker.
“W-What?” Lydecker stuttered in surprise. “She’s just a soldier. She’s expendable.” Lydecker turned around to face the figure.
Bella felt hope rise up in her chest as she looked passed Lydecker. The familiar face of Edward Cullen was staring down Lydecker, his face twisted in fury.
“Not to me,” Edward said simply. As quick as a flash, Edward closed in on Lydecker and used his own hands to break his neck. Edward looked up at Bella. Their eyes locked and they stared at each other for several moments. Breaking the connection that they seemed to have, Bella glanced at the rapidly cooling body of Lydecker. Edward followed her gaze and let go, moving instead towards Bella. Without the support of Edward, Lydecker’s now lifeless body collapsed onto the snow-covered ground.
“Bella,” Edward said softly. “My Bella.” Bella’s heart swelled in acceptance of Edward’s possessive statement.
“Edward,” Bella mumbled. “You saved me.”
“I told you I would help you. You mean everything to me, Bella,” Edward answered her as he placed his arm under her legs and the other under her back, carefully picking her up.
“Come, let’s get you home.” Edward leaned forward, as if to kiss her forehead…
Bella startled awake from her bizarre dream. Something was off, she thought, glancing around the room in suspicion. She had the uncanny feeling that she was being watched. It wasn’t Edward; he hadn’t come into her room tonight. Bella couldn’t smell his distinctive and divine scent. What was it then? She pushed the covers off her and got out of bed. Her bare feet made no noise on the old floorboards. She made sure that she was half concealed by the wall, and used only her right eye to scan the front yard and road outside her window, scrutinising the immediate area, trying to discern if anything was out of the ordinary.
Nothing.
She sighed inwardly. Maybe she was being too paranoid. She was just about to move away, when a slight movement caught her attention. The silhouette of a figure was making its way to her window. She opened the window cautiously. She was surprised it didn’t creak as it did when she first moved in. Edward might have had something to do with that, she figured, but it was working in her favour at the moment.
When the window was fully open she quietly waited until the shadow was right outside her window. As the figure stopped directly outside of her window, she quickly placed her left hand on the window sill, and hoisted her body over the window, as she jumped out. She landed on both feet with slight thump, and sprang out, tackling the shadow. She used her arms and legs to immobilise that male intruder, using her weight to aid the pursuit.
“I’m glad to see you haven’t been growing lazy after all this time,” the intruder nodded approvingly.
“Who are you?” Bella demanded. She moved her right elbow across his neck and put her weight on it threateningly. “Tell me!”
“Easy there, Bella,” the intruder said with a hint of laughter.
Bella’s eyes widened slightly in surprise. “How do you know my name?”
“Don’t you recognise me?” the intruder asked softly.
“No!” Bella exclaimed, frustration creeping into her voice. Just who was this guy and how did he know her?
The intruder used her momentary lapse in attention to flip them over so that he was the on top. Bella groaned inwardly. She shouldn’t have lost focus and inwardly berated herself. She tried to gain back the upper had, but failed.
Suddenly, the intruder let up and pulled her up, so that they were both standing facing each other. “It’s me, Bella. Zack.”
Bella froze at the statement. Did he just say what she thought he just said? Bella blinked, and gathered herself.
“Prove it!” Bella ordered.
“Alright.”
The intruder claiming to be Zack turned around and pulled down the collar of his top. On the back of his neck was his barcode, although it had faded slightly, like he’d gotten it lasered off recently. It had already begun to grow back, much like her own barcode did when she tried the same thing. It was revealed as plain as day that the X5 before her was clearly her older sibling and the CO of her unit, Zack.
“Zack!” Bella exclaimed lunging forward and pulling him into a hug. Zack patted her on the back, a little awkwardly.
“It’s okay Bella, I’m here… I’m alive,” Zack told her, easing her worries. He seemed to know exactly what to say.
“H-how? Why are you here?” Bella asked, her voice had an edge of disbelief to it.
“To check up on you,” Zack replied. “It was a little harder then I thought. Why did you move?”
“I got the Eyes Only broadcast,” Bella told him. “But I missed the part that said who exactly had been compromised. I moved here just in case it had been me.”
Zack nodded. “Good - glad you’ve been keeping safe. Did you delete the records of their marriage?”
Bella knew exactly what he was refiring to. When she had moved, she deleted the marriage record of Renee and Charlie, so that if Manticore did know where she was, they wouldn’t find out about Charlie. It meant that it had been as safe as she could make it when she moved to Forks. Trust Zack to be keeping tabs on her and most likely the rest of their siblings as well.
“Yes,” she answered.
“Good,” Zack approved. “You haven’t lost your skills.”
“How could I? They drilled it into us,” Bella scoffed. She then remembered Charlie, sleeping in his room. She didn’t want to take the chance of waking him up.
“Did you want to take a walk?” She asked.
“Sure,” Zack gestured to lead the way. Bella, with her brother beside her, lead the way around the back of the house and into the forest. They walked in silence until they reached a small clearing a few miles in. Bella sat down on a log at the edge of the clearing. Zack sat down quietly beside her. They turned to face each other.
There was a moment of comfortable silence. Bella and Zack were taking in each other. It seemed to Bella that Zack was still being the big brother, even after all of these years.
“What have you been doing since we escaped?” Bella asked curiously.
“I’ve been keeping an eye on the others. Looking out for them,” Zack answered, with a serious expression. He was like that as a child as well, Bella reflected. He was mostly always serious, taking care of them and looking out for them. Bella never realised juts how much he did do those things before now. She was eternally grateful to him.
“I’ve always wondered,” Bella said slowly, turning her gaze to the few stars that could be seen in the opening of the clouds. “How many of us escaped?”
“Twelve,” Zack answered without hesitation.
“That little?” Bella was surprised. She thought… hoped that more of them had made it out.
“Unfortunately,” Zack sighed. Bella could tell he was blaming himself for them not making it.
“It’s not your fault,” Bella told him. “You did the best you could. We were just kids.”
“We’re soldiers, Bella,” Zack corrected. “And I’m the CO. It is my duty to take care of them.”
Bella shook her head in disagreement. “Sure we were soldiers, but we were kids as well. It took me awhile to work through everything. But we were just kids,” Bella repeated.
Zack cleared his throat, obviously wanting a change in topic.
“How’s everyone?” Bella wondered, acknowledging and allowing the topic change.
“Good,” Zack said simply. Bella frowned. Was that all he was going to say? She opened her mouth to comment, but he quickly continued, “I can’t tell you much more then that, Bella. It’s too dangerous.”
“Fine,” Bella admitted with a sigh, albeit it was a very reluctant admission.
“I’d rather hear about you, Bella. What have you been up to? I see that you’re adopted,” Zack asked, nodding in the direction that they had just come from.
“Yeah, Renee and Charlie have been good to me. They found me on the side of the road about a year after the escape. I’ve been with them ever since, trying to fit in. it’s been hard though. I’ve missed my family,” Bella whispered the last part.
“I’ve missed you too, Bella. But look at you. All grown up, living your life,” Zack said, happiness etched into his voice.
“But we’re not together,” Bella reminded him. “Was this you wanted?”
“No,” Zack admitted with a frown. “I used to imagine what our lives would be like if… when we escaped from Manticore. It wasn’t quite like this.”
“What was did you think it would be like?” Bella prompted.
Zack shrugged a little. “I don’t know really. It’s hard to explain. We didn’t know that anything was outside The Wire, but I knew that it had to have been better then Manticore. The way we were treated, Bella,” Zack clenched his hands tightly in anger. Bella could see them turn white at the knuckles. She gently placed a hand over his. He slowly relaxed them a flashed her a small smile. “I did imagine us living together. As a family. We would be laughing, playing … having fun…” he trailed off, looking directly into her eyes.
Bella understood. He just wanted them safe and happy. Zack didn’t want them to be in Manticore, with some of them being taken away and never to come back and certainly not with all the experiments that they would have to endure.
“You did you’re best. Like you said, I’m happy Zack, and I owe it all to you. You were the one who gave the order,” Bella said. “Thank-you Zack. For everything.”
“It’s my job,” Zack muttered, shrugging it off. Bella frowned. But her eyes widened at the realisation that her big brother was still acting so much like the soldiers. He was still looking out for all of them, making sure that they were safe. To do that, he needed to still be the soldier.
“Have you every thought about trying to settle down yourself. You know, blend in?” Bella asked him gently.
“No,” he said like the thought never even crossed his mind, which it probably didn’t. Bella’s heart went out to him.
“You can live here. With me, I mean. We could come up with a story, you know,” Bella offered.
Zack smiled wryly. “It’s a lovely thought, Bella. But I still have to check on the others.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes,” he said firmly.
“I see that I can’t persuade you differently,” Bella sighed. “Just… stay safe okay? Look after yourself.”
“I will,” Zack said standing up. “I’m glad that you are alright Bella.”
Bella looked up as Zack stood up. She realised that they had been talking for awhile. The sun had risen and she would be late for school if she didn’t leave soon. Bella stood up with him.
“I’ve got to get to school,” Bella said unwillingly. She didn’t want this moment to disappear.
“I’ll follow you then,” Zack told her.
“You can ride with me.” Bella grinned at him, which he returned.
They walked back to her house and Bella changed her clothes (she couldn’t go to school in her PJ’s after all) and grabbed her school bag. Charlie had long since left for work. Bella stepped out of the house to find Zack loading a red motorbike on the back of the truck and seeing her coming, her brother jumped into the passenger’s seat.
The next several minutes were one of the best in Bella’s life. They had settled back into familiar routine and banter with one another, getting to know each again after all this time.
Being with her brother again - it was like a dream come true. She had a hard time believing it. She had long since wondered what had happened to her siblings. Her mind conjured the most horrible worst-case scenarios.
Zack had loosened up, softening his soldier-like exterior. He was telling her more about what he had been doing and what the rest of the siblings had been up to, despite his earlier statement that it was too dangerous.
Bella used the opportunity to find out about what had happened to Ben. She could still remember their escape vividly. Zack told her that Ben was one of the few that he had been unable to locate in the ten years that they had been on the run. It saddened Bella to hear that and she felt Zack shift, remorseful. It made Bella regret asking after him. Zack carried a lot of guilt on his shoulders.
The conversation soon drifted to her other siblings and when the school was in sight Bella broached the subject of Manticore. Zack explained what little he had gathered of the years. Lydecker, it seemed, was leading the team that was searching for them. While Lydecker had come close to a few of the escapees, Bella was he didn’t find them. Things seemed to be going well.
As they entered the busy school parking lot, there were many stares and heads turned in their direction. Bella knew that her school peers must be wondering about the motorbike and her mysterious passenger. She needn’t worry about them, though. She focused only on Zack.
Bella got out of the cab, hearing Zack do the same. They both went round to the back of the truck and Bella watched as Zack unloaded his motorbike of it.
“Thanks for the ride, Bella,” Zack said.
“No problem,” Bella grinned at him. “Thank-you for coming Zack. I’ve missed you.”
“Your life has been good, Bella. I’m glad. Stay happy… and safe,” Zack told her.
“Only if you do,” Bella returned. “Say hi to the others for me.”
Zack nodded. “Will do.”
There was an awkward moment of silence, neither Bella nor Zack wanted to say goodbye. Without warning, Bella closed the distance and captured Zack into a tight hug. This time, Zack hugged her back as equally tightly.
“Goodbye, Bella,” Zack said, placing his helmet on his head. Bella watched as he hopped on the bike and started its engine.
“Bye,” Bella said wistfully. “Come back again soon!”
Zack nodded before revving the engine and taking off. Bella watched as the motorbike sped out of the parking lot. She sighed. A part of her had wanted to go with him, if just to be reunited with her family. Zack would never allow that, though, not only because he had seen that she had made a life for herself. He would no doubt say it was too risky.
When the sound of Zack’s bike faded, she turned back around and grabbed her bag from the cab, before locking her truck. When she turned back round, to head inside the school, she saw that she was still receiving a mass of stares. Bella’s eyes swept the crowd, until they reached Edward’s face. What Bella saw on his face, almost made her double take in surprise.
Edward’s eyes were narrowed in what she could only presume to be jealously.
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Chapter 11: Mood Swings