FALLEN

Part Four of a three-way crossover of Monsters vs. Aliens, Twilight, and Maximum Ride

Chapter 1: Temptation

ROSALIE HALE

Life is no better than it used to be. We defeated the Volturi, and there's more love in the world now. Well, lah-dee-frickin'-dah.

Edward gave me a look. What? I demanded silently.

Edward continued to glare, but eventually he looked away. He knew that my thoughts made absolutely perfect sense.

The Volturi are gone, so we can live. Live our endless, meaningless lives. Friends, family, love, it all comes down to the same thing. Repetition. We go to a new town, we go through high school again, we get married again, we go back into hiding. Again. Again and again and a-goddamn-gain. I hate it. I hate my existence.

I have come to realize exactly what it means to be a vampire. I love Emmett dearly, but our relationship will never change. We'll always have that spark of first love. We'll never have to maintain anything. But there's no love for a vampire, not really.

Take Aro, for example. He didn't really surrender out of love for Sulpicia. Given the choice between Sulpicia and power, he would of course choose power. But he knew, at the end of the battle, that his power was gone. The choice between Sulpicia and nothing, was a bit easier.

For a mortal, love is a partnership, one that must be maintained. Emmett and I don't need maintenance. We'll be in love forever, because we're unchanging, boring-ass immortals.

I was taken out of my reverie by the realization that I was no longer at home.

"Hello, grandchild," said a glittery red creature. "My name is Fallen. And you, of course, are Rosalie."

I nodded pleasantly. "A pleasure to meet you, Fallen. What can I do for you?"

"Tell me, grandchild, do you see yourself as a natural thing?"

"No," I said instantly. "I shouldn't exist. I'm an abomination."

Fallen nodded and scratched his chin. "What if I told you that vampires came to be in the same way as anything else? Vampires came from the earth just as any other species."

"I still say no," I said. "I should have died many years ago." I looked at my surroundings. The walls were high stone, and an electric-green sky was up above.

"This place is called the Cocoon," Fallen supplied.

"It's pretty," I said.

"You do not seem alarmed," Fallen noted.

"Well..." I began. I had been wondering myself why I had been so calm. "It's a nice place," I decided. "It's like, I can't really understand it clearly, but I know exactly what's happening. It's like a dream! That's it. I enjoy the feeling. I haven't had a dream in decades..."

"What if I told you that you could dream again?" Fallen whispered.

"Impossible," I said. "It can't be done. I accepted that so long ago."

I took a breath. And when I did, I realize that I needed to. That breath that I took was necessary for me to live. My heart was beating. I could already feel myself falling asleep.

But it didn't last a second. After the second had passed, I was immortal again.

"Would you like to be human again?" Fallen asked me. "I can do that."

"Yes!" I said. I was practically drooling. That one-second experience of returned mortality had been unbearably tempting.

"Are you sure?" Fallen showed me images. Emmett, Renesmee, Bella, Alice, Esme, Carlise, Jasper, even Edward and Jacob... all the faces I loved.

"I'm positive," I said. "I want to be human."

"Well, it will cost you."

"Anything," I said. "Anything."

Fallen leveled a glare at me. "You know what the cost is."

I nodded. "I do. I want to be mortal. I want to sleep. I want to change. And when the time is right, I want to die. I don't care about the price."

Fallen nodded. "Go, then, grandchild. You have eighteen hours to complete this task. No more."

And just like that, I was back home. My sudden elation caught the attention of Edward and Jasper, but I cleared out before they could get any idea where it came from.

I was practically skipping as I zipped through the forest. Fallen had given me everything I needed without even speaking. I would be human again, and the only price was a simple murder. I could do that, no sweat.