Wow, so I'm glad I'm getting a positive response so far from this. It's totally different from anything else I've written before, and I'm excited by the prospects! The more reviews, the faster I tend to update. Even though I'm working 50 hours a week!

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" . . . treachery and violence are spears pointed at both ends; they wound those who resort to them worse than their enemies."

-Emily Bronte "Wuthering Heights"

The duo stared each other down. The woman in rage and the man in fear, or something close to it.

"If you ever speak to me in that way again, the bodies of the Lycans won't be the only thing I throw in a fire and dance around." She said in a low, warning tone.

He simply nodded. "After you then, General." He motioned to the door and Isabella shoved passed him in her haste.

Once they'd reached their destination, they said nothing. It wasn't an awkward silence, as one might think. However, it was tense. It was thick, so very thick that you could cut it with a knife. Both felt that they overruled the other in every way perceivable.

"Tell me your plan then, General Swan. I'd hate to keep you up passed your bed time." Jasper smirked. Insignificant human. He snorted.

"First of all, don't patronize me. You think just because I am a woman and that I am a "human" that I am less capable than you to fight a war." She used air quotes when she'd said human.

He rolled his eyes. "No, what makes me more qualified, is that I've spent years upon countless years of my life fighting in wars. I've lived, breathed, bled, killed, and died in war. It's what I'm good at." He argued.

"I'll give you that, General Whitlock. However, it is in my blood. It was ingrained into my very core since the womb. I know every statistic, every last minute detail of war. I know the ins and outs like nobody's business and I've never lost a battle." She bragged. "But you, however..." She trailed off.

Jasper's eyes burned with a fire. "Don't." He spat.

Isabella tsked. "Don't what? Don't bring up how you lost all those men because of your hatred of the Lycans? And what was that hatred based on, again? Ah. Yes. Your mate ran off with one of those beasts."

She was smug, while he was in pain of the memory. He'd made the foolish mistake of following his heart into battle, and in return lost so many lives because of it. He'd had to pull his men out in order for the rest to survive. It truly was a massacre.

"What about you, Isabella?" He asked, an accusing tone to his voice. "You hold no personal grudges for what they did to your friend all those years ago?"

Her eyes turned black as the night. "You think I am going after them for revenge her death? To get even with a former love interest? You've got to be kidding me! Lycans are dangerous creatures. They have two modes: Kill Slowly and Kill Quickly. There's no gray area, especially when it comes to the human world. Would I love to take down James? You bet your sweet ass I would. But is it for anything other than preserving the human race? No."

By the time she was finished ranting her chest heaved with it's need for air. She continued. "I don't like you, Whitlock. You're cocky and you think you're a know-it-all. I'll hand it to you, that you know what you're doing, and you're the second best thing to me, otherwise I wouldn't have asked for your help. You don't know how much it killed me to have to ask you. But you've been there before. You've faced hell and came back. You need to tell us how they work. Researching is one thing, living through it is something else."

"Okay. I'll help you. I'll gather my best and there won't be any issues from them. But, I'm warning you. If you're taking your humans to the Devil's playground? You better be ready for the fire." He warned. "Meet myself and my men in the field down by the border tomorrow at this time. Bring your men. We train tomorrow." With that, he left.

The next day...

"General Swan." Jasper nodded curtly. "These are my finest. This is Edward Masen, Alice Brandon, Emmett McCarty, Rosalie Hale, Carlisle Cullen, and Esme Platt." Jasper introduced his group. "Edward has the ability to read minds, Alice is kind of like a seer. Although her visions are subjective. Carlisle is the doctor of our unit, and can heal literally any wound, mortal or otherwise. Rosalie has the gift of extreme beauty, which draws the victims in. Emmett is the strongest vampire in existence, and Esme has the gift of compassion. In other words, she has the gift to bring someone back to life if it were an unjust death."

Bella stood there in awe. She'd heard of gifted vampires, but had never met anyone such as these. "It's good to have you on board. I'd like to introduce you to my men."

She walked in front of the lined up bunch. "This is Jacob Black, Embry Call, Seth Clearwater, and Sam Uley. They are shape shifters. You already know what they're capable of." She walked further down the line. "This is Mike Newton, he is head of engineering. Eric Yorkie. He's the eyes and ears of the group. Angela Webber. She's the negotiator. Then, of course there is me. I am a hybrid."

Whitlock's group gasped. "That's impossible." Edward whispered.

"It is entirely possible." Bella smirked. "I thought that if we were going to be working together closely, that you should know." She sighed and rubbed her temples.

"My mother was Renee Swan, or just Renee to your world." Carlisle gasped. Bella smiled softly. "You see, Caius thought that my mother was crazy. That her ideas were insane. Nobody could come up with technology to kill vampires, lycans, and shapeshifters. But she did. That's when she came to the human world. She figured they could use the resources better than she could. That's when she met my father." Esme smiled sweetly for her to go on. "You see, it is supposedly impossible for a male vampire to father children, let alone a female vampire to birth one. But, it happened. Here I am." Bella shrugged.

"That's remarkable." Carlisle whispered. "Do you have any special abilities? What else do you know about vampire births?"

She giggled. "I have several gifts. I have complete and total knowledge of any and everything about war. It was as if it were programmed into my brain in the womb. I am a mental shield. I have the ability to transport to anywhere around me in a moment's notice. I also have the ability to change the weather."

Jasper stared in awe at the woman before him. Never before had he met someone of her caliber.

"Jasper, I think you should tell your story." Alice nodded to him. He sighed and inwardly cringed. This wasn't something he was looking forward to. The story never got any easier to tell, and this was the only time he truly felt like the monster that he was pegged to be.

"Back in the late 1800's, I was a Major for the Confederate Army. I had been patrolling one night when I came across two young women. They'd been the most beautiful women I'd ever seen. I was naïve at the time, and a red-blooded man." Everyone snickered at the pun. "So, long story short on this part, they were vampires and they turned me. Maria was the main one. She wanted me to be her mate, and I was for a long time. However, what I believed to be love wasn't that at all. She had me doing things that were unspeakable, even for a blood sucker. I was made to kill innocent people. Old, young, women, and men. It didn't matter to her. Maria wanted to create a newborn army. I wanted nothing to do with it at first. I didn't even want to drink human blood. She'd taunted me with the scent. I could practically taste it on my tongue. She'd rip them practically to shreds in front of me. The first time I drank from a human, it was an elderly man who was just on his way home with flowers for his wife."

Everybody grew quiet. Isabella had tears welling in her chocolate brown orbs. He continued.

"I just remember his face. The look of pure terror on his weathered face. The last words he spoke were of his wife, and he told me to tell her he loved her with his whole heart, and that he'd meet her on the other side. I felt empty and numb after that. I had taken a life, because that was my nature. So, I turned into a machine. My only ambition was to kill and create an army for Maria. It was as if she had a switch to my brain. But, one day, there were two people who would change the way I saw the world. Peter and Charlotte." Jasper smiled at the memory of them. "You see, when the newborns grew to be weaker and not as useful, I was to dispose of them. At first, it was nothing to me. Like I said, I was like a robot. And then one night, when I was disposing of more newborns, I was stopped by a pleading Peter to not kill this woman. This random woman whom I didn't care a thing for. When I asked why I should spare her, he told me he loved her with his whole heart and couldn't bear to see anything happen to her. It snapped something inside of me. It was like a fog had been lifted from my sight. So, I let them free with the promise that I'd find them as soon as whatever plan Maria had was through."

He paused for a long while and Isabella was so into the story that she blurted out, "What happened then?"

Jasper raised his eyes to hers and smiled sadly. "You see, Maria's plan was to take over the entire Southern region with newborns. This continued for years. Just a few years back she met James, the leader of the Lycans. I'd left her by then, after having met Carlisle. I'd been following his diet for years by this time, but in my mind, she was still my mate. I'd gotten word that she'd went to them and was offering secrets on how to fight vampires, to defeat them. I was outraged. I blindly led an army of my people into the lion's den, so to speak. And Maria was right there, laughing in my face. Hell, she practically lit the fire they threw the bodies into."

"Where are Peter and Charlotte now?" Jacob asked, also being into the story.

"They'll be joining us soon, actually. They don't live nearby and this was kind of a last minute thing." Jasper explained.

Everybody nodded in understanding and Jasper looked at Jacob. "So, what's your story? I know you and your boys are shape shifters, but why do you decide to side with the humans?"

Jacob looked longingly at Isabella. "My father was best friends with General Swan. Well, her father, that is. We try to live our lives as normally as possible. We don't go for blood. We've also known Isabella and Renee for as long as I can remember, and we remember Renee telling us stories about how not all vampires are in the wrong. Now, don't get me wrong, it's in our nature to defend against vampires, but the Lycans are the bigger threat here."

Just then, a man and woman vampire appeared out of nowhere on a sleek black motorcycle. "What's up bitches? Hope you didn't start the party without me." Peter bellowed.

Isabella's eyes went wide with the realization that this was Peter. "Oh my goodness!" She smiled.

Peter and Charlotte looked up at the voice and Peter made a bee-line for the brunette. "Hells Bells!"

Jasper was now more confused than ever, and he felt a twinge of something in the pit of his stomach as he watched the two embrace and a smile appeared on Isabella's face, making her more beautiful than he could've imagined. It seems Athena does have a soft side. He thought.

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Well, I'm super geeked that you guys are loving this idea. I promise to attempt to update every week. However, I'm working 48 hours a week and I don't have much time to do much more than work, eat, and sleep. So, my attempt will be every Sunday or Monday.

Favorite part?