Disclaimer: I own nothing, but the lint in my pocket.

Song choice: Before the Dawn

Band: Evanescence

Prologue: Before the Dawn

Several storms had come and passed over the months, each one dropping several inches of snow onto the grounds below before finally turning to familiar drenching rain. Trees that were once heavily ladled in the white flakes melted until their verdant color returned. Their true vibrancy though was dimmed by the gray clouds now permanently covering the sky, giving the town of Forks', Washington the appearance of being a rather dismal place.

The fire that took place over six months ago, which the entire town had been evacuated because of, had only gone as far as the school on the edge of town, much to everyone's relief. The little cluster of buildings though had unfortunately been permanently damaged from the ordeal and as such had been closed until several modular buildings were moved in to serve as temporary classrooms. Other than that the only casualty that had been reported was a sole victim found amongst the rubble a few miles from where the fire had started. It was said he had been caught in the blast that set the fire and was thought to have been the one to start it in the first place, but after an investigation took place, was ruled out.

His name was never released.

Other than that the town slowly got back to its feet, continuing on as always and after a few months the situation was all but forgotten. The only recent gossip had to do with the Cullen's and the Riven's. Apparently a situation had arose that the Riven family had no choice but to leave for an interminable amount of time and had asked the Cullen's to watch over their home for them, which was odd in itself seeing as how no one knew the two family's were on such amiable terms. As far as they knew the Riven family rarely even made appearance's save their son. When asked he would often reply his parents were often immersed in work or visiting a terminally ill family member in the next city over, which people who asked would become silent and stop questioning when the blond's eyes would mist at the thought.

Today, Jacob Black walked silently through the streets of Forks' on his way home from the Cullen household, trying not to let his anger overwhelm him.

It would get him nowhere.

He just couldn't believe what an idiot he was to believe Nate wouldn't lift a finger when the Volturi arrived. They were among his set of close knit friends after all. He should have known the blond wouldn't take the situation lying down and he had payed the ultimate price for it. Nate had told no one of his plans and Jacob couldn't help but feel anger at the action. Did he really think their forces were that weak? That he felt he had no choice but to go and die alone?

Though, as soon as that particular thought entered his head he brushed it aside. No matter what Nate's actions were he knew the blond didn't think of them in that manner. He was always the one to tell them how much potential they really had and had no problem beating them into the ground to help them train. It was for this reason that he was the only one outside the pack they trusted to take advice from in that area, because he was like them. Wanting nothing more than to protect what he held precious from the monsters in this world, just as they did. It never escaped their notice the haunted look that encompassed his eyes when he spoke of the past, silently telling them just how much he sacrificed to do just that and it even made them wonder if they would ever have to do the same... or if they even could.

And when they asked why he would just say he was fighting because if he didn't... then someone else would be forced into his position. Then he would smile that sad, resigned smile of his, the one that graced his face far less then his more exuberant one, and say it was what he was born to do.

Suddenly he stopped walking and kicked a nearby telephone pole, taking out his frustration on it, not even caring if people were staring at him. In the back of his mind he could clearly hear the blond berating him for drawing so much unnecessary attention to himself.

"Baka! Stop being such a fool you bastard!"

God, he didn't even realize how much he missed that voice. How much he missed the damn teasing, the pranks that often made him want to strangle Nate, that stupid glint in his eyes that showed when he was up to something, the talks they used to have, how the blond had the strangest of ways to cheer him up... He missed his friend. The one that was lying in bed because his body refused to die.

He snorted. He knew he sure as hell wouldn't want to live like that, so he knew Nate was probably railing against his cage at this point. When he had entered the room the Cullen's were keeping him in for the first time a heavy sense of malevolence weighed down on him that had the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end, but none of the Cullen's seemed to have noticed it. Even Jasper, their empath seemed unperturbed. To him though it was nearly tangible in quality and it made him have the inexplicable urge to bear his neck to the unmoving body on the bed. A show of submission he viciously stomped down, unable to explain exactly why he was feeling such a thing to someone that probably had no idea he was there in the first place.

He didn't comment on it though, seeing no reaction from the vampires' and he was thankful Edward was too distracted to make anything of what he was thinking.

That day he had vacated the home as soon as possible, finally being able to take an adequate breathe once he'd left the premises. Even to this day he had never felt anything that affected him to that degree.

"There you are, Jacob. I've actually been meaning to speak to you about something." His father said once he'd stepped inside the living room and he raised a brow at the sheer amount of papers covering the coffee table.

"About what exactly?"

Billy grinned, "The elders received word of another pack located in Alaska, one of about twenty wolves. It's the only pack we've heard of with this many matured wolves besides ours."

"So you want to establish connections with them." Jacob guessed and Billy nodded.

"Yes, one of their own elders and a couple of wolves have agreed to meet, but it's a very precarious position. We do not know how they'll react to us being us such familiar terms with the Cullen family."

Jacob frowned and shook his head, seeing what his father was implying, "You think they will want nothing to do with us once they find out we've befriended the very people we call used to call our enemy?" Billy nodded and sighed.

"The elders think it would be wise not to mention it."

Jacob was starting to become thoroughly angered with them now, seeing what Nate had to deal with when he at one point told them to 'shove it.' It was time he did the same. "Fuck that," He said ignoring his father's scandalous look, "This isn't up to them anyway. They were only around to uphold the traditions passed down from the shifters in the past and they did a shitty job at that too. No, the second that our lineage had showed itself their rules and regulations stopped. Our clan was ruled by shifters from the beginning and it's time they stepped down."

Billy looked at his son with pride before nodding, "I'll be sure to relay the message. What will you do?"

Jacob grinned, "The Cullen's have offered their hand in friendship, it'd be wrong of us to turn our back on them as if we're ashamed of them. If this new pack can't handle it, then that's their problem."

His father nodded solemnly, "There was one last thing I wanted to ask... Has there been any change?"

Billy didn't even need to say who it was he was speaking about. The boy was the center talk of the entire tribe even so many months later. He was the one to completely defeat the Volturi, the very group that struck fear in many vampires' hearts. Even the Wolves' feared the mass amount of power they had obtained over the centuries.

"... No change. Though they do plan on taking him off the ventilator in a few days... to see if his body's able to handle breathing on its own." A sudden thought struck him, "Hey, dad?"

"Hmm?"

"I'm kind of just curious... in the past, have any of the shifters' felt the need to- I don't know- the crazy need to submit to someone that wasn't their imprint?"

"... You mean someone of higher rank?"

"Yeah, sort of, but an Alpha shouldn't feel that sort of thing should they? I mean I was pretty freaked out by the sheer... evil I felt for a moment and I couldn't even breathe right until I got out of there."

"Whoa, whoa, Jake, calm down. Please, start from the beginning so I can get some idea of this conversation."

And so Jacob told him of what he felt and the frown on Billy's face seemed to deepen.

"That does sound strange..." He finally murmured, "and you felt fear? None of the Cullen's noticed? None at all?"

"That's what I'm saying." Jacob finally sighed, "God, I was freaked out for the longest of times, but Jasper didn't say anything about it so I ignored it and I haven't felt anything since then. You're the first person I've told."

"Jacob, could this have anything to do with what you told me just after Nate moved to Forks'? When you brought him to spend the night here?"

'He's so much more of an animal then we thought-'

'-Did you know that if he wanted to he could probably wipe out this entire town with the flick of his wrist?'

Jacob reflexively cringed at the memory. That had been once hell of a night. Of course, it went without saying he did remember it. How could he forget?

"Yeah... I think it has everything to do with that." He admitted quietly, more to himself then to his father...

The entire day Edward couldn't stop smiling and the family easily took notice of the sudden change, feeling the a weight they hadn't even known was there suddenly lift.

Nate was breathing on his own.

The ventilator had been stopped as scheduled and the family had watched on in silence when Nate's chest had stopped rising, a sudden sense of despair settling in. Thankfully, it had vanished a moment later to be replaced by a surge of happiness when his chest rose by barely a millimeter and slowly evened out to regular intervals.

He no longer needed the aid of the ventilator and it was such a huge step to his recovery that it had the entire family renewed with hope once more.

Upon hearing the phone ring Carlisle looked over at the caller ID and made no hesitation in picking it up.

"Hello, Billy..." He paused listening to what the man had to say, his eyes widening a bit. "Really? No, I'm afraid we haven't." He paused again. "Yes, there is another coven in the area, but they abide by the same regulations we do, so I don't think... Really... No, they've never mentioned anything about it, but I'm afraid that at the time our family wasn't quite as... accepting as we are now." Billy began speaking again, "That's what I was thinking. They could have just been keeping it from us... Precisely... Nate? He's actually breathing on his own now... Yes, we were relieved as well. Of course, I'll make sure to tell them. Alright, speak to you soon." With that he replace the phone back into its cradle and went to find his family.

As he expected they were in Nate's room, or close by. Edward sat nearby, watching as Alice clipped the visible portion of long blond hair, that now reached Nate's chin, to a more appropriate length. She made clucking noises as she ran a hand through the it, inspecting the ends of the layers. The ends had been cut before, but they were so frayed she was surprised his hair wasn't a frizzy mess instead of spiky. It had been poorly done.

She made quick work of the mess and gave herself time to admire it. Though in all honesty she really wished she could have fixed up the entire thing instead of the the tiny portion she saw to. She would have like to have seen him with longer hair, preferably just reaching his shoulders and with layers all throughout. He had the facial features to pull off such a look and it would have suited him well.

As soon as Carlisle entered the room both gave him their full attention and waited for the rest of the family to join them at his insistence.

"So, what's up?" Emmett asked when he and Rosalie entered, being the last two.

"I received a call from Billy, a few minutes ago. He called to tell me they found another pack in the same region as the Denali clan."

"Wow, their sprouting up everywhere aren't they?" Emmett whistled and halted a moment later. "Hold up... if they're in the same region, why haven't the Denali's said anything. I mean, we've told them of the pack here."

"That's what Billy has said. Even with the constant moving around the clan wouldn't have let such a thing go unnoticed. He thinks they might have even struck an accordance as we have, but have been keeping silent about it." Carlisle continued.

"... That makes sense, considering how we've spoken of the pack here on countless occasions... they more than likely thought we'd cut connections with them should they reveal anything." Edward added in, seeing exactly why they would want to keep something like that a secret.

"Exactly, they're making arrangements to speak even now."

They continued to speak even as Alice stopped listening, therefore he was the only one to notice Jasper's sudden change in expression. A barely imperceptible twitch of the lips giving way to a frown as topaz eyes swiveled to the prone form of Nate.

"Jasper?" She questioned in a quiet tone, but even then everyone heard and were now staring at the pair questioningly. Edward's eyes widened.

"... Just now... There was a- a spike of terror." He whispered, unsure if he really felt it at all considering how quickly it vanished.

The Cullen's glanced at each other, each silently denying they felt that particular emotion and looked back towards Jasper.

"Who did, Jasper?" Carlisle asked and looked on concerned when the vampire winced, this wave of emotion obviously stronger than the last.

Jasper looked towards the bed with mixed emotions and pointed, "Nate did..."

Jacob hung up the phone feeling a sense of victory when he scribbled down the arrival date of the new pack's officials. They had been incredibly accommodating throughout the entire situation and seemed genuinely excited to be meeting others' like themselves. It was decided once elder along with another wolf were going to be flying down here to meet and then take a fly back a couple of days later, making it a roundabout trip.

It was really something he and the rest of the pack was looking forward to as well...

The next few days were unrelenting for the empathetic vampire as wave after wave of negative emotions continued to swamp him even from the room above them and had served to make the entire family uneasy. Now though the constant state of fear had branched out, morphing into sadness, betrayal, angst, despair, revulsion, outrage and finally full blown fury and animosity, which no one had ever seen depicted on the his features and silently wondered what would have caused the happy blond to feel such an emotion.

Jasper had tried to send calming waves to the young man to help pull him whatever was keeping him tied down, but each time was unsuccessful and it only served to further aggravate the already twitchy vampire. He would often vacate the premises just to get away from it all and the rest of the Cullen's had no idea of how to fix it.

The emotions Nate was showing meant his mind was working and he wasn't brain dead- Something they had all been afraid had or would have happened-. Unfortunately, they were the only ones that had appeared in the months he'd been here and while they were happy he was responding to something they wished it was anything then what was currently happening. Jasper would often say Nate seemed to be on a constant state of depression, that whatever he was dreaming of was drowning him and to be feeling such things in a, so far, persistent comatose state, unable to wake and leave the imaginary horrors behind, truly had to be hell.

As always, much to Edward's displeasure, whatever was continuously blocking Nate's mind held strong even now and refused to budge no matter how hard the mind reading vampire pressed to locate the source of his chosen's nightmares. He could only sit and watch as Nate suffered such tormenting visages, unable to do anything.

He quietly sat back in his chair, watching Nate's unmoving features, which completely belied what was happening within the confines of his own mind. Finally he grew bored and walked up next to the bed, leaning down so that he was barely millimeter's away from the blond's ear.

"Don't you dare give up, Nate. We're all here for you- I'm here for you... You never were one to just give up, so keep fighting. If I know you as well as I know I do then I know you'll pull through."

Jacob watched as the cab pulled up and two figures emerged from it and he silently inspected them.

The younger of the two reeked of the scent beta's emanated and he was quite a bit smaller in stature then Jacob had been expecting, but he didn't allow his guard to drop. If hanging out with Nate taught him anything, it was always the quiet, small, or kind ones you had to keep an eye out for because they were the one's that were observing, always planning something and throwing you off guard. The loud one's, usually boasting about one thing or another, could usually be ignored. Though no one could ever truly be ignored...

The older one was bent over a cane, furry brows lifting upon seeing the sheer size of him and Jacob mentally wondered if it was only his pack that tended to be on the large side. He heard the man speak his native tongue to the younger man as they approached and he nodded before playing translator.

"My grandfather has said it is good to meet you and your kind. It has been so long since we've heard anything from our brethren."

"Thank you both for taking the time to meet with us, we're happy to indulge in this opportunity as well." Jacob said back, returning the sentiment. "My name is Jacob Black and I am the Alpha of the Quillete tribe, to my left is Sam Uley, my Beta and to my right is my father, one of the high councilmen."

"My name is Gregory Anasogak and I am Beta of the Koyuk tribe and this is Steven Otton, a high councilmen."

"Nice to meet you, if you would follow us? We can take this conversation indoors." Jacob offered politely.

"Of course."

The meeting went very well if Jacob had anything to say about it, no fur exploded and a quiet respectful tone was used all throughout the session. The lesson's Nate pounded ruthlessly into his head certainly helped. Everyone rose to their feet, their company ready to head off to a hotel after hours of talking and started to bid their farewells.

Gregory glanced at his company, but stopped upon seeing the old man's eyes glued to something on the wall behind the Quillete members'.

"... Is something wrong?" Jacob asked hesitantly, seeing the man's lips drop into a contemplative frown.

Gregory frowned as well, seeing the look and spoke to the man. It took a few moments but Steven spoke back, pointing to what he had seen on the wall.

"He wishes to know if you would let him see the picture. The one next to the mantle?" Gregory questioned softly.

Jacob nodded in Sam's direction and he went to retrieve the object in question handing it over. Steven looked over the picture and pointed to one of five figures in the picture, speaking again.

"What is the blond one's name?"

All three men across the room looked at one another. "His name is Nate Rivens. He is a student in the area and a friend to the Quillete tribe." Jacob answered carefully and Gregory nodded before translating.

The old man's eyes hardened and he muttered something, the words being faintly angry. "He says that this man is an impostor, a thief of visages. You must be wary of him."

"Wait a minute, you think he might be a danger to us? Why?" Jacob questioned, wary at the sudden hostility one photo brought on.

Again Steven spoke, "Apparently, he wears the face of our angel." Gregory translated.

Sam mouthed the word 'angel' to Jacob who mouthed another back that made the only sense.

'Vampire.'

He felt his body curl in on itself from the cold surrounding him. Tremors ran throughout his body in response as familiar voices called to him over and over, the word's utterly meaningless to him. Images swamped his vision and he gave another pitiful whimper when his world was drenched with red.

He was so tired.

But he focused all his thoughts on that one voice, clinging to it as drowning man would to a life preserve, but each time more and more water forced him away. He closed his eyes, praying that the blackness before him would disappear and he would know nothing again as he had before. The voice though held him here, even though everything in him was saying there was nothing.

No one was there.

"S-Someone... Help me."

He called out, the voice echoing back from the void, giving the mocking semblance someone was actually there...

I did do a bit of research and the Koyuk tribe is about 90 air miles from Nome, Alaska and is classified as an isolated village. Access to the village is limited to only air and sea, so I thought it was perfect to hide a pack of wolves.

Info is from: http : // www . commerce . state . ak . us / dca / commdb/ CIS . cfm? Comm_Boro _ Name = Koyuk

Without the spaces.

Blackhaven18: And here's the prologue of Sea of Flames: Part Two, sorry about the wait.

~TBC~