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Post by carlislecullen on May 21, 2010 12:33:03 GMT
Carlisle shook his head slowly when Alice started talking about how she had almost killed Jasper and what would have happened had he not been there. “Well, I was, so there's no point worrying about that, is there?” he replied in questioning. He shrugged slightly before continuing. “You wouldn't have killed him and you know it,” he began to reason, watching her closely. “You wouldn't have allowed yourself to do it. You may think that you would have killed him, but I know you...you know you...” he went on, pausing ever so briefly. “He knows you...” he added, letting out a gentle sigh. “You wouldn't have killed him, if I was there or not. You're better than that, stronger than that, even if you don't think you are, I know you are...he knows you are,” he finished, trying to sound as encouraging as possible. He meant every word he was saying, so he just had to make her believe him. Though, with tensions running as high as they were, he imagined anything he said was rather difficult to believe.
He tilted his head slightly as she admitted that she trusted him, she just didn't trust herself. She was starting to sound oddly like Edward about his situation with Damienne. Of course, this was on a different scheme of things, but it was just so strange to hear Alice speaking as if she were just like Edward. He let out a sigh. There had been so many instances over the last couple of years that he'd had to talk to each and every one of the Cullens/Hales about trust. Ever since they moved to Forks, it seemed they all, at some stage, doubted their own trust in themselves. “Well, I trust you,” he began gently. He knew he was going to keep putting himself in these instances before he considered anyone else. He knew Alice would appreciate him putting himself into the instances, but there was that someone else that she needed to realise would put themselves there too. “Jasper trusts you,” he continued, considering his argument for a moment. “If he didn't trust you, didn't love you, he wouldn't have done what he did for you,” he observed.
“You know that and I know that,” he finalised, shrugging slightly. He didn't know if she would accept his words or not. She would just have to try, he supposed, to believe the words he was saying. He genuinely meant everything he said. He never tried to spin false hopes with his family, knowing that they would all realise that he was doing that if he wasn't careful. So why would he attempt that when he could offer them all his truth? He nodded slowly when she said she would try, promised that she would try even. He knew Alice. If she could keep the promise, she would, but he imagined, despite her promising, she doubted that she could fulfil what he asked. She had promised to try and, at this stage, it was certainly a lot better than her not trying at all. The family needed her as much as she needed the family. They were all trying, even if they didn't realise it, some more than others, of course, due to the levels of involvement in this situation.
Carlisle really couldn't deny that Valentina completely and absolutely infuriated him. If the situation wasn't already bad enough, her almost infantile arrogance and blatant desire to cause further trouble within the family was really pushing his temper. He felt his jaw tense as she laughed at his words again. She should really consider who she was talking to and who she was talking about. It wouldn't take much for a confrontation with Aro to send things spiralling out of control, but if it got this little witch off of their cases, it might be worth it. Aro had never gone this far before and this was really testing his patience. He wasn't afraid to confront Aro. It was more the Volturi guard that bothered him. They had powers that none of his family could really compete with, let alone have Carlisle there alone against them. If it would be of benefit to his family, however, he would certainly attempt to take them all on if he had to, trying to talk it through or taking the violent approach, he really wouldn't mind either now.
He considered her words about Aro not really caring about the 'petty struggles' of the vampires in the world. His main concern was keeping the secret hidden from the rest of the humanity. He snarled when she observed how they mingled with them, but one day would be found out and that would lead to their execution. “The difference between us and them, Valentina, is that we CAN live like that,” he pointed out, almost snarling the word 'can'. “We don't live off of them like they do, like you do, so we're perfectly capable of fitting it around here,” he continued, trying to calm his tone, but not to much affect. “We've done it once, we can do it again,” he finished. Why was he trying to justify himself to her? Aro was perfectly aware of their living arrangements and their diets. The only questionable party, in general, would be Jasper and Aro didn't have a great deal of knowledge about Jasper. Carlisle did, however, only realise this because Aro had never been after Jasper.
Carlisle imagined that if Aro had any real knowledge of who Jasper was and how his power worked, he would have already tried to get his claws into the young vampire. Although, Aro would find that Jasper was just as difficult to bend and break as the others. Aro wasn't going to get his own way so easily and he knew it...then why had he sent Valentina? Had he even really sent her or was she just here to interfere? He snarled again upon seeing the smirk spreading across her face. What did she have to be so sure about? She was messing with Alice, it wasn't like she was getting one up on the family. Yes, Alice was important, but messing with Alice wasn't going to stop the family banding together against Valentina. Her question about who said she was doing the dirty work set the cogs turning in Carlisle's mind. 'Any of the Volturi guard would be honoured to being the Seer to Aro'. That's what she said. Did that mean the Volturi weren't even involved? Was she even part of the Volturi guard?
This wasn't exactly the best time to be asking the questions. She seemed focused on getting him out of the way, so that she could take Alice, obviously against her will, leaving the family pretty vulnerable. Her visions had been screwed up because of all of this, but, Carlisle imagined, without them there at all, they would struggle if they really needed to be able to benefit from her foresight. “You realise that, you might be fighting the fight on behalf of Aro, trying to make sure that we don't expose ourselves to the humans,” he began, realising something that would easily give them away. “But if you carry on throwing me around like this, you're going to get us all killed, you included,” he continued, snarling the part about her being included in that 'all'. “Because you're being the most reckless right now, the most obvious,” he finished, staring her down the best he could. It was the truth. If she carried on and anyone happened to be in the forest, she would expose them all. What if, for example, Edward brought Damienne around? What then?
Carlisle was thankful when it appeared that Valentina pushed herself too far, letting Alice's true consciousness surface once again before things got any worse within the situation at hand. He knew Alice was going to hate herself greatly when he realised what she had done, but it would have only been a great deal worse had it been allowed to continue with the rate it was going at and direction it was going in. She was sensitive enough from the incident with Jasper. He could imagine that this wasn't something she really wanted to face right now, but it wasn't exactly her fault, was it? He knew she would see it that way. It was her form that was doing this, even if it wasn't her mind. He knew nothing he could say or do would make her see that he wasn't going to forgive her because it wasn't her that he needed to forgive. She had done nothing wrong. She couldn't help what happened. She had just been a sort of middle man, the messenger, the puppet of Valentina's bidding.
He felt his jaw tense as Alice continued to dwell on the absolute worst parts of the scenario, fuelling the negative energy that was going through them both right now. “It's not you that's dangerous, you need to realise that before it's too later,” he observed. “The danger here is Valentina,” he hissed, pulling a face at the sound of the name 'Valentina'. “She's going to pay for what she has done,” he continued. He didn't even sound like himself now. It wasn't like him to consider making someone pay in the way he was thinking about it right now. “She's going to pay and then you can't hurt us,” he went on, knowing that didn't sound all too encouraging. “You can only hurt us as much as she pushes you, but we stand together as a family,” he explained, slowly shaking his head. “We can't just leave you behind,” he said, sadness filling his voice now. “I know I could never leave you behind,” he muttered, feeling his eyes sting with venom at the idea of leaving poor Alice behind because of this mess, watching her sitting and rocking.
Reaching Alice now, he found himself dropping to his knees by her side. He couldn't leave her. “Alice, we all love you and we certainly can't leave you,” he said ever so softly. He felt his jaw tense as she started to question what was wrong with her and why it was happening to her. He couldn't understand what was completely wrong with her, he just knew it was something to do with Valentina's gift, so wasn't strictly anything wrong with Alice, he supposed. As for why it was happening to her, Carlisle could only imagine it was because of Valentina's incessant need to get Alice back to Aro. “What's wrong with you...” he began in echoing her question to start his explanation. “...is Valentina,” he went on, pausing before he continued, imagining how much Alice didn't want to hear what he had to say, despite asking him the questions that triggered the response. He had to make her realise that this wasn't directly her fault. Indirectly, he supposed it was, but that was because Valentina was using her to get to the rest of them.
He let out a soft breath before continuing with his explanation. “I believe that if we deal with Valentina, you will be perfectly alright again,” he continued, trying to keep his tone level. This conclusion was something he had decided upon very quickly and very suddenly, but something told him he was certainly right on his money with it. “If we eliminate her, we eliminate the problem. You may just need a little time to recover after the fact,” he tried, hoping she understood the idea behind this. “She's using you for some means or other. The means which I'm not entirely sure, which is why I can't explain exactly why it is happening to you,” he went on as he continued to hope that his explanation would make Alice realise that this wasn't her fault. “It just seems you were the best for whatever end she is trying to achieve, but if you let us help you, then she will nearly reach that end and you can get better,” he finished, watching Alice closely for her reaction.
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