— 𝟐𝟎𝟎𝟔 —
𝐎'𝐚𝐡𝐮, 𝐇𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐢𝐢

"Aaliyah!" Keanu yelled, the young man looking around in confusion.

He was a 22-year-old college dropout. Keanu Simmons chose to drop out of Michigan State and pursue a more free-spirited lifestyle of doing small business in Hawaii.

He was a traveler by heart, and Hawaii was only his first destination of many.

It's why he and Aaliyah got along so well—both of them were kindred spirits who went where the wind took them. That along with the fact that they both moved to Hawaii around the same time (seven months ago) and started working at a small beachside coffee shop.

The bright sun hit Keanu's smooth dark skin.

He and Aaliyah were currently cliff-jumping into the warm waters below. Even though it was December, a Hawaiian winter was nothing compared to what Keanu had been used to in snowy-cold Michigan.

Even Aaliyah who had moved from some small cold and rainy town in Washington was more than fine with this warm winter: the two were in the same boat when it came to enjoying the sun and warm waters.

"Aaliyah, where did you go—AHH!" He yelled in fright when Aalyiah suddenly darted from the green island shrubbery, racing straight past him and jumping off the cliff with an excited yell.

"WOOHOO!" The mixed young woman cried, her bouncy hair going everywhere as she dived from the cliffside into the waters below.

She was wearing shorts and a bikini top, the sun giving an almost ethereal glow to her caramel-brown skin. Keanu shook his head at her, a bright smile lighting up his features before he canon-balled in after her.

The water splashed as he hit it.

Both Aaliyah and Keanu rose from the salty water at the same time, the young adults grinning at each other.

'Aaliyah' better known as 'Cassandra' to most, felt bad about lying to her new friend about practically every single aspect of herself. Alas, for his safety and her own, she could not say so much as her real name.

For the first time, Cassandra chose to go by a different name—a new identity altogether.

Her new persona; Aaliyah Rodriguez was a 24-year-old law school student who was living life as a kindred hippie. She studied many different things when she was not working at the coffee shop or going to night law classes: primarily ballet and surfing.

She still intended to be on Broadway as a ballet at some point, and surfing was just a fun skill she enjoyed learning.

On other nights, she was pushing herself to the maximum by training her abilities. After seven months, she now felt confident enough to defend herself even with the strong blockade spell she was constantly under.

However, the spell was really starting to put a strain on her. Faeries were not meant to block their connection to the Earth for so long. It also did not help that she was under a constant physical spell that hid her true features.

It was times like these that Cassandra envisioned what it would be like if her kind was still around. If she was living in a fae clan where she did not need to hide anything and could simply live a spirit of the Earth.

If her parents were still alive along with the rest of her family: if Lithiovai had never taken her or attacked.

She would still have her Scottish accent, that was for sure, it was a thought that had her smiling. Sandy had long since lost her natural Scottish accent, speaking in more a colonial America tone of voice most of the time.

Although, she had done well in ridding it for a modern-aged general American accent.

However, her accent and language switched depending on where she was living. If she ever chose to go back to Scotland, the Scottish accent would no doubt return naturally.

Cassandra had taken special care in choosing where to go this time.

Aro had presumably read Alice's thoughts the day that they went to the Volturi: so Aro would know all the places she had been to according to Alice's mind. He knew she was from Scotland, so he was most likely to keep an eye out for her in that country.

That meant England and Ireland were also dangerous waters because of their proximity.

New York was definitely off the table, as was the mainland of the United States. For the time being, at least.

Hawaii was a great choice—it was one of the many places that vampires tended to avoid with every fiber of their being. Along with it being perfectly beachy and sunny, as it is an island, killings would be far too conspicuous at such a place. As a vampire could not hunt here and it was surrounded by miles of ocean, it was a place that vampires steered absolutely clear from.

Other than Volterra, it was one of the safest places on Earth from vampire attacks.

Cassandra had not heard anything from Bella or the Cullens since she left Forks. She had destroyed her old phone and got a new number, and while she still had the Cullens number, she did not dare contact them.

They did not have her new one, so they couldn't contact her.

The only reason that she even knew they were alive was because she did not get the impending sense of doom and dread that inevitably came whenever someone close to her perished.

She could only pray that the plan had worked. But she had no clue as to what the Volturi's reaction was because she had not dreamwalked to them once since she had been taking the blockade spell.

It was a more permanent fixture of her previous problem in dreamwalking, the only reason she had never done this before was because of the side effects of taking such a potion. She was weaker and her connection to the Earth was cut off.

It made her elemental powers, in particular, much much weaker.

She could barely start a fire with her mind now—usually, she was able to create an inferno. The same applies to bending water or moving the Earth.

There was not much training she could do in that aspect as that strength was entirely reliant on her connection to Mother Earth. But, she was able to strengthen her magic and spell-casting.

It was weird for her to now need to rely on her ability to spell-cast and use her magic when she normally relied on her elemental abilities as that's what she was stronger in.

She could even feel it now, as she swam. The fae was much slower in the water and it was less inclined to do as she commanded. However, it did make it more challenging to learn how to surf which in turn made it much more fun.

"C'mon, future lawyer," Keanu was managing to beat her in a swim race to the shore. "Let's get our boards and ride these waves!"

Keanu had driven them both there in his jeep—their boards were sticking out the back. Said jeep was currently parked along the beach. The beach they were on was not very publicly known as you had to drive off-road for a few miles to get there.

It was mainly only locals and other surfers that came, but it was a beautiful beach because of it.

Even with her connection being so diluted, Sandy could still pick up small hints of natural Earth love in this area. It's why she loved it so much, because of how strong it was here, it made her feel more connected than ever.

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When Cassandra got home that night, her hair soaked with salt water and tied into a bun on the top of her head and sand all over her, she was not expecting to be met with a man standing in her little beach hut.

She called it a beach hut because it was very similar to her apartment in Brazil, a small beach-side apartment for cheap. Except this one was falling apart at the seams and certainly not up to date, and yet, it was still hers.

She had on a large T-shirt over her shorts: and her bikini top was still slightly wet underneath.

The fae dragged in her surfboard as well, leaning it up against the wall next to her door before she slipped out of her flip-flops and threw her beach bag to the ground messily. Her skin which was always a lighter shade of brown was darker, cocoa in color from her many months of constant tanning in the sun.

Her freckles were also now much more prominent.

Her diluted abilities made it harder for her to sense things from a distance, so when she turned only to meet the eyes of a tall handsome young man with curly blonde locks and bright golden eyes... well, she did the reasonable thing and screamed blood murder.

Her second instinct was to set who she recognized as a vampire on fire, but seeing as she could not conjure more than a small flame in the palm of her hand, she made it into a dagger of fire and got into a defensive position against him.

Vampires were extremely flammable, if she managed to strike him just once with the blade then his entire body would go up in flames.

The vampire man watched her more curious than frightened, tilting his handsome face to the side as he took her in.

She was just about to utter a levitating spell to give her the upper hand before a familiar face stepped out from behind him.

"What the hell?!" Cassandra cried as Alice revealed herself with a large smile.

She looked exactly as she had when Sandy saw her only seven months ago.

"Hi, Sandy!" Alice cheered with a wave. "Meet my husband, Jasper!"

Jasper nodded his head politely, his arms folded behind his back.

"Pleasure to meet you," His voice was deep and rich like chocolate with a Southern twang that looped through every syllable.

Sandy stared between the two in disbelief. While she would typically be more than happy to see Alice, given their current circumstances and where they left off last, she was more concerned than pleased.

"How the hell did you find me?" Were the first words to come from her mouth.

Alice sighed and clicked her tongue. "Well, it wasn't easy... you are a hard faerie to track down..." She sat on the couch, making herself at home. "It took weeks of just guessing places you might go and then I remembered you mentioned something about surfing at one point and I was like well Sandy does like warm places and then I just knew you had to be in Hawaii... it's one of the only places vampires try to avoid! And let me tell you, being here is hell for me and Jasper, we had to sit in the airport for hours until the sun went down and I just feel bad about drinking from any of the wildlife around here! So we'll need to wait until we get back to the mainland to hunt!" Alice ranted, animatedly moving her hands as she spoke.

Jasper remained mostly quiet, simply nodding in agreeance with Alice's story.

"Right, Jazz?"

"Definitely, darling," He answered with a smooth Southern drawl.

Sandy's mouth was hanging open, the poor girl being at a loss for words as she desperately came up with what to say to her two friends.

Well, her one friend and her husband who was sort of her friend? Family friend?

"So you found me by what? Deductive reasoning?" Sandy was confused.

No way she was that predictable... or was Alice just that good? Or, as the new generation says, maybe it was just for the purpose of the plot?

"Precisely!" Alice chirped. "But I'm surprised you haven't moved on from here yet—you'll definitely want to stay on the move if you want to avoid the Volturi seeing as they're actively looking for you. In fact, I'm kind of shocked they haven't come here yet..."

"What?" Sandy panicked.

Alice waved her off. "To be fair they have been pretty busy with recruiting in preparation for potential conflict with Lithiovai, and then newborns in Seattle were making a ruckus and now they're coming to destroy the Olympic coven—"

"WHAT?!" Sandy yelped, rushing to sit next to Alice. "What do you mean they're trying to destroy you guys?"

"Well, Edward and Bella got married back in September—missed you at the wedding, by the way. And then they went on their honeymoon, and we all were not thinking about the fact that you told us vampires could get human women pregnant, so Bella got pregnant..."

"They had sex while she was still human?! Do you know how dangerous that is?! Did she die!" Sandy cried, panic encasing her voice.

How was everything so much worse than she thought it would be? She thought that all she had to worry about was avoiding the Volturi, but according to Alice, it seemed everyone had been rather busy. In the worst ways possible!

Not to mention, Sandy knew of no vampire hybrid children whose mothers lived after childbirth. For a human to give birth to a supernatural was incredibly dangerous, practically impossible to survive. The babies of vampires and humans were not born normally; no, they ripped themselves out of the mother's womb.

"She's immortal. Edward changed her at the last possible second. Their daughter, Renesmee, is incredible though. She reminds me of you, actually..." Alice smiled softly at the end. "Irena saw her though, and assumed Renesmee was an immortal child—she left before we could explain. And she reported us to the Volturi, so despite our close relations with you... they're coming to destroy us... they believe we've broken one of the most sacred laws..."

"Oh my gosh..." Sandy grabbed her head in horror. "We need to stop them, we can explain—"

"—Even when we're able to prove that Renesmee is not an immortal child, they know about your brother, Sandy. And considering how dangerous he is, he isn't exactly giving hybrid children a good reputation..." Alice quickly cut her off. "I did not come to ask you to fight with us or to witness, we've gathered plenty of witnesses worldwide, and I would not have come here if I had any other choice. I've come to ask if you know of any other child like Renesmee and your brother. Anyone else who can prove that Renesmee is not a danger and will not grow to be violent..."

Sandy's brows furrowed. "Thespian—my brother, he is the way that he is not because of what he was born as, but because of how he was raised to be... hybrid children are like any other child, you raise them to be the person that they are. Thespian is a making of his circumstances and nothing more... why would the Volturi think any differently?" It was hard for her to wrap her head around.

It seemed like common sense—hybrid children grew. They matured and were naturally meant to be more peaceful than an immortal child.

"Power," Jasper did not hesitate to say causing the two females to look at him. "If they wipe out the majority of the covens there, they get to pick and choose who they keep for their own coven. Not only will they increase their numbers and own power, but they wipe out virtually any coven who might be a threat. Doing that solves their recruiting plan and gives them the edge they need against Lithiovai."

Sandy hated that Jasper was right, but she could not argue his statement. There was no way to defend her mates against the accusation, especially Aro. After watching them for the past two decades and seeing who they were for herself: Jasper's words did ring true.

Aro would do almost anything to increase his power. If he was any better of a man than Lithiovai, it was not by much.

"I'll go," Sandy sighed, "If I am there then there is a better chance they won't go through with the plan—I will make it very clear that human-vampire hybrid children are not dangerous. Not any more dangerous than a normal vampire, at least," The fae said, standing up with the intention of once again packing everything.

Truthfully, Sandy was unsure why she had not left Hawaii yet. Alice was right in saying that it was dangerous for Sandy to stay in one place for so long, but a lot of it had to do with Sandy wanting to finish law school before she left. Not to mention, she just really liked Hawaii.

Alice reached out, stopping Sandy and guiding her to sit back down. "No, you can't compromise yourself, Sandy. Bella did not even want us to attempt to find you during her pregnancy when we had no clue if we could save her life or not. I barely wanted to track you down as is, but we had no choice if we want to avoid this battle. That being said, you witnessing is not going to change their mind—rather, it might just enrage them further. All they will do is take you and continue with the plans of destroying our coven: we need true living proof that Renesmee will not grow up to be like Thespian. Please, is there anyone at all?"

Cassandra pursed her lips, but she recognized the truth in Alice's words. Her being there would not change her mate's minds—it would only get her caught by them. They would still choose to execute the Cullens, especially seeing as they knew this could happen and were still careless about it.

It would be linked back to the Olympic coven choosing not to give Bella immortality soon enough.

The truth of the matter was that if Edward and Bella wanted to have sex, then Bella should have been changed on the night of their wedding.

"I do know a someone who might be able to help," Cassandra spoke softly, her eyes lighting up. "But we'll need to travel to the rural tribal areas of South America... how long until the Volturi go to Forks?"

Alice looked nervous, her eyes flitting between Jasper and Sandy.

"According to my vision, we have 15 days... they'll come when the snow sticks... on the last day of the calendar year," She said.

"December 31st, I can work with that—it'll give us plenty of time," Sandy nodded, standing from her spot. "We can leave in three days, I need time to tie any loose ends here, and Alice, if my plan fails and we can't find the proof: then I'll need to suffice... I won't let them hurt you guys, I will stand by you all and fight if it comes to it..."

Jasper and Alice shared a long look before slowly nodding.

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that," Jasper said in a gruff tone, arms still crossed tightly over his chest.

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"What do you mean you're leaving?" Keanu complained as they sat across from each other, both of them wearing casual clothing despite being at work.

There was no dress code for the beachy coffee shop they worked at—it's why loose Hawaiian shirts, shorts, and flip-flops were the go-to. All of which Sandy was currently adorning, her hair down and big.

It was not busy, so the two sat across from each other at one of the tables sipping iced coffees they had made. Or better said that Cassandra (or Aaliyah as Keanu knew her) made.

Sandy had let the manager know due to a family emergency, this was to be her last shift.

"I know, I really do love it here—it's peaceful. And the flow of energy is beautiful..." Sandy sighed, humming as a breeze passed through the open windows. "But my grandmother is sick, my family needs me home to help take care of my younger siblings."

It killed Cassandra to tell such a bold lie. She hated lying to her friend, but for his safety and his own peace, she could not consider telling him even a partial truth. Not in this situation.

"Well," Keanu smiled at her, reaching across the table and taking her hand in his own. His brown eyes were kind as they looked into her own, his dreadlocks tied back. "I hope that everything works out for you... I know you're going to make one hell of a lawyer, sticking up for the little guy..."

Cassandra bit her lip, squeezing his hand tighter.

It was obvious that Keanu had a bit of a crush on her since he met her, nevertheless, he was still a great friend and had never dared to make a move. And now, it seemed like he would never have the chance.

In a world where Cassandra was not stuck as the mate of three overlords, then she could see herself catching feelings for Keanu as well. Living a simple life on the road with him: never staying in one place for more than a few years.

"That means a lot, Keanu," She nodded and a comfortable silence fell between them—the only sounds coming from the beach outside.