Chapter Text
In a strange way, it made sense. To live forever is to outlive the very necessities of life after all. To eventually outlive the very planet itself. It didn’t make it easier, knowing that this was inevitable. It didn’t soothe the twist in his gut as he looked into Alice’s eyes.
“We have to. This is the best way, I know it is,” she urged him, her hands clutching his ever tighter with her words. “We won’t have the presence of mind to do this. If we wait too long we won’t even be able to start a fire, not after the current blazes.” Her conviction pushed at him. Jasper knew she spoke true, knew how many of their deaths she must have seen in her future sight. It didn’t make it any easier. They had been together for thousands of years—his own death he could accept but not Alice’s. Not on purpose.
“We could starve. It wouldn’t kill us,” he said. Alice sighed and laid her head on his chest.
“A millennia drifting endlessly mad with thirst is worse than you can even imagine. It’ll work out, I know it will. There’s something beyond the end and I don’t know what but I can see it. I can see us there, standing in darkness but standing all the same. Maybe Carlisle was right. Maybe he’s in a paradise even now. We have to do it now, before we lose our nerve.”
Neither of them particularly had any nerve right now in the first place but she did have a point. Her emotions were a violently churning mix of fear, resignation, and anxiety shot through with the bright strength of earnest belief that always came when she had seen something so many times she knew the future wouldn’t change. Of course Alice’s visions were true, he didn’t doubt that, but was he strong enough to walk to his own death with his one brightness? Thousands of years and he was still amazed by the strength of her gift. Who else could thread the needle so carefully? Who else could know exactly what had to be done to avoid a fate worse than death? No, he didn’t want to walk willingly to his own death but he would follow her anywhere. Alice knew best.
He cupped his hand around the bare skin of her neck and pushed as much love and hope and calm as he possibly could, pushed harder than he ever had before. If her gift would let them avoid endless torture then by God his gift would at least soothe the way. He could do this for her. He had too.
“Then let’s go. Now, before we can’t anymore. Just know I love you more than life itself.” Jasper said, his voice rough with choked back emotion. All the deaths he had seen—in the armies, in their former coven, in the volturi, the former nomads—none of them got to choose it peacefully, knowing there was something after for a fact. What a gift she had given him.
“I love you too. I’m glad we’ve had this long together. I wouldn’t change it for the world.” Her love bubbled up even stronger than before and maybe he was the one here meant to change emotions but her love soothed his hurt even as he did the same for her. They had come this far together. Thousands and thousands of years spent loving each other with all their heart and soul and he’d be dammed if he stepped into the afterlife feeling anything but adoration for the little pixie who had made it all possible.
The concept of now was a softer one, after the clocks and time pieces of humans were gone and so they held each other for a good while. The sun made its trek across the sky overhead and the fires in the distance came closer as the shadows lengthened. A day spent holding each other closely and unmoving to bask in each other’s love in the end of times. The fear was long gone from both of them now. Who could be afraid with a partner so perfectly matched to each other as they were? It was as though they were made to walk into the darkness together, totally calm and knowing something waited on the other side for them. They could do this. They had to do this.
They didn’t break from each other till the sun was setting and the fires were within the mile. It was fitting that the end of their lives on earth should be under a blood red sky with none but themselves left to witness it. Something beautiful to carry with them. Alice moved first until they were hand in hand, arm against arm. There were no words left to say they had not said a thousand times over and so they stayed silently floating in the atmosphere of pure devotion. The fires were close now, the heat starting to warm the cold stone of their bodies. They would face it together and he would soothe her hurt until the very end even as his own body melted.
He couldn’t breathe anymore. The smoke was too thick and the very scent of it made him want to bolt. He couldn’t even smell Alice by his side, though he could feel her pressed against him. Calm. Calm. Calm. Don’t think about it, don’t focus on the horrible screams that were starting to wrench themselves unwilling from their mouths as the first bits of fire reached them. He had to calm her. He could do this one final gift. But no, he couldn’t feel that extra sense he had always known anymore. The sunset was gone, covered by the flames. He couldn’t see anything else, couldn’t smell anything but smoke. All that was left was the feeling of her arm on his and yet Jasper couldn’t even turn his head to see her. Was Alice burning too? She had been screaming earlier but now he couldn’t hear anything. Maybe he had stopped screaming as well. He wouldn’t know the difference.
It was a strange feeling, dying. His senses were gone, his gift gone, but somehow he stayed, living in the hazy much of life and death, conscious only of the weight of Alice’s presence beside him, though he knew her body was as burnt as his. It was like falling asleep, slipping over the cliff of oblivion so slowly he did not even realize it was happening until he was dead.