I loved this chapter, excellent, honest dialogue between Edward and Bella, exactly the way it should have been written.  I have often wished that I would have ended with SM book Twilight,   I was so disappointed with Eclipse and Breaking Dawn and New Moon (although I could forgive Bella her actions in that book) started the whole whiny, selfish downward spiral of Bella's character.  It makes me think of the two upcoming movies, New Moon I can probably handle but after reading Atlas Shrugged I can't bear the thought of seeing SM version of Eclipse played out on the big screen, from the Switzerland speech to the Kiss.  I sooo wish it could be your version instead.

I love that you had Edward crush the wolf charm with Bella's permission.  Great chapter, great story can't wait for more...

Author's Response:

So this is going to sound arrogant as hell, but I wish my version was going to be on the screen too. Why? Because it's so amazing? No, I just really want to see Rob's face delivering some of the sexy snarky lines. I envisioned him as I was writing them...think of when Bella is in Edward's bedroom and he's twirling her around and saying he could make her dance... remember that oh so sexy face? That's how I pictured Edward at the very end of this chapter.

Away from my Pattinson obsession...I wish I had stopped with Twilight as well. I could have easily let my imagination fill in the blanks and been infinitely happier than with what followed.

Thank you for reading!

   - Katie

Yay!  Edward needed to go all possesive vamp and Bella needed to submit to it!  The kissing scene was the best!  I bet Bella wished she had gone further with Jacob-haha!

Author's Response:

hahahaha, ok that is a point i had never thought of myself. "Hey Edward, you know Jake touched my naughty bits..I don't want you to feel left out..."

 

Okay, so I love the return of snarky Edward.

I also loved the hint that Esme is not particularly happy at the moment. Usually, once Bella and Edward are back on good terms, the rest of the family is like 'eh, fixed now' and pretend nothing ever happened.

Ah, no. It doesn't work like that, especially when this is the second time Edward and Bella's relationship has imploded and Edward almost gets killed.

The return of the Vanquish pleases me, as does Edward's happy chatter about the car.

The bracelet bit was pure genius, and Bella's pants going bye-bye made me laugh.

Edward made me very happy this chapter. He deserves a cookie.

Is there going to be a discussion on the whole 'soul' issue, since Edward seems to have thrown his objections to the change out the window?

Author's Response:

The Vanquish always needs more lovin', says I. And I think having Esme be pissed off is kind of a great way of subtley saying the whole world and all the Cullen's doing revolve around E/B's relationship, but it does effect others and they have to step up to the plate.

My sister thought the pants scene was completely random, but it just seemed so Bella! In the middle of a crazy hot kiss, something mortifying happens because she tried to make a grand gesture. But instead of freaking out like she normally would have, she pretty much just rolled with the punches.

As for the changing and soul issue, Edward addressed his soul issues when he talked about his past. What I had hoped to show is that it was less a matter of him truly believing that no vampires had souls, but rather just the bad ones had destroyed theirs. Like at the end of New Moon he thinks Carlisle was right...it never sat well with me for him to think of carlisle as a soulless monster. It seemed far more personal. However, the changing issue is still to come, and perhaps I'll clarify the soul issue there.

Again, I enjoy this story.  I like the tough, yet tender Rose that very seldom shows up in these fics.

My only small criticism is in Bella's explanation to Charlie.  It read like a prose passage rather than as dialogue, and was much too wordy and complex for Bella.  I know that she is supposed to be intelligent, but even an intelligent eighten year old has a bigger gap between her understood vocabulary and her spoken vocabulary.

Rose's dialogue has some of the same problems, but it is a little less glaring with her, perhaps because we so seldom hear her speak.

All in al, though, this is an interesting and well-told story

Author's Response:

Well crap, I thought that was one of the few non-prose-like sections. Unfortunately I hate to say this, but it only gets worse from there. I appreciate the criticism though and I will certainly keep it in mind for later chapters!

  Thanks fo reviewing!

I am more impressed with this than I have been with any fic in a long time.  Your careful deliniation of Edward's fall is heartbreaking, and much more 'realistic'(whatever that means when we're dealing with mythical creatures) than the acceptance in Eclipse.  Part of what makes the character of Edward so powerful and irresistable is his passion, bridled though it must be.  Edward simply accepting Bella's betrayal in Eclipse was the beginning of his becoming  the unrecognizable lap-dog in Breaking Dawn. 

WELL DONE!

Author's Response:

I agree he was a lap-dog at Bella's beck-and-call during BD. Not Atlas' Bella, I promise. It's all about the give and take and I'm so glad you're liking it!

I'm so incredibly speechless here.  Really.  It's like you carved out this entire new perspective and insight into what I was subconsciously thinking while reading Eclipse.  I was furious with Bella the whole time!  And now - even with fan fic writers - so many people belittle Edward and punish him so much with over-wrought amounts of angst when they never realize Bella did something TERRIBLE to him in return.  Nobody (that I know of) has ever addressed this.  She was so heartless and clueless. 

I know you give her reasons greater insight here and it does itself credit, but I still rage towards Bella that she acted the way she did.  In fact your paragraph about her admiting how much she told Edward how to behave and then demanded things from him that were painful - could not have said it better myself.

Seriously, after reading this last chapter, I'm reflecting on their relationship in canon and now thinking they have some serious messed up problems if they never addressed these points - because Bella certainly doesn't appear to make a great deal of effort towards making amends and Edward never confesses what he felt.  Problems.

This is a better view of what they should have said to each other.  And exactly what she should have done with the damn bracelet :)

Author's Response:

I agree Edward's been getting a bad rap in ff and Bella's been getting off scott free for faaaar too long. I also worry that no matter how I try to explain away her actions, at times they were so negligent that there's only so much I can do. That was actually my biggest fear with this latest chapter, that it wouldn't be enough to fix what was wrong. Maybe it wasn't, but at least E/B were giving it a shot intead of ignoring it, which is what I think infuriated so many of us.

 

Thank you for reading!

great chapter!

Author's Response:

thanks!

Excellent. One of the best. As a writer, I know how hard it is to write something this deep and heart felt and soul wrenching. Good job.

Finally someone writing the scene that should have been written in Eclipse. Don't get me wrong. I love Stephanie Meyer and especially her characters. But I could never understand how she could love Edward so much, and introduce us to the deep love Edward and Bella had, and then just let cocky, jerk Jake and fickle Bella walk all over his heart. This loving two people crap, just loving one more...don't buy it. Anyone who read Eclipse knows that under it all, this was the truth. Bella's fear of Edward leaving and her insecurities and Edward's jealous and monster complex. Finally, Bella gets some sense, Edward gets some justice and Jacob gets the boot.

Well done. Can we hope for a little Jake ass kicking?

Loved it. Didn't dissapoint at all. And the bit about her associating the Vanquish with High heels so it couldn't get any worse was pure genius, and so Bella. Well done.

 

God i'm hoping Edward will get to kick Jacobs butt lol. Thats always been the thing missing from the books for me, a good fight scene and a butt kicking for the arrogant cocky wolf.. Hmmm i obviously have a violent side i need to address.

 

Great writing again. I wait with baited breath for the next chapter. xx

Author's Response:

Mmm, I love me some Vanquish. I took Edward's rant straight from Jeremy Clarkson's review of the Vanquish on Top Gear. Can you tell I'm mildly car obsessed? haha.

The jury is still out whether there will be any J/E butt kicking. But don't worry, I have a violent side myself.

  Thanks for the review hon!

Great, great chapter. Thank you. You have addressed the issues I have always had a problem with in Eclipse, mainly Bella's immaturity and selfishness regarding Jacob, the constant back and forth between the two and that kiss - my God that kiss still breaks my heart even now! So thank you for that, it was really well handled and we even got an actual apology from Bella which is a first. I feel like I want to rip out the final chapter in Eclipse and replace it with your fanfiction, this is far more satisfying and makes a heck of a lot more sense.

I've never really bought into the idea of Bella having romantic love for Jacob it was hard for me to believe considering her overwhelming love for Edward practically consumed her and left no room for anyone else, Breaking Dawn essentially confirmed my belief however your explanation is one I have always thought of too - he was like a safety net in case Edward left, he was the back up, the second option he never compared in any way to her feelings for Edward. Edward after all is the other part of her soul.

So great chapter, this fanfiction really is exercising all my demons regarding Eclipse!

Author's Response:

Thank you so much. Our feelings on the subject closely mirror each others. I agree it probably is possible to love two people at once, but not when you're in such a love affair in the first place. Twilight's love story was far too above and beyond the day-to-day love to have ever worked in a love triangle.

I'm glad you liked that kiss. I agonized over it. Too much play-by-play and something moving becoms just graphic tongue porn. Too much narrative, and it couldn't have been that great if Bella was thinking deep thoughts about it. I've also really tried to stay away from describing things in the same manner we see ad naseum throughout the fandom, but there's only so many ways to describe the two of them making out. Edward does have a sugary sweet cold tongue... there's no real way around it.

 

Anyways I love that you're loving it!! Thanks for reviewing and come say hi on the Atlas thread!

   - Katie

There are some really core issues discussed in this chapter. I do question if Jake and Bella's love was something that she can just push aside like that symbolically. I am by no means a Team Jacob fan, but if SM's canon is that she did love him and saw a possible future, will that be addressed in this fan fic? I do agree that Bella used Jake as her safety net expecting Edward to leave again. Overall great chapter and a lot to ponder how I feel about how it relates to canon.

Author's Response:

You bring up a legitimate concern, but that's why I mad this AU. If I were writing strictly canon, according to SM, she wouldn't be able to push aside that love. But to be fair, it was only in the FAQ section of her website, that SM told us Bella had fallen in love with Jake in New Moon. So to me, that doesn't make it canon if you don't actually put it in the books. Going by that logic, we were left to believe that Bella, who was kissing Jake to save his life, and resisted and pushed him away, only to suddenly respond...was instantly in love with him. It never added up to me. I felt that she cared for Jake, but she never really analyzed either his or her actions to see the root of them. That's what Atlas is about. Bella finally seeing her actions clearly and dealing with their ramifications. It's obviously not strictly canon, becase Edward sluffed off her kiss with Jake in Eclipse, and then barely said a word when she sobber her eyes out about him all night long. To me, it was out of character for both of them, based on how she had developed the characters in the first two and half books. So, Atlas is a different interpretation, one in which Bella wasn't in love with Jake and never envisioned a future with him.

 

I hope this answers your question, and if you want to discuss it more, come chat about it on the Atlas forum :)

loved it... waiting anxiously for the next chapter!

Author's Response:

Thanks!

This is my very first review in this fandom because I had yet to find a story that touched me and enthralled me. That is definitively a different story that you are writing here. Your characters have more depth and brains than SM credited them with (or bothered to credit them with) and I think that is why I liked your writings. It is a pleasure to read you every time.

Author's Response:

Thank you for taking the time to review. I'm so happy to be able to feel this niche that so many of us feel about the lack of depth to the characters. They always had such potential, Edward in particular, and I wanted to let them fulfill it. If you just let them express themselves instead of hiding in the sand, I think it brings a whole new light to them, and their relationship.

   - Katie