"It's time to start for a new life that's waiting for me."
A New Life is the first story of the After Breaking Dawn Saga by FireRed21. It is a fantasy/family story that takes place eight years after Breaking Dawn where the Cullens meet a young boy (Lucas Stone) and a new adventure begins. The story is told by him and every member of the Cullen family's perspective.
The story is followed by the sequel The Other Half and its companion story A Reason To Smile.
Plot summary
The story takes place eight years after Breaking Dawn where the Cullens are still living in Forks, Washington.
Renesmee Cullen, now eight years old and fully grown, starts the story where she and Jacob Black are walking together in the meadow. The pair have been dating since Renesmee was six since Jacob imprinted on her. The two were about to head back home to the Cullen's house when they heard trouble in the woods and followed it to see a grizzly bear attacking a boy name Lucas Stone. Jacob transforms into his wolf form and saves Lucas, who didn't know who the wolf is, by luring the bear away from him. After Renesmee helps Lucas up and Jacob returns in his human form, she offers Lucas to take him to her home so that Carlisle Cullen, Renesmee's grandfather to aid his arm. She and Lucas say goodbye to Jacob who says he needs to go home for some reason and the two of them head to the Cullen's house. Lucas tells Renesmee about himself; he's from Lacey and just graduated high school.
The perspective changes to Lucas's as he is brought into the home of the Cullens where he meets the family. After Carlisle heals Lucas's arm, Esme Cullen invited him to join the family for dinner, where only he and Renesmee were the ones eating. The Cullens learn more about Lucas as tells his reason for being in Forks. He's been travelling for a month since he finished high school to find meaning in his life. The reason is because he lost his family; his parents and little sister, in a fire a month before his graduation. Hearing this, the Cullens allows Lucas to stay in their home since he has no where to stay.
In Edward Cullen's perspective, after Lucas goes to sleep and Jacob arrives, Edward tells his family how he couldn't read Lucas's mind. Jasper Hale and Alice Cullen also claim how they couldn't use their gifts either. Jacob also explains he saw a type of substance around Lucas that was faint. Questions arose whether or not Lucas could be considered a threat but the Cullens agree that until they find out more about him, they accept Lucas as a friend.
Throughout the next day in the Cullens and Jacob's perspectives, they each got to know Lucas and bonded with him and the Cullens and Jacob agree that Lucas isn't a threat and decided to make him part of the family. Renesmee and Jacob takes Lucas to La Push while the Cullens prepare a party for Lucas. However, when Renesmee and Lucas were heading home, a car comes in at high speed towards them and Lucas pushes Renesmee out of harms way but gets hit in the process rending him unconscious. Jacob and Renesmee rushed Lucas to the Cullens but were unfortunately too late as Lucas was dead. The Cullens and Jacob were sad to have lost Lucas until Edward heard Lucas's heart give out a beat indicating that he's alive so Jacob as Alpha gave permission to change Lucas into a vampire so that he could live and that's what Carlisle did.
In Lucas's perspective, he wakes up after being run over in a dark place where he is dead. He then gets a surprise seeing his parents Kendall and Jessica Stone and sister Lilly Stone who tells Lucas that they are proud of him and love him. They then say that Lucas has a choice to move forward with them or go back to the Cullens which Lucas chose the latter. After saying goodbye to his family, Lucas goes back to his body only to have find out that it is damaged and he is moments away from dying until he experiences something painful and everything went black to him.
Lucas wakes up at the Cullens home after his transformation where the Cullens told Lucas they are vampires and that he is now one. His reaction is that he does not care as he loves the Cullens no matter what and accepted his new life. After bringing him out for his first hunt, the Cullens threw a party for Lucas as he becomes a member of their family.
The next day where Lucas is working at Jacob's shop after learning about his tribe being shape shifters, Sam Uley, Paul Lahote, Seth Clearwater and Collin Littlesea came and a fight broke out between Lucas and Collin being none to thrilled about Lucas being allowed on their lands while also insulting Renesmee. Because Lucas is still a newborn and has little experiences fighting as a vampire, he was at a disadvantage when Collin phased until Lucas did something that sent Collin flying away from him. It turns out the reason why Edward, Alice and Jasper couldn't use their gifts on him is because Lucas has the ability to use his aura to block out supernatural gifts. They also see that Lucas can see other people's aura and also uses his aura to shoot calling them aura spheres. The Cullens help train Lucas to use his gift. After Lucas succesfully learns how to use it and turning off his aura to allow Edward to read his mind, Edward then playfully informs Jacob that Lucas kissed Renesmee leaving out that it was on the forehead leading Jacob to chase Lucas.
A month has passed since Lucas joined the Cullens and adjusted his new life. During that, Bella Swan takes Lucas over to meet her father Charlie Swan where it turns out the two know each other due to Charlie's friendship with Lucas's father. One day while Renesmee was alone at home, she was suddenly kidnapped. She wakes up to find out that she is in Volterra, Italy and that the Volruti has captured her where Aro wants her to join them which she refuses. Aro then uses one of his newest members Olivia to hypnotize Renesmee.
Back in Forks, the Cullens found out that Renesmee is missing but have no idea where she is or who took her as Alice somehow didn't see it like she can now of half human half vampire hybrids. Lucas then notices people attempting to attack the Cullens but yet only he can see so he warned Edward and together they helped the Cullens foil the vampires attempting to assassinate them led by May and Niall, Olivia's siblings also recruited by Aro. After capturing the two along with the other vampires and hearing how they bypassed the Cullens unaware about Lucas's gift, the Cullens find out that they the Volturi are behind it and has Renesmee and the Cullens destroyed May, Niall and the rest of the vampires before they head to Italy.
The Cullens and Jacob arrived in Volterra where the Volturi are surprised to see that the Cullens survived. The Cullens demand Aro to release Renesmee but Aro states that she wanted to join them for a long time. And for proof, Renesmee shows herself wearing their outfit admitting what Aro stated. Lucas then sees through Renesmee's eyes that she has been hypnotized but Lucas has a plan. Aro victoriously says that if the Cullens want to be with her, they must join his coven. Lucas comes to Aro where he looks as if he were gonna give Aro his hand so that Aro could read his thoughts but Lucas instead shot an aura sphere at Olivia where she was sent flying to the wall causing a torch to fall on her thus freeing Renesmee from her and the Volturi's control. After Renesmee regain her will, the Cullens were about to leave but Aro would not allow it since he couldn't have Renesmee and ordered a death sentence on the Cullens and Jacob. Despite the Cullens having the Volturi outmatched, they were caught and restrained by the guards except for Lucas who protected himself from Alec's gift. Aro was impressed of Lucas's skills and abilities along with his gift and offers him to join them which Lucas immediately declines. Aro then notices how Lucas seems familiar to him. Curious, Edward took a peek in Aro's mind and found out the Volturi were the ones responsible for the death of Lucas's family. This causes Lucas to go on a rage as he took out the Volturi single handily and reached Aro attempting to kill him but was stopped by Carlisle. He tells him that it's over but Lucas wouldn't let it go until he saw Lilly saying that she doesn't want to lose Lucas this way. He then sees that it was actually Renesmee causing him to come back to his senses. Seeing what Lucas can do and being defeated, Aro lets the Cullens and Jacob go with Renesmee with them. As they leave, Lucas's rage came back and tries to turn back but was being held back until Lucas passed out which should never happen to a vampire.
The Cullens return home only after Lucas woke up, he packs his bag and left the Cullens without an explanation which worries the Cullens. He then returns a week later explaining that he went back to Lacey to say goodbye to his friends before they go to college and visited his family's grave. He then says that he wants to stay with the Cullens if they let him which they did without the need for permission.