Bonne Foi
by Amethyst Jackson is an AU take on The Twilight Saga where Edward was turned by a vampire other than Carlisle back in 1917. Abandoned by his sire before he regained consciousness and unaware that there is an alternative to killing humans, Edward spends the next ninety years feeding on different kinds of humans, until he encounters Bella on campus while he is contemplating making her his next victim. Finding himself unable to read her mind, Edward initially keeps Bella around for the chance to have sex without hearing his partner’s thoughts, but goes on to become genuinely fond of her, leading to him becoming more invested in the lives of others than ever before.
Bonne Foi contains examples of:
- Adaptational Villainy: The fic opens with Edward having developed a reputation on Bella’s college campus as a serial killer, and he spends the first few chapters only planning to keep her around as essentially a sex object whose thoughts don’t bother him while they’re having sex, before he finds himself becoming more genuinely interested in her as a person.
- Berserk Button: Anything that threatens Bella to any degree becomes this for Edward; he even kills Aro, leader of the Volturi, because Aro’s abilities allowed him to essentially ‘intrude’ on Edward’s private moments with Bella as he saw Bella through Edward’s memories.
- Birds of a Feather: Alice tells Bella that they both share the ‘burden’ of loving someone so much they have to forgive that person’s dark past because they can’t imagine life without them, Alice recalling Jasper’s own murderous history when Bella is contemplating Edward’s past victims.
- Character Development: Bella in particular is far more developed than she is in canon; studying Literature at college, she intrigues Edward with her perspective on certain books and her psychological insights into their characters that inspire Edward to think more about his own interests and psychology.
- Crippling Overspecialisation: Invoked when Edward kills Jane in the final confrontation; with Bella protecting Edward from Jane’s powers, Jane is revealed to have virtually no experience at hand-to-hand combat.
- Darker and Edgier: In contrast to the brooding Edward of canon, here Edward initially revels in his status as a monster and takes some time to adjust to the notion that he’s even capable of caring about a human as anything other than food or a sex object.
- Disappointed by the Motive: When Edward learns that he was turned and abandoned by Victoria in a moment of idle boredom, Bella voices her disgust at how unbelievably petty that is to justify what Edward’s been through.
- Erotic Eating: Edward is aroused when he watches Bella eating a banana, although it’s left open if Bella was doing this on purpose.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Even when planning to kill Bella after having sex with her, Edward made sure that she wanted to do it rather than forcing her even when he could have easily done so.
- Everyone Went to School Together: Invoked with the revelation that Victoria turned Edward in a moment of boredom just as James was the reason Alice became a vampire.
- For Want Of A Nail: Edward was turned by Victoria rather than Carlisle just because he wandered into a random alley at a bad moment.
- Heel Realisation: As he spends more time with Bella, Edward comes to appreciate what he did to the relatives of his past victims, to the extent that he feels genuine guilt when attending their memorial.
- Heroic Willpower: Despite Bella going through the agony of being changed into a vampire, she manages to push that pain aside to throw a shoe at Victoria (distracting her at a crucial moment so Edward can kill her) and later manages to extend her shield to protect the Cullens from the Volturi's powers before the change has even completed.
- I Hate You, Vampire Mom: When Edward learns that Victoria was the one who turned him, he makes it clear to her that the only thing about his condition he appreciates is that it gave him the chance to meet Bella, and he has nothing but contempt for everything he's done before that because of his change.
- Ignorant of Their Own Ignorance: Edward spent literally decades never considering the idea that he could drink from animals, until he finds himself starving and unable to feed from humans without thinking of Bella and instinctively chases down a deer.
- In Spite of a Nail: Even when Carlisle didn’t turn Edward as his first "son", he still ended up turning Esme and Rosalie as in canon, which led to Rosalie turning Emmett and Jasper and Alice joining them on their own accord later. Carlisle's thoughts after meeting Edward also mention that Carlisle sees Bella as a daughter after all the effort he put into helping her recover from her accident. Bella and the Cullens are still close, even without her canon relationship with Edward to give them the final push.
- Interspecies Romance: As well as Bella and Edward, Jacob later imprints on Tanya of the Denali.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Part of the reason Edward’s true nature was hidden from Bella for so long is that the news didn’t reveal that the Campus Killer’s victims were all drained of blood, as the police kept that quiet out of natural disbelief. Bella only learns that detail when she visits Charlie, as he learned about it through a contact on the case, which stops Bella from considering ‘vampire’ as an explanation for Edward’s odd physical condition until much later in their relationship.
- Manchild: Emmett's status as this is observed when Edward learns that his reasons for not drinking human blood are so relatively simple compared to the others; where most of the Cullens abstain for moral reasons, Emmett just likes people and prefers the challenge of taking on animals.
- Morality Pet: Bella basically becomes this for Edward, as spending time with her makes him more aware of humans after decades of just seeing them as food, to the extent that he soon realises he can’t keep drinking from humans now that he’s come to know Bella.
- Nice Girl: Angela is this as always; even in the early days of his relationship with Bella, when he told himself he just saw her as someone he could have peaceful sex with, Edward finds Angela to be so genuinely nice he can’t dislike her, and when she learns that Bella is staying with Edward while injured, Edward senses nothing but Angela’s genuine hope that Bella will be all right.
- Protagonist-Centred Morality: Discussed and analysed to a greater extent than canon; where Bella was shown easily accepting how even some of their vampire allies fed on humans, one chapter focuses on her dealing with her own guilt about how she can accept Edward’s recent victims because he wouldn’t be with her if he hadn’t killed them.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Even before he started developing deeper feelings for Bella, Edward refused to rape her, making sure that she actually wanted sex even when he could have easily forced her.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: To a degree; Jacob at one point speculates that Edward may be the campus serial killer, but he’s just basing this on his knowledge that Edward’s a vampire rather than any real evidence, and Edward stopped killing humans months ago.
- Sherlock Scan: Chapter 19 reveals that Bella had put various clues together over the last few months to realise what Edward really is, but only confronts him about it when she thinks he killed someone the previous night.
- Single-Target Sexuality: After meeting Bella, Edward finds it hard to do anything with other women, even when he’s actively trying to "get over her".
- Trauma Conga Line: A relatively minor but significant one; without Edward to save her, Bella was hit by Tyler’s truck in junior year, which caused such serious damage that Carlisle had to literally remove her womb, and she spent months afterwards in physical therapy. However, by the time she meets Edward, Bella has accepted her inability to have children.
- Truth Serum: When Bella is on painkillers after James breaks her leg, she tells Edward that she would have gone with him on their first night together even if she’d known he was a vampire; Carlisle observes that Bella always has this kind of reaction to medication, mentioning that when she was in hospital after being hit by Tyler's truck, she told Carlisle that he had a cute butt.
- What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: Invoked regarding Edward, as he only has vague memories of love from his human life to the extent that he's shocked when Bella tells him she loves him for the first time. He initially doesn't reply, as he isn't sure how to respond, but talking with the Cullens helps him accept that he and Bella are good for each other, prompting him to return and affirm that he does love her.
