DISCLAIMER: ALL OF THE AMAZING TWILIGHT WORLD, OF COURSE BELONGS TO SM.

THE FIRST PART OF THIS CHAPTER IS TAKING FROM BD, AS THIS STORY IS AN ALTERNATIVE ENDING TO THE BOOK, NOT A STORY IN ITS OWN RIGHT.

HOPE YOU ENJOY, AND PLEASE REVIEW!

Preface

We had to keep things going. Keep life moving on as smoothly as possible, for the sake of my daughter. We always made sure she was happy. As happy as she could ever be made in this impossible situation, but I knew I would never give up. I would keep fighting, keep searching until I found them. And I would not rest until the monsters that did this to us were made to suffer. The volturi would pay for what they did to my family. I would make sure of that.

Chapter 1.

They came with pageantry, with a kind of beauty.

They came in a rigid, formal formation. They moved together, but it was not a march; they flowed in perfect synchronicity from the trees-a dark, unbroken shape that seemed to hover a few inches above the white snow, so smooth was the advance.

The outer perimeter was gray; the colour darkened with each line of bodies until the heart of the formation was deepest black. Every face was cowled, shadowed. The faint brushing sound of their feet was so regular it was like music, a complicated beat that never faltered.

At some sign I did not see-or perhaps there was no sign, only millennia of practice- the configuration folded outward. The motion was too square to resemble the opening of a flower, though the colour suggested that; it was the opening of a fan, graceful but very angular. The gray cloaked figures spread to the flanks while the darker forms surged precisely forward in the centre, each movement closely controlled.

Their progress was slow but deliberate, with no hurry, no tension, no anxiety. It was the pace of the inevitable.

I sucked in a breath of air, feeling the relief that burned through my body, even though I no longer needed the action. The familiar feeling helped my body to calm down enough that I was able to concentrate on the situation around me. All of my family and friends stood behind me, waiting just like I was to see who would approach first. In the end it was Aro who made the first move.

"Carlisle, my dear friend, I wish we were meeting under more pleasant circumstances, but, alas! It cannot be helped."

Carlisle looked sideways at Edward, who nodded his head in answer to some question we could not hear. Then Carlisle left the rest of us gasping as he walked away from the safety of our family line up towards the centre of the field. Towards Aro.

Edward held up his hand.

"wait. This is why we came here today. It is the only chance we'll get to explain. Everyone, just wait"

"Aro" Carlisle said,

"Please let us try to explain before you judge the situation. We are well aware of what rules you assume we have broken, but if you will hold your hand out and let me show you, you will soon know that this is all just a terrible, horrible mistake"

"Ahh Carlisle... I wish things were that simple. We set out on this trip, presumably to deal with a breach in the most important law for our kind. The immortal children. But we know dear friend, that no breach has been made."

Aro sighed.

I gasped. What did he mean? How could he possibly know that no breach has been made? What did this mean for us now? Did it mean we had a chance? I didn't understand.

I glanced sideways at Edward and was shocked to see him standing there blankly looking from side to side, with the strangest expression I have ever seen on his face. He looked... well he almost looked... lost? But how was that possible? How could Edward, My Edward, possibly look like he didn't know where he was, or who was surrounding him? Even with all the space in my brain I couldn't figure out what any of this meant.

And then I heard the giggling, coming from behind the volturi. Someone was there, and we had been so busy concentrating on the immediate threat the guard had presented us with that we never even noticed. I narrowed my eyes and watched as a striking creature with long curly brown hair and bright red eyes glided out from between the trees. She went up to Aro and whispered something in his ear, loud enough for us all to hear her.

"It is done master. They now belong to you"