Chapter 1

"Okay, here's what we need to do," I said, brushing my hand over the drawing of Volterra in front of me. "Somebody will need to go down into their lair and gain their trust. This may take a few days, but if it's someone Aro really wants on his side, he'd be too happy getting his way to be suspicious. To help that along, that person's going to give him some 'information' leading his best guards down to the Bermuda triangle. We'll need to try to get at least Jane and Alec down there, and Demetri as well, no doubt. Hopefully even Felix if we're lucky. Anyway, they go down to the islands to find an ambush waiting for them…"

"Their talents will be useless," Kianna chimed in. "I have seen it before. The one called Demetri has tracked me to the triangle in the past, but never to the correct island. This interference will no doubt affect the twins as well, so it should be easy to take them down." Jack nodded.

"Meanwhile, in Italy," he continued, "the pack, the herd, and everyone else who isn't on the islands will be hiding in the background, waiting for the perfect time to strike. We'll all need to sneak in little bits at a time. We can't have the whole group going at once; it'd be too conspicuous. Cassy will probably have to use her talent to help us travel around. It works out well that she was part of the Volturi for a week, so she knows everything about the palace." Kianna looked at me in alarm, not knowing this particular piece of information about me.

"It was really more against my will than anything," I told her, shaking my head irritatedly. "They took me away from Jack. I would never want that to happen. Back to the topic at hand, I DO know of a good room for everyone to hide out in while we wait. Before that pretty little feeding room that everyone's grown used to, they had a different one, dank, slimy, and in a very desolate place on the bottom floor. They had problems getting humans down there, so they built a different room with more ambiance. Nobody ever goes to that other place anymore; in fact, they hardly even go on that floor anymore, so it should be easy to sneak in. After we get everybody inside, we'll need to wait for a signal from whoever swears their loyalty to Aro. Then, we attack."

I looked around at the crowd in front of me. It had only been a day since we got back from our honeymoon, and already everyone we needed was right here in front of us. The wolves, the unicorns, the Cullens, the Denalis, everyone. Naturally, the group was too large to fit into our humble little house, so we were having our meeting in the clearing where my wedding had taken place less than a week before. This place was going to have a lot of memories by the time our lives settled down.

"We figured the wolves would roam all around the building sniffing out loners while the rest of us went to face Aro," Jack said. "The, uh, unicorns will be just outside the room getting rid of anyone who tries to stop us. We may want one or two of them inside with us, of course, in case we need some extra help, but if all goes well, they won't have to do much." Everyone looked around at each other, grinning and whispering excitedly. We might actually pull this off.

"But who will be the one to interact with Aro?" Carlisle asked. "They're the one who sets everything in motion." At this I glanced at Edward before looking back down at the picture in front of me.

"Well, at first I had suggested that I be the one to do it," I said cautiously, "but I wouldn't be able to lie to Aro; he would know everything that's going on with one touch of his hand. There's really only one person who would be able to pull off such a lie…" I looked slowly up at Edward to see his reaction. He had stiffened as soon as he read my thoughts, and I could tell that he wanted to say no with every cell in his body, but he knew just as well as I that Bella was the only one who could pull this off.

"She won't actually be in any danger at first, Edward," I said quietly, turning my gaze to her. She had caught on to what I was hinting immediately.

"I can do it," she said. "he won't have any idea what's really going on."

"I have no doubt in my mind that you can do this, love," Edward murmured, looking into her eyes. "I simply don't want you to cross paths with someone as dangerous as Aro. You know what he's capable of."

"I'll be fine," she assured, touching his cheek. "He can't get into my mind. As long as I know what to say to him, he'll be forced to believe me. And then we can deal with him together when the fight begins." I shifted my weight awkwardly.

"Yeah, about that…" I said, glancing at Jack and Kianna. "We kinda planned that out too. The only way we could think of that would convince Aro to send his best fighters anywhere was if-"

"I were the reason they needed to leave," Edward finished for me, reading my thoughts again. His gaze seemed tortured. "He knows Bella and I are inseparable. If she tells him she'll only stay if I join as well, he would immediately send somebody out to get me. And if she makes it perfectly clear that I would never give in without a fight, he would be forced to send some of his better minions, including Jane."

"But how would we get Alec there?" Bella asked. "This plan won't work unless he's gone."

"We've thought of that too," I replied, looking at Jack.

"Naturally, Alice would have seen Bella's betrayal," he said, "so she went to the islands as well to warn Edward, with a few extra allies to fight off the hunting party. Alec would be forced to help get rid of them. As much as Aro wants Edward, he wants Alice probably twice as much, and he would never skip an opportunity as rich as this one."

"He also believes that I am still on the islands," Kianna added. "Trust me, he will not be able to resist such a tempting crowd, despite the magic of the area."

"Who will be part of the ambush party, other than Alice and Edward?" asked Esme. I watched the crowd as they discussed amongst themselves.

"Rose and I'll go," Emmett practically yelled, grinning broadly. "I've gotta give Demetri a piece of my mind."

"I've always been dying to give Jane a taste of her own medicine," Kate said thoughtfully. "I may not actually be able to do that, but I'm certainly not giving anyone else the privilege of ripping her to shreds." I tried to hide my disgusted expression; even though the Volturi were dirty rotten parasites, I just couldn't bring myself to enjoy the thought of killing them off, one by one. From what I understood, Carlisle felt the same way, but at least he had more experience with this kind of thing. There was no way I would actually be able to rip somebody apart, no matter how much pain they caused me.

"Well then of course I'm going too," Garrett said, wrapping his arms around her waist. She smiled up at him slyly.

"I'll go with my dad," Renesmee piped up, looking at Edward. "I won't be much help with Momma." He nodded slightly.

"Marcello and I could go," Tanya offered, glancing at her new mate shyly. He smiled.

"Sorry Tanya," I said. "Marcello's talent would be quite useful up in Italy. We could use another translator like Kianna, or another one of me, dare I say it. You can still go to the islands with Kate if you want, or you can go to Italy with us. It's your choice." She frowned and nodded.

"They'll need me more on the islands," she sighed. "I'll go with Kate."

"Esme and I can go," Carlisle said, "for safety purposes. It's unlikely that they'll send any more than eight people, but it would be good for us to have a majority advantage." I turned to watch Jasper, who was sitting quietly next to Alice. He was really the only person who hadn't offered to be part of the ambush, which surprised me.

"Aren't you going to want to go with Alice?" I asked him hesitantly.

"Of course I want to go with Alice," he said, "but you'll need me more up in Italy. Caius could use an attitude adjustment." He chuckled humorlessly. I just shrugged.

"Okay, so all of those going to the islands will leave at dawn tomorrow," Jack announced. "The rest of us will leave at noon. Good luck, and down with the Volturi!"