Welcome to my newest fan fiction! I actually want to complete this one, though, so don't be too harsh on me if it takes a while to update each chapter. Also, feel free to review! Reviews boost my morale immensely, which increases my enthusiasm.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I only own Madeleine (myself) and the idea behind the fan fiction!

Prologue – The Battle

Doors clattered against the stone walls as they were thrown open, no light coming through as it was a new moon tonight. I was unflinching as I knelt at the altar, but my hands weren't clasped in prayer. It just felt right to be here right now.

"Hello, Bella."

This time I did flinch. The voice was high, soprano and attractive, even though it was completely apathetic. I knew who it was.

Jane.

I turned around, and met the eyes of my soon-to-be murderer. My voice was amazingly steady as I replied.

"Hello, Jane," I replied in the same tone. I knew I wasn't getting anywhere as her eyes narrowed infinitesimally, and her lips tightened into a straight line. She was displeased; the only reassurance was that she would possibly try to kill me more quickly.

I had no confidence that I would win this fight. Sure, I was a vampire, and a darn good one at that, but Jane was a monster in the literal sense of the word. She enjoyed torturing others with her gift; to make you feel a pain so intense it was only out-done by being turned into a vampire. I was only protected by her with my own gift which was to surround myself and others with a barrier. Not a real one; but one that protected the mind in the sense that Edward, whose gift it was to read minds, couldn't hear a thing.

It was also what had stopped Edward from knowing about this.

Jane drifted gracefully towards me, her steps so light and smooth that even I had trouble hearing them. No doubt she had learned this method of walking from her master, Aro of the Volturi. I shuddered at the thought of him.

"So," Jane said cheerfully, "I suspect that Edward will try to avenge your death?"

I felt like growling, but kept it in; I had left a note to my dearest ones, Edward and my daughter, Renesmee. The thought of leaving her behind saddened me, but she was young, and she would recover. Besides, she had Jake, who was my best friend until he imprinted on Renesmee. But I couldn't feel properly angry at Jake at the moment. I just knew that he would take care of her; I trusted him completely with that task.

"I left a note asking him not to," I said, shrugging; the way we were talking sounded like we discussing the weather, but the words themselves betrayed just how tense the situation was.

Her eyes narrowed further, and I could tell that she was ready to attack me. But she was holding herself back.

"You know what?" she asked, "I heard that the best rumors are spread by physical means. I doubt your Edward will like it when I dump your body – or rather, chunks of body – on his porch, will he?"

If I could have gone paler than I already was, I certainly would have. That, or turn so red that the blood pressure would end up killing me or something from how furious I felt. That was one of the many advantages to being a vampire; no blushing. It had concealed my true emotions countless times.

Suddenly, something on the edge of my peripheral vision caught my attention. Then I felt the impact of something hard and heavy crash into me, and I realized too late what was happening that I the next thing I knew being pinned by a vampire; Felix, to be exact.

"How nice to see you, Bella," he said, grinning crazily. Once again, the resemblance between him and Emmett was obvious to me, and it was also obvious that Jane had lied to me about being alone. Something about the situation gave me an eerie sense of Déjà vu, and it took me a moment to remember.

Ah, yes, when James had lured me away to a ballet studio in Phoenix, Arizona, only a few blocks away from where I had lived before the whole mess with vampires had started.

And, like last time, I was relieved that nobody else was here, also lured in by the deadly trap that vampires liked to set.

But something that Felix was holding also caught my attention, and my stomach lurched at the menacing fact that the object was pointing out.

I was being recorded on tape once again, no doubt, to lure my family into an even larger trap set by the Volturi.

"Felix," I replied breathlessly; having a vampire stand on your chest and stomach certainly impeded the ability of speech, "nice to see you, too." All he did was continue to video tape the whole thing. I was focused on trying to be brave that I didn't notice that Jane had come up next to us.

"You see, Bella," she said too cheerfully for my taste, "This is more than just a fight between me and you; this is revenge." Her voice suddenly changed to something much darker, and I knew the pain was on its way. "You stole my Aro, my precious master from me, all because he wants you for his little collection." She spat out the words with such venom that I was surprised that I wasn't melting under her anger.

Then, she smiled angelically at me, something that made a shiver go down my spine involuntarily. "This," she said – and I knew she was going to do something with the way she was speaking—"Is for stealing my master."

She bent down, taking my hand and bringing it up to her mouth like she was going to kiss it. Incapacitated by Felix, I could only watch. Then, instead of kissing, she opened her mouth slightly, placing her teeth at the base of my finger.

I screamed at the same time my finger screeched off.

She giggled with delight, and Felix's grin broadened as he focused the camera on Jane's movements.

She placed her teeth at the base of my next finger. "And this is for making me unimportant," she hissed.

I didn't scream as loudly this time, but the pain was enough to wish I was still human. If I were, I would bleed, and the smell would make me pass out. Now, however, I had to endure the pain of being immortal, and of not being able to even truly rest.

It continued this way until all of my fingers were missing, placed across the room far enough that they couldn't do anything but twitch occasionally.

By this time, though, Felix's was laughing after everything Jane said, obviously enjoying watching the torture that was being inflicted upon me.

And I had to endure it all, absolutely helpless. The only consolation was that the others were safe, and I sincerely hoped that after Jane had dismembered me she would go back to being Ms. Apathetic, all the way back in Italy.

My hopes turned out to be in vain.

"Bella!" the voice of my angel screamed. I heard something crack and groan as it as it was separated from wherever it was nailed to, and a whoosh of air as whatever object it was Edward had just ruined hit Felix squarely in the side. Felix's reaction was to growl violently at Edward, and as he lunged for him, I could see the object Edward had thrown.

It was a pew.

Distracted, I didn't notice until too late that Jane had been crouching and leapt at me, her fingers outstretched like claws. Her teeth were bared as well, and her eyes shown bright red with the intense hate she felt for me.

I barely had enough time to take a defensive posture when out of nowhere an absolutely humongous blur of color shot at Jane, tackling her to the ground.

It was Emmett.

But even he was no match for a furious Jane. As soon as Jane realized she had not reached her destination, me, she instantly used her horrid gift on Emmett. I flinched as his cries of pain vibrated loudly in my head. Jane only smiled eerily, enjoying the torture-fest.

I had no choice but to intervene.

I crouched instinctively, a growl ripping through my throat. I saw Jane turn towards me, eyes wide with something akin to fear before I was flying at the air towards her. Even fingerless, I knew that a vampire was something to be feared for their razor sharp teeth, so hard they could even cut through another immortal's skin.

I heard her outraged growl as I attempted to bite into her neck and rip her pretty little head from it, but she was so small that she evaded me, slipping out of my grasp, reappearing moments later by what was left of my right hand, which I knew was in danger of being ripped off by the little she-devil.

I turned quickly away from her as she snapped where my hand had just been, her eyes crazed like a wild beast.

From there it was like a dance, just as graceful, but not nearly as innocent. And, unfortunately, Jane was gaining the upper-hand. I was so focused on our little 'dance' that I didn't notice that more members of the Volturi had slipped into the room, outnumbering my family who were only barely surviving because of how much experience they had.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see a Emmett fighting Felix, their grins equally as large, Rosalie fighting Heidi, who was still outshone by Rosalie's beauty, Alice against two vampires who were having difficulty catching the little pixie, and finally Edward who still stood straight and perfect as he fought with none other than Demetri.

I was yanked rudely from my observations as Jane was more grabbed onto me with her teeth, pulling another chunk out. I screamed more from surprise than pain and turned my body completely towards her, once again vainly trying to hook my teeth around part of her and rip it off.

I was immensely surprised when I noticed a brightening in the east, indicating that we had gone all night fighting each other. I was so surprised that I turned my body away from Jane for only a second, but that was enough.

I felt something clasp around my neck, and suddenly the world turned black.

My last thoughts were, Goodbye, Edward, I love you.

Demetri lunged at me again and again, missing each time thanks to his thoughts giving him away seconds before he attacked.

Then, suddenly, he stopped.

The shock of seeing him stop made me stop, and I soon realized what had made him cease his attack.

A choking purple-black cloud was starting to clog the room, and the intense smell seemed vaguely familiar…

With horror, I recognized the smell, even intensified as it was.

It was freesia.

Demetri looked at me once last time before running out of the chapel, and I realized that it wasn't just me that had frozen, but my family too. We were all just as equally horrified by what we were seeing, but for me it felt like my heart was breaking into a million painful pieces, which felt more painful to me than being turned into a vampire a thousand times.

I didn't even notice that my family had surrounded me, and I wished again and again that I could die right then and there and attempt to follow Bella wherever she had gone to.

Just thinking her name brought on a whole new round of pain, and I realized I was curled into a ball, sobbing dry, broken sobs that were echoing off of the chapel walls, seeming to match the sound of the malevolently crackling fire that had consumed my one and only true love.

No, no, no! I screamed over and over again in my head until I thought of nothing else but wanting to die, wanting my family to kill me. And then, suddenly, I felt lifeless, without the literal meaning behind it.

I stopped sobbing and shaking, and when I looked up I could feel that my expression was just as lifeless as I felt. I could feel the fear in my family's thoughts, and their worry.

Edward, Edward! They called, only a few of them switching from calling my name to try and speak to me, comfort me.

Reality wanted to be cruel to me, though, and I suddenly remembered something else.

Renesmee…

My daughter, whom Bella had conceived when she was still a human… Renesmee, for whom Bella has suffered such horrible atrocities as a human for to the point where she had sacrificed her life to join the ranks of the immortals... Renesmee, whose mother was now gone forever, and had wanted me to live if she should die…

I remembered her words from so long ago, and even though it was with perfect clarity I recalled them, they seemed muted and far away.

We had been sitting in her living room… almost five years ago from now….

"Last spring, when you were… nearly killed…" I had been referring to when James had nearly killed Bella in the ballet studio. "Of course I was trying to focus on finding you alive, but part on my mind was making contingency plans. Like I said, it's not as easy for me as it is for a human."

I remembered seeing her face pale, and I knew without a doubt that she had been remembering the same thing that I was, but from a different perspective… the perspective of the prey…

"Contingency plans?" she had repeated, sounding uncomfortable with the subject.

"Well, I wasn't going to live without you." I had rolled my eyes like it was obvious. To me, it had been. "But I wasn't sure how to do it—I knew Emmett and Jasper would never help…so I was thinking I would do something to provoke the Volturi." To me, the Volturi were the ones you didn't want to mess with, but it was ironic that they had messed with us tonight, and ended up killing my true love…

"What is a Volturi?" she had demanded of me.

I explained slowly, my thoughts far off. "The Volturi are a family. A very old, very powerful family of our kind. They are the closest thing our world has to a royal family, I suppose. Carlisle lived with them briefly in his early years, in Italy, before he settled in America—do you remember the story?" I had been talking about when I had told her Carlisle's history.

"Of course I remember." She seemed to be lost in memories again, but this time of when we'd actually gone into Carlisle's office and I'd shown her the pictures on the wall, of the one of Carlisle painted exactly as he was now, on a balcony next to Aro, Marcus, and Caius…

"Anyway, you don't irritate the Volturi," I went on, probably interrupting her thoughts, "Not unless you want to die—or whatever it is we do." I had said this calmly, but suddenly her expression turned horrified and very angry, and she grabbed my face between her hands, making me look into her eyes.

"You must never, never, never think of anything like that again!" She had yelled, "No matter what might ever happen to me, you are not allowed to hurt yourself!"

I had been very surprised with the ferocity of her words, even though I didn't show it. I then had pointed out, "I'll never put you in danger again, so it's a moot point."

She had turned even more furious from there. "Put me in danger! I thought we'd established that all the bad luck is my fault?" She had somehow gotten even angrier. "How dare you even think like that?"

"What would you do, if the situation were reversed?" I had asked her calmly, trying to soothe the anger that had been radiating from her like sunlight.

"That's not the same thing." She had replied, and for some idiotic reason I had chuckled at her words; there was nothing funny about them now. "What if something did happen to you?" She had asked me, blanching at something I hadn't understood. "Would you want me to off myself?"

I had given her an insufficient answer at the time, saying "I guess I see your point…a little." But now I could see her point all too well. My heart was dying over what we'd said to each other long ago, and now I understood what I had to do.

I stood up suddenly, and I could feel the surprise coming off my family in their thoughts, confused and worried. I felt my head and eyes clear, and I understood what I needed to focus on, for my Bella…

"Renesmee," I said, and heard the understanding in their heads right away, even though they were still confused and worried. I would survive for my daughter, and for Bella.

I stood up slowly, and I saw their faces, their expressions matching their thoughts. None of them spoke aloud to me, for which I was grateful for. They noted my determined look, which raised their spirits slightly, and then as a family we left the chapel, walking into the morning sun.

I hope you enjoyed the Prologue! Please review! I'll love you all the more if you do! xD

Kimiko