Unyielding
"You see what will happen if you carry on with this." Alice told Aro, Aro's face was blank and emotionless. He had witnessed Alice's vision, what would happen if he continued with this. He had seen the deaths of many of them in her vision. On both sides. A small smile spread across his face and he looked at Alice, he smiled at her pitifully.
"My dear, dear Alice…you have set out a very good plan! Except…for one tiny flaw." Aro gently took her hand, which Alice pulled away quickly. She hated Aro with every fibre in her body. And here he was, not backing down…not even after what she'd seen, what she'd shown him!
"And what's that?" Alice asked. She could hear Jasper struggling behind her, trying to break away from his two guards.
"You. You know what will happen if Carlisle tries to help you! You know how many of your friends will die. And I know" Aro moved forward, he leaned in and gently whispered "you won't let it happen."
Alice felt the world slide out of focus; of course…Aro was right. Alice would never let Carlisle or Jasper, or anyone else die and she knew there was only one way to alter that ending. She just had never considered it before; she never thought it would come to that.
"Don't do it, Alice!" Edward's voice pulled the world back into focus "please."
Alice knew that if she could, she would be crying.
"No matter what I show you, you won't change your mind." She told Aro. In half a second two men had her. She was dragged back behind Aro, who smiled nastily at her. She had given him exactly what she wanted.
"Let her go!" Carlisle cried. He began to run. Alice couldn't let this happen. She had to stop him.
"No!" her cry was filled with anguish, it caused Carlisle to stop, he skidded to a halt in the snow. "So many will die, Carlisle, if you try and help me. Please, I'm begging you. Don't."
Carlisle looked at Alice with pain in his eyes.
"Alice, you can't expect them to leave us alone because you're being restrained!" Carlisle tried to reason.
"Please," she said desperately "I've seen what will happen. This is the only way."
"Alice…" Jasper whispered, trying to break away from the men restraining him "please, don't do this to me!"
"Aro," Alice turned her attention away from her family to him "you can have me. I'll join you…but only if you leave my family, my friends…every one of them alone. I'll join you if you just let them go." Alice voice gave her away, it cracked. Her fear could be heard. Aro laughed. His hand extended towards Alice and wrapped around her throat tightly.
"Do you promise me, Alice, that you will come without struggle?" She nodded. "Perfect. I agree!"
"No!" Carlisle shouted, along with many others. Alice looked at the anguished looks on Rosalie, Emmet, Edward, Bella, Rennesmee, Esme and Carlisle's faces. She could not bring herself to look towards Jasper.
"Alice, there has to be another way!" shouted Edward.
"You know as well as I do that there isn't Edward, you saw what I saw. Even if we chose that path I would be dead."
"No…you didn't die in it Alice. You survived!" Edward pleaded.
"You know what I mean, you would do the same. Imagine if you had seen what I saw, except it was Bella!"
Alice was referring to Jaspers death in her vision. She would not be able to survive if he died. Especially if she knew she had been able to change it. Edward fell silent. He knew she was right.
Aro released Alice's throat.
"Kill all our witnesses!" he shouted. The Volturi moved swiftly. Screams filled the air. The witnesses the Volturi had gathered were being slaughtered behind them.
"No!" cried Alice "Leave them!"
Aro laughed again, Marcus stood by Aro. "They had to die," Marcus said "we cannot let it slip that we can be bargained with."
"On that note," Aro turned his attention towards the Cullen's and their friends, none of whom had moved "if you let out a single word about this being a bargain. You will die and she will suffer."
Alice heard a sudden cry of anger and in half second Jasper was in front of her. His hands came up to her face.
"Alice, you cannot do this. Don't do this!" his voice was filled with pain and misery. His eyes burrowed deep into Alice's. The two men who had been holding him back began to drag him away.
"No!" Aro called at them "let him say goodbye." The smile on his lips was sickening as he laughed at Jaspers desperate pleas with Alice. Jasper ignored him and moved back to Alice.
"Alice, I do not care what your vision was. We can face it, together. Just don't leave me!" his hands were on her face gently stroking her pale cheeks. Alice desperately wanted to agree with him, but she knew she couldn't.
"Jasper…" she whispered "I'm sorry. Please forgive me."
"No. No, I won't let you go." Jasper told her. Alice gently stood up on her tip toes, she pressed her lips on Jaspers, and Jasper kissed her back and held onto her face tightly. Alice couldn't move her hands; she was still being restrained by two men.
"Jasper, just…" she was going to tell him to remember her, but she couldn't because of the pain that would cause him. She couldn't do that to Jasper "forget about me."
Jasper staggered back, Caius pushed him down and he fell to the ground.
"The witnesses are all dead." Caius told Aro, who smiled and nodded.
"Good, let's leave then."
The Volturi surrounded Alice, blocking her view of her family and friends. She then felt one man lift her up as they began to run. The world flew past her as her mind wandered back to Jasper.
Jasper felt Emmet and Edward catch his arms. They pulled him back, stopping him from running after them. Jasper continued to struggle.
"NO!" he screamed "NO!"
"Jasper," Carlisle said "Jasper!" Carlisle caught him and pulled him into his arms in a fatherly embrace "She's gone." Jasper collapsed, he slid to the floor and dug his hands into the snow.
"Why?" he said "WHY?" he screamed at the sky.
Bella was hugging Renesmee tightly to her. Renesmee had small tears trickling down her cheeks; she reached up and placed her hand on Bella's cheek.
"No," Bella answered "I don't think Alice is coming back…Jacob, look after her." Bella told him as she gently lifted Renesmee onto Jacobs back. He nodded his head and ran into the forest, the rest of the wolves followed. Bella watched them leave; Edward wrapped his arms around Bella's waist.
"Why did you get her to leave?" he whispered to Bella gently.
"I've got a feeling Jasper isn't going to be civil. I don't want Renesmee to see him like that." She explained to him. Edward nodded, and sighed deeply.
Every vampire (minus Vladimir and Stefan who had quickly left when the Volturi had gone) was gathered around the Cullen family. Esme had an arm wrapped around Jasper; Rosalie was holding Jasper's hands whilst Carlisle and Emmet were having a deep discussion.
"We can't let them win!" growled Emmet, "Alice would have done the same for anyone of us!"
"We can't just run in and attack them, Emmet! We would all die and in the end it would only cause Alice to suffer." Carlisle ran his hand through his hair.
"Carlisle," said Zafrina "we are not sure if we would be willing to fight…Alice did make this decision. I cannot put my family at risk because of that." Carlisle nodded,
"I understand that, Zafrina…thank you for helping us here. You may leave us now; I think my family need time to mourn." Zafrina nodded respectively and ran into the woods, followed by her coven.
"We shall leave you now, Carlisle" said Benjamin next "If you require our help…I'm sure we'll be happy to help as well as we can." He shook hands with Carlisle and soon the Egyptians had left also. The nomads left next, after a quick goodbye they went their separate ways. Except for Garrett, who stood by Kate. Then the Irish coven said farewell, they also insured that they would do all they were willing to do to help them.
Soon it was just the Denali family with the Cullens. Carlisle embraced each one of them, and then said.
"If it isn't too rude, I would like to ask that you leave us to mourn. Thank you, for helping us."
"Of course, Carlisle" said Tanya, who then turned to Bella and said "tell your little girl we say goodbye."
"I will and thank you." Bella said. Tanya nodded and she turned and left with the rest of her family.
Rosalie was comforting Emmet. Emmet was pacing furiously, muttering to Rosalie about how it was wrong.
"We can't leave her, they'll hurt her!" Emmet was saying. Rosalie caught his arm, leaned in and whispered.
"Shut up, Emmet! Right now Jasper needs us and he hearing that we all think Alice is going to get hurt will not help him!"
After that Emmet remained silent, he had his arm around Rosalie who buried her head on his shoulder as she thought of Alice.
Edward crouched in front of Jasper who sat in the snow staring blankly at the forest, the sun had set a while ago and the darkness was surrounding them.
"Come on, Jazz" Edward said "We should be getting home. We'll sort everything out tomorrow." Jasper got up and walked away. He headed for the house, not bothering to see if anyone was following him. He knew the one person he wanted to follow wouldn't be there, so what was the point in looking?
Alice was dropped on the floor, they had arrived in Italy. She edged away from the man who had been carrying her and pushed herself up. She was surrounded by the Volturi. Aro, Jane and Alec all stood in front of her, she backed away from them.
"Alice, I don't believe you've met our newest-well, except you-addition. May I introduce Decimus?" Aro indicated behind Alice, she spun round to find a man who must have been twenty when he was bitten. He towered above her, with his dark hair greased back showing his pale white face, his blood red eyes gleamed as he grinned nastily at Alice. He had a stocky build and looked nearly as strong as Emmet. He wore a long black cloak, similar to that of Alec or Jane's. "He was changed by a vampire in the local town two years ago…and we only just recruited him last month! A brilliant addition!" Aro clapped Decimus on the shoulder and grinned.
"What's his gift?" Alice spat backing away from him.
Decimus laughed, and focused his attention Alice. Alice found herself walking back to him, before she knew what had happened she was kneeling at his feet.
"I can physically control people, it takes great mental control to throw off my power!" he boasted. Alice tried to stand but found herself unable to move. She growled threateningly at Decimus.
"Let. Me. Up." She spat at him. Her anger growing.
"Now, now" said Aro "don't be so rude! After all, Decimus is going to be…looking after you." Aro turned and flicked his wrist, dismissing the entire Volturi guard, except for Decimus, Alec and Jane. "Let her up!" Aro ordered; Alice was on her feet in half a second.
Aro then sat on his throne, Alec and Jane stood on either side of him. Decimus grabbed Alice's arms and pushed her in front of him.
"Now then, Alice, I think it is time you told us a bit about young Renesmee…and I wouldn't mind knowing a bit about Bella's power as well!"
"I don't know anything about Bella's power; I've been away from the Cullens for some time now. Besides, why don't you just read my mind?" Alice spat.
"Because that gets boring," sighed Aro "and I don't think that would teach you to speak the truth…and don't ask unnecessary questions!" Aro waved his hand to Jane who focused on Alice. Alice let out a scream of pain and curled up. Jane smiled, as did Alec and Decimus laughed loudly. Aro just stared at Alice, a small smile on his lips. Suddenly the pain was gone, Alice pushed herself up. She looked up at Aro who looked at Decimus.
"Put her somewhere where she can't get out! We can find out what we need to tomorrow." Aro ordered, Decimus nodded and pulled Alice up. Alice pushed away from him and snarled.
"Don't make this more difficult!" he threatened. Alice started backing away from him. She saw the open door at the other end of the room and made a desperate break for it, but before she could reach Decimus caught her waist and threw her over his shoulder with ease.
"I thought you said she had promised to come without a struggle?" he asked Aro, as he held tightly onto the kicking and squirming Alice.
"I did!" she spat "I said I'd come here without a struggle, I didn't say anything about once I got here!" Alice continued to struggle against Decimus's grip.
"Silence!" shouted Aro, Alice fell silent and still "You will do as we say, or I will leave you at Jane's mercy. Take her away!"
Decimus strolled down the corridors, past hundreds of doors, down countless corridors and finally stopped at a room. He took a key from a chain around his neck and slid it into the lock; he twisted and opened the thick metal door. He threw Alice in with ease, then said
"You won't be able to get out of here, the walls are too thick as is the door, a human wouldn't even be able to shift that door!" and with that he left, slamming the door shut behind him. Alice heard the lock click and many other bolts and locks later, Decimus left. She threw herself against the door and the walls but found that she didn't even dent the surface. This was impossible! She was a vampire, she could break through anything!
"What kind of metal is this!" she cried in annoyance, before sliding to the ground in a frustrated heap.
r&r