Authors Note: this is my first Twilight fic and i'm still a little new at this so constructive critisem is always welcome, but please be nice. thank you for reading and i hope you enjoy =) Disclaimer: i do not own twilight or any of the characters (as mush as i wish i did)
Negotiations:
It's amazing how quickly an opinion you have on someone can change, despite what they have done to you in the past. That thought rolled across my head as I watched Irina get battered and interrogated by Aro in our little clearing.
"I want to talk to the informant." Caius suddenly called, turning his head to face Irina.
Irina, however, wasn't looking at the elder Vampire; her head was plastered at her sisters. I could tell, just by looking at her that a million thoughts zapped through her mind. She was oblivious to anything in the outside world, save her sisters. I couldn't begin to imagine the hurt and guilt she must feel, I suppose that helped lessen my hatred towards her actions. Although, her sisters weren't helping much to ease her own self-loathing, they were just staring at her, with hate filled eyes that must have broken all of their hearts.
"Irina!" Caius barked at her.
She blinked and looked towards Caius, as if seeing him for the first time. She slowly, and carefully moved away from the rest of the Voultri guard to join Caius in the middle, where everyone could see and hear her.
"So you appear to have been quite mistaken in your allegations," Caius challenged.
Tanya and Kate leaned forward suddenly. Despite their temporary hatred for their sister, they still loved her and would never want any physical harm to come to her, I realized.
"I-I'm sorry," Irina stammered, obvious fear in her voice. Weather it was for her own personal well-being or for her sisters, I could not tell, "I should have made sure of what I was seeing. But I had no idea…" she gestured helplessly in our direction, as if that explained everything.
Aro suddenly decided to take pity on her "Dear Caius, could you expect her to have guessed in an instant something so strange and impossible? Any of us would have made the same assumption,"
His words unnerved me. Why was he sticking up for her if his only goal was to annihilate us all? What was his plan? What was he up to?
Caius clicked his fingers to silence his brother and surprisingly, Aro didn't objec, "We all know you made a mistake. I meant to speak of your motivations." Caius challenged.
Irina gulped and echoed "My motivations?" after a while.
"Yes," Caius replied, satisfaction laced into each syllable, "For coming to spy on them in the first place."
Irina tried to say something to defend herself, no doubt, but Caius continued without giving her a chance.
"You were unhappy with the Cullens, were you not?" he pressed.
"I-I was," she stuttered in defeat.
Through this grilling scene, in which no one could do anything to stop, I had a funny feeling that something wasn't right. All of this seemed like a job for Aro, not Caius. After all he was the true leader of the Voultri, and letting Caius take his place interrogating poor Irina seemed out of character for him. Then it hit me, Aro was doing this on purpose. He had planned all this to happen. The accusations, the questioning everything. He was supposed to be on the sidelines, that way, he could not be blamed if a life was lost. He had a plan and it was all playing out accordingly. If this continued, we would fail.
"Because…?" Caius pressed eagerly, breaking me from my dismal realization.
"Because the werewolves killed my friend," She admitted with some strength, like she was finally putting her feelings out there and letting them be heard. No matter how selfish she knew they were, "And the Cullens wouldn't stand aside and let me avenge him."
"The shape-shifters," Aro intervened simply.
"So the Cullens sided with the shape-shifters against our own kind – against the friend of a friend, even." Caius stated with relish, as if he thought things were finally starting to pick up.
His excitement sickened me, and it was taking all my willpower not to charge after the guard and slowly choke the life out of each and every one of them. Starting with Jane. I heard Edward make a quiet growl, mimicking my thoughts.
"That's how I saw it." Irina stared quietly.
Caius waited for her to continue. When she didn't he gave a small sigh and pressed, "If you would like to make a formal complaint against the shape-shifters and the Cullens for supporting their actions…now would be the time."
I wanted to cry out in exasperation at his tone. Did he even have a heart? Did he have one that just wasn't filled with any compassion whatsoever? I wondered if he even had one person in this world that he loved and cared about. If her did, he might understand that this could all be summarized as just another family argument and misunderstanding. There was no permanent damage that couldn't be repaired with some time and kind words. Irina just made a bad judgment call and we would all be mad at her for a while, but eventually, we would all forgive her. It's what families do. Why couldn't he understand that?
"No," her defiant reply echoed across the field, "I have no complaint against the wolves, or the Cullens."
I couldn't stop the smile that stretched across my face due to the intensity of her words, and the bemused, irritated expression on Caius's face.
"You came here to destroy an immortal child," Irina continued "No immortal child exists. This was my mistake, and I take full responsibility for it. But the Cullens are innocent, and you have no reason to still be here." She paused, letting her words sink in.
She turned her head towards us, "I'm so sorry," she said with such passion that I believed her without a doubt.
She then turned to face the Voultri and looked Aro straight in the eye, "There was no crime. There's no valid reason for you to continue here."
The entire clearing was dead silent, everyone waiting in anticipation to see what would happen next. Aro turned his head to Caius and gave a tiny nod. It was such a small gesture that if I hadn't been staring right at him, I would not have seen it.
Caius silently nodded back and lifted a small, metal object into the air. It was a signal of some sort that turned my gut up in suspicion. The signal and response was all so fast, that all anyone could do was stare in horror at what was about to happen. Three Voultri guard members raced up to Irina and circled around her so fast that she was completely invisible amongst the gray cloaks. There was a horrible, metallic ripping sound and suddenly, a shower of sparks erupted from the center.
There wasn't even time to scream. It all happened in a few milliseconds, but sadly, I had seen all of it. I thanked the lord that I had the good judgment to shield Renesmee's eyes from the horror, but there was nothing I could do to shelter her ears.
Everyone around me was too stunned to say anything.
Caius broke the horrid silence, "Now she has taken full responsibility for her actions." His blood red irises scanned the crowd, stopping, quickly, at Kate and Tanya's stunned, dull forms. Daring them to move forward, to attack.
I gapped in disbelief at the Voultri's actions. I realized then that my earlier suspicions were true. This was still all a part of Aro's, sick, revolting, power-hungry, plans. My eyes found themselves towards Aro's and I could see the ghost of a smile playing on his lips. It almost set me over the edge; the sudden lust to molest was almost too great to overcome. But a small voice in the back of my head said that attacking is exactly what he wants. And the one thing I want more than his blood is to see the look of disappointment and the recognition of his own failure on his face. It took all of my self-control, but I held back.
"Stop them!" Edward shouted suddenly, distracting me from my rant.
I looked up to find Kate and Tanya running forward and I instantly felt my stomach drop.
No no no! I shouted violently in my head. But all I could do was watch as my Edward leaped forward and caught Kate around her waist, bringing them both to the ground. I watched in horror as Edward's body suddenly shook and his eyes rolled up into his head with electricity from Kate's body.
Despite the obvious pain he was in, ever persistent Edward shouted, "It's too late to help her, don't give him what he wants!" into her ear.
It was a weighted effort; Kate was far away from hearing anybody, so lost in her hatred and unable to listen to reason. And Tanya wasn't doing any better.
She was struggling against Carlisle's steely embrace, and looked to be winning. Just before Zafrina reached them, Tanya broke free and bolted, with everything she had, towards the Voultri. At the same time, Kate wiggled out of Edward and Garrett's grips and darted at the guard just behind her sister.
It was unpreventable, unavoidable. It all worked out to Aro's plan and there was no stopping it, we were too late.
The fight had begun…
