Disclaimer: I do not own these characters.

Author's note: Hi! It's. . . been a while. Like always this story kept bugging me. This has actually been stewing in my noggin the longest of ANY of my stories and it has been the MOST intrusive. Even when I was working on the first draft of my novel I kept thinking about this story. So I realized that I can't really focus on my actual writing work until I get this out of my head and on to paper. I can't even think about my other fanfiction stories because this one won't give me the mental space.

Like a lot of my fanfiction ideas, it spirals out of the car accident scene in Twilight, but takes a turn. And like a lot of my Twilight musings, I love the "meeting" scene the Cullens have afterward that we see in Midnight Sun.

Summary: Edward has just risked his identity to save Bella from the errant truck in the school parking lot. On edge and worried that his actions have revealed too much of their existence to the vulnerable girl, the Cullens have a formal meeting to discuss their next steps

So, without further ado:

Dark Matter

Chapter 1

The sound of Edward's fist on the dinner table echoed in the sudden silence. His eyes were dark as he challenged Jasper. Jasper tilted his head, and reached out with his special ability, testing Edward's resolve. Surprised by what he felt in Edward, Jasper stepped back and processed, knowing that Edward would be following along. Until then, he had been dead set on his course. Whatever happened tonight, despite Carlisle and Rosalie's argument and then agreement, he was going to kill her - Kill the girl Edward foolishly protected. He would do what had to be done. Jasper always had. When your life and your men and your survival depend on it, you do everything by the book. And the book says that there can be no doubt - There can be no witnesses.

But Edward would fight him. He could see that now. When he would go out later and finish the job, Edward. . . would stop him. Try to stop him. If he went out at all. As he stared at Edward, he wavered. I'm doing this for you. For all of us.

Edward shook his head. "No one touches her." He mostly growled through over his teeth.

"Edward-." Esme leaned forward. She was used to her family fighting, but this wasn't the usual spat. Edward was usually one of the mediators. She thought this argument died when Carlisle spoke his peace, that they weren't going to hurt the human girl, that every life mattered. Of course, this was the girl that Edward had been trying so hard not to kill. Even to her, she thought it might be easier perhaps. . . if-. Now Edward was glaring at her. Well, I just don't want you to stress over her. I don't want you feel too much pressure. Just don't leave.

Edward rubbed his temples. "I won't. I have to stay." He glared at Jasper again. Stay to protect her from Jasper. He could see it clearly. Jasper's plans to silently enter the Swan residence in the deepest part of the night. Jasper rising above her as she slept. Jasper "righting Edward's wrongs."

Edward felt a swell of anger, again surprising both himself and his brother who could taste it like a sixth sense. Why? Jasper posed the question he knew Edward could hear.

It was a question, Edward didn't have an answer for.

Carlisle sat forward, feeling the need to intercede. "Like I said. We won't risk who we are for what we are. If we kill innocence to protect ourselves, what are we to protect?"

Jasper didn't pay attention to Carlisle. He and Edward were alone in this. This was their fight. This wasn't about morality. This was something else. Would he have to hurt Edward? There are ways to break vampires without destroying them. His time tearing apart newborns quickly fluttered through his mind. The times were they didn't burn their bodies and he watched as the pieces sealed themselves up again. It will hurt.

"I don't think I'd fall so easy." Edward said through gritted teeth. The last time they fought, even just rough housing, it was almost always a draw. Edward did have the advantage, but not the experience.

She knows too much, Edward. Jasper didn't relish the thought of a fight with Edward.

"She didn't say anything. She didn't say anything at the hospital. Even when I confronted her."

"Of course not. She's scared." Jasper stomped forward. "She saw you fly across the parking lot, of course she didn't say anything. I felt her fear. She knows too much and it's-"

"You don't know why she was afraid. It could have just been shock from the accident."

Jasper shook his head and nearly reared back into position. "It wasn't shock. Edward. She knows too much."

"Boys." Carlisle stood to his feet now, his tone more severe than anyone had ever heard from him in some time. "Listen to me-"

Alice shrieked. -Oh! Shit. I was too focused on Jasper.-

Edward blinked, breaking his staring contest with Jasper. Jasper whipped his head around and found Alice. She raised a light fingered hand to his face and stroked his cheek, calming the lines etched into his skin there and whispered quietly. "Behave."

Then they all heard it. A car's motor revving up the twisting turns of their drive way. As the tires rolled up to the black top concrete pad, the dinning room fell completely motionless. Edward was lost in the frantic thoughts, losing his own in the cacophony. It was Charlie Swan's cruiser. Carlisle straightened out first and fixed the collar around his neck. It was late. Whatever Charlie might want at this hour was urgent.

"Charlie?" Carlisle confirmed lowly as the car parked.

Edward was paralyzed. Alice shook her head. "No."

"No?" Esme's lips barely opened. Then the cruiser door opened and shut. And the footfalls even from outside, they all could register they didn't belong to Charlie.

Again they froze. She walked to the door and her hand knocked on the wood paneling importantly.

"Behave." Carlisle said, slightly in a daze to his family. The message meant for the only other two people standing. He swung the door open. "Bella." He greeted. "Is everything okay?"

Bella pulled down the red hood of her hoodie over her forehead and breathed in the cool night air on the porch. A black turtleneck peeked out from the opening of the hoodie. underneath and dark jeans. She shifted on her feet. "I'm sorry to intrude. May I come in?"

"Now's not a good time." Carlisle said quickly as Bella edged closer to him, stepping up to the threshold. Bella walked in regardless, somber and eyes on the floor.

"Are you having a meeting?" She peered around the living room into the dinning room. "Good." Bella nodded. "Then I made it just in time."

Carlisle blocked her from heading in. "Bella, it's late. And you hit your head. I think you should go home."

"I will. But I think if you're going to have a meeting on whether or not to kill me, I think you're going to want to hear what I have to say."

Carlise's mouth fell open.

"Then you are discussing it." Bella breathed. "Good." She said emotionless. "That's good. I wouldn't expect anything else." She stepped around Carlisle who's shocked expression was still frozen into place.

The dinning room was momentarily transformed into a lovely but peculiar statue garden. Bella pulled out the empty chair, where a moment before Edward had been sitting, and gripped the arms of it. She took a deep breath. "I'm going to receive a phone call in ten minutes. If I don't answer it, then there will be severe consequences." As she moved to sit down, Bella reached into her hood and unhooked the chain around her neck. She let the necklace drop to the table and the chain slide between her fingers. The loud gem stone clunked and clinked.

Jasper let out a low breath. Rosalie turned to him, her eyes fierce, but nothing in Jasper's expression answered her question.

Jasper glanced at her and Emmett before settling back on the necklace. Carlisle finally came in again, his eyebrows furrowed in concentration, then they relaxed again as he saw the necklace.

"You know the Volturi?" Carlisle asked calmly.

"I am with the Volturi." Bella stated and waited a beat before continuing. "And if I don't answer the phone in ten minutes, they will come looking for me."

"We won't harm you."

"I'm sure." Bella grinned sadly. "But you'll understand that I have safe guards in place. I know better than to walk into a room of vampires unprepared." Bella said quickly, barely moving her head. "My father's car also has a geo-locator, the coordinates are sent to a secured survey. Obviously, you can move it, but they'll know I've been here."

"Does your father know you're here."

"No. And I'd like to keep it that way for his sake."

"Wait. How are you with the Volturi?" Rosalie folded her arms across her chest. Skepticism in her tone.

Bella started to wrap up the chain that held the Volturi's symbol around her index finger. She ignored Rosalie. "I understand that you had bit of a slip up today in the rules of the Volturi. Albeit in my defense. So I came here to let you know that, in this instance, it's okay to bend the rules."

Rosalie didn't like this one bit. "How do we know you're really with the Volturi?" She said with her nose upturned. Carlisle glanced at her meaningfully.

Bella nearly laughed. "Do you think I would wear their insignia and be allowed to live if it weren't under their command." Bella looked up from her hood for the first time and looked at Rosalie.

Carlisle cleared his throat, unnecessarily, but out of habit for making humans feel more comfortable. "We understand, Bella. We respect the Volturi and those. . . those with them. May I ask, in what capacity-"

"No." Bella shook her head. "All you need to know is that if I went missing, if something happened to me, there wouldn't be a war. There wouldn't be a loud clash. Your deaths would be sealed. Your destruction would be quick and silent."

Jasper squeezed Alice's hand. This is exactly what he feared, but not at all what he expected. He's seen the vampires that are "with the Volturi." At the end of the battle, cleaning up the messes, making sure there were no stragglers. They were cold, pointed, powerful. He couldn't understand this. . . Bella. . . the girl that his brother nearly ripped into in front of a full classroom. The girl that he risked them all too again today. She was. . . siding herself with that group. The insignia on the necklace. It was on the robes of the enforcers. He tried to figure out what it could mean for her to have it. For her to know. And for her to be here now.

Alice closed her eyes. "It's fine." She muttered under her breath too quick for human ears.

"I know you have questions." Bella breathed evenly. "You must understand that I'm not at liberty to say much. Only very few people know of my existence within the organization. Not even the full guard knows. That's why I needed to speak to all of you in person." She glanced around the room and noted the absence of Edward. "I know that Edward is listening. My involvement with the Volturi is on a need to know basis. Of course, I assumed you would be discussing whether or not Edward exposed too much of his vampire nature to me today and if you should act on it. So, it became apparent that you need to know a few things about me. And I need to know that I will have your cooperation and your word that this doesn't leave this house. That whatever happens, whether you kill me or not, that you won't tell anyone about me. Not any friends you may have acquired over the years or other vampires you have met. Not anyone."

"Why would the Volturi want you?" Emmett asked bluntly. "I don't get it. Am I missing something? Why would the Volturi want to keep you around?"

"For my wit and conversation obviously." Bella smiled wickedly. "That's a joke." She added, when Emmett obviously thought she was serious.

"Then you work for them?" Jasper narrowed his eyes. Bella met his with a steely resolve. After an intense stare down Jasper looked away.

"No." Bella finally responded. "I'm not one of the Karens. If that's what you're asking." A small sound of disgust popped in the back of her throat.

"Karens?" Carlisle asked.

"Oh yeah. The uh. . . well, the humans they have that work for them in the vaults. They promise them eternal life and let them do all the mundane administrative work for free. I just call them Karens because through the years, there's been too many of them to keep up with. It's best not to get too attached to them. They're actually stupid enough to believe they would ever change them." Bella rolled her eyes. "Sorry. I forgot you actually like humans."

"And you don't?" Carlisle asked, his face serene, caring.

Bella tilted her head. "I must be strange to you."

"No."

"I suppose-" Bella shrugged. "Living as I have, I'm probably pretty messed up. Living with vampires, right? Seeing the worst of the world that my kind turns a blind eye too. That's pretty fucked up as it is. I mean. The fact that I came in here. . . in a room of 6 vampires. Knowingly. That's probably very strange." She sighed. "Don't misunderstand. I know the risks. It's just that, I'm not afraid of death. I've been staring down the barrel of my gun for awhile now. You get used to living on the edge and you start to hear echos of the trigger before it gets pulled. And then you miss the sound of the bang. I know what I look like to you. Another human. Doomed, perhaps. Either way, it's the will of Volturi. Whether they want me dead or not, that is for them to decide."

She took another glance at Jasper. He blinked away again.

"Through the years." Esme muttered something Bella had said. "How long exactly have you been with- with the Volturi?"

Bella sighed. "That's need to know. And you don't need to know that. I know the risks of coming here tonight, but be assured, the danger I've put you in are perhaps much worse." Bella's subtle threats were so strange to half the room. A small, frail, powerless human, threatening their family. Threatening with the only thing that could possibly be large enough to tear them apart.

"Does your father know?" Esme asked kindly. Her eyes were big, only full of concern for Bella. She still couldn't imagine anything jeopardizing her family, especially not from a little girl.

Bella was brought up short. "Does my father know what?"

"About the Volturi."

"No." Bella shook her head frantically. "And he mustn't." Her words were sharp.

"And your mother?" Esme asked, still as kind and generous.

"No." Bella eased back into her chair. She hesitated for a moment, deciding on what information she could give. "She's dead."

"I'm so sorry." Esme almost reached out to her, in comfort. Bella shied away, confused by the gesture.

"It's- it's okay. I didn't really know her." Bella shuffled, uncomfortable for the first time. And then she went rigid. Her shoulders slumped forward and her eyes wrinkled tightly closed. Carlise almost bounded to his feet to help her, but there didn't seem to be anything wrong. After a second, Bella straightened out again. "He's early." She muttered. And as if on cue, the cell phone in her hoodie pocket began to ring.

"Do we have a deal?" Bella asked Carlisle. "I walk away unharmed. No one touches me. No one speaks of this meeting. And I'll make sure the Volturi never hear about it either."

"Of course." Carlisle agreed without hesitation. "You have my word."

"Do you speak for every one." She said. The phone continued to ring and she held it like a weapon. Each ring, cutting further down into their skin.

"Yes. I speak for my whole family."

Bella sighed. An unusual expression on her face as she answered the phone. "Ciao, Felix. Le volpi stanno dormendo. Sette tazze di vino scuro nella notte. È stato un equivoco. Ti parleró dopo. Più tardi, Felice. Addio."

She hung up the phone. "Well," Bella breathed. "If you want to take back what you said and kill me know, it's your chance."

"Bella," Carlisle said slowly. "I actually used to be friends with the brothers. Back in the day, I spent a decade or two with them." He wasn't sure if this would be any usual information.

"You know Aro?" Bella perked up.

"Yes, which is why." Carlisle started slowly. "You said, you'd keep this meeting a secret from even them. But I'm not sure if you know this, but Aro. . ."

"Don't worry about it." Bella grinned. "One of my many talents is that I'm an excellent secret keeper. But you were with the Volturi?" She changed the subject quickly.

"Well, I was a companion. I spent my time with them, but I never joined their ranks."

"Why?" Bella tilted her head.

"We disagreed on the philosophies of life. About the compassion towards humans." Carlisle explained. "They never understood why I abstained from- well."

"From human blood." Bella finished for him without batting an eye.

"Yes." Carlisle winced, not used to speaking so candidly about their darkest nature to their normal prey.

"Carlisle." Bella closed her eyes. "Carlisle." She said again, then she popped her eyes open. "You're THE Carlisle?" She nearly tipped her chair over. Her face entirely changed, braking from it's emotionless stupor. "You don't understand. They told stories about your adventures together like fairy tales when I was - when I was younger. Oh my gosh." Bella took a moment to collect herself, as if she had just realized she was sitting next to a celebrity. "You're the Carlisle that went with my un - went with the three brothers to Everest and skinny dipped down into the Mariana trench?"

Emmett and Esme bursted out laughing. "What?"

Carlisle was a bit puzzled. "They told you that?"

Bella cooled down again. "I'm good at keeping secrets, but I'm better at extracting them." She stood up from her chair. "I'm sorry. I should go. I've overstayed my welcome."

"No. It's okay."

"I should go." Bella yanked the necklace from the table. "I know Edward is listening. I also wanted to tell him. I wanted to tell you, Edward. She said, speaking into the wood floor. "I wanted to say thank you. What you did today, for me. A stranger. I'm not sure why you did it. But I'm grateful. And the Volturi will be too, if they find out about what you've done. You won't be punished for your actions. You should be rewarded. No matter my fate, I'll make sure of that." She turned to Carlisle professionally. "Thank you for your time. I'm sorry for, well, for threatening you, but I hope you understand."

"Bella, no need to apologize." Carlisle said.

"You have a lovely home." Bella glanced around and a smile twitched at her lips. "It's quite different from the underground passageways back home."

As Bella stepped back into the living room towards the door, Jasper ran up to her.

"Jasper." Alice hissed.

"Did they send you here to spy on us?" Jasper asked lowly, his face dark.

"What?" Bella asked, not even flinching.

"They let you, a human, walk away to live here. Where one of the largest clans of vegetarian vampires is settled. Are you here to spy on us?"

Bella looked Jasper up and down, sizing him up. "What war were you in?" She asked bluntly.

"What?"

"What war were you in?" She asked curiously. "You hold yourself like a soldier. You have the scars, even I can see them."

Jasper stood up taller.

"It's okay." Bella smiled, sensing his hesitation. "Do you really think they'd let a human spy on a group of 7 vampires, vegetarian or not? Believe me, I'm just as blown away at the coincidence. I can't seem to escape you lot. I suppose Aro is right. Something about manifest destiny." Bella sighed, and the circles under her eyes deepened.

"It's late." Carlisle walked between Jasper and Bella. "You should sleep."

"Yeah. Wouldn't you know it, I have insomnia. Nightmares." Bella said, lazily. "I suppose that's only natural." She yawned. "Goodbye, Cullens. It's been a pleasure. But I got to return the cop car before Charlie gets up."

And then Bella turned around and headed out the front door. Seven pairs of honey colored eyes watched as she drove back down the winding driveway. One pair followed her in the forest.