Disclaimer: All things Twilight are the property of Stephanie Meyer. Everything else is mine. Nothing may be copied without the express permission of the owner. No copyright infringement is intended.

Rating: NC-17 for violence, sex and language in later chapters

Summary: Maria wants Jasper back and badly. When she tries to hurt him through the one he loves, the consequences are huge for both vampires and werewolves. Rosalie's life is shattered and Emmett has to pick up the pieces. A mostly canon, post Breaking Dawn, epic that causes all manner of chaos amongst vampires, werewolves and the Volturi. C/Es, A/J, Em/R, Ed/B & Jacob/Leah

Thank you to my wonderful Beta RedSummer, who has the patience of a saint.

This Chapter has also been beta'd by Project Team Betas – Izzzyy and SecretlySeverus – and is now validated on Twilighted. Whoo Hoo!

Maria's POV

I stood at the edge of the forest hidden among the trees. Witnessing, but not a witness to this farce. The Volturi had their own agenda; I had mine. I had seen them during the destruction of the Southern clans, and I had watched as the newborns and their creators were decimated. The gifted always miraculously survived. After that, I'd been careful when I'd created my own army to fill the void left behind, and I made sure I knew as much as I could about the Volturi. I was not gifted, and I had no wish to die.

I was under no illusion that they were here to destroy an immortal child. They were here to destroy the threat that the Cullen clan represented; to acquire the gifted among them and twist them into serving the needs and desires of their leader, Aro. I was sure he had some pretty sinister desires. After thousands of years, his perception of the world was very self-centred. Even the other two Ancients appeared to be puppets to his whims.

I couldn't side with the Volturi; I knew that if Aro touched me I would die. No questions, just instant death for my involvement in the continued wars in the South and for my current newborn army. They probably knew of me anyway – my reputation preceded me, and even without Aro's touch I was on dangerous ground.

So here I was, hiding behind my would-be killers, hoping to salvage something of mine from the ensuing carnage. I laughed softly and continued to watch, waiting. That was the advantage of an eternity, one thing I had was time.

I stepped back further into the trees. The Cullens could only be seen now at the limit of my enhanced vision, through the leaves and branches of the intervening forest. The wolves, werewolves, were a surprise; their very scent caught in my throat and triggered some deep instinct to fight in the back of my mind. The presence of the werewolves alone was enough to cause the Volturi to pause.

I looked across the Cullen lines again and was certain now that the one I wanted was not there. He was the only reason I'd followed these so-called witnesses to the killing ground. I couldn't care less about the others, Aro could have them, but I wanted Jasper back and somehow, as yet undecided, I was going to get him.

The dark-haired girl, his wife, was a problem. I was sure Aro wanted her. How could he not with her visions of the future? However, if she lived she would see that Jasper had been taken and not killed. She would come after him; not a threat, but an annoyance. Jasper would only return to me once his heart had been ripped from his body, once his resolve was broken and his love destroyed. He would never rejoin me willingly. Somewhere in there was the soulless monster that served me well for all those years, and I was determined to pull it, kicking and screaming, back to the surface.

This was not going as Aro had planned, that much was clear. He stood in the centre of the two groups accompanied by a small guard. Edward, his newborn bride, the child, a huge vampire, and a werewolf stood opposite. Aro appeared to be delighted as the child touched his face. Masked hope and relief showed in the expressions of the Cullens and their witnesses.

Had I heard him say daughter? Edward's daughter? A half human, half vampire hybrid? This could not be! He could not be thinking of letting them live? I'd been relying on his need to acquire, to judge first and not bother with the questions at all.

Why? Why?

I was snapped out of my thoughts by the sound of all the wolves snarling and growling. A sharp bark from one brought silence crashing down again and their focus back onto the Volturi.

Interesting…

I looked again. Aro would not deign to count his witnesses amongst his number, including only the Volturi and their guard. By counting the wolves with the Cullens and their witnesses, he was outnumbered. Aro called his guard forward, causing the Cullens to drop back to their group. The gap between the contingents was so narrow now that they could be on each other in a fraction of a heartbeat, metaphorically speaking. The heavy beats of the wolves' hearts seemed so slow that it could all be over within one or two of their heartbeats.

The three Ancients discussed their options – certainly a situation I doubt they had ever been in before. What excuse would they use to force their hand? Suddenly, Caius pulled a vampire forward; she refused to accuse the wolves or the Cullens, and so denied the Volturi their justification for a massacre. The Volturi guard descend upon her, smothered her, ripped her to shreds and burnt her remains. It happened so fast I could watch the shock as it rippled through the Cullen lines.

I tensed, ready to run. If Jasper was not here, I would not get caught in the aftermath. Two of the Cullen witnesses leapt, snarls ripping from their throats, desperate to avenge her death and provoked into starting the fight that would end the Cullens and play into Aro's hands. But they were held back, protected and calmed, comforted even, by the Cullens. By their friends? How could vampires show such loyalty, such restraint, when one of their own was destroyed before their very eyes?

Almost as one, the Volturi guard crouched ready to fight and the tension in the air became palpable. I watched as Aro dismissed them and strolled calmly, calculatingly, to talk to some of the Cullen witnesses. He had a plan, some trap he wanted to manoeuvre them into, to corner them with their own words.

I was intrigued; this had turned into a very interesting afternoon.

One of the Cullen allies hurled accusations back to the Volturi's own witnesses. Aro allowed it, trying to twist it to his advantage. The Volturi witnesses were unsettled; some began slipping away through the trees in ones or twos, melting from the edges of the once bloodthirsty mob that stood at the edge of the field. I moved silently through the trees, away from the paths of the retreating vampires, and closer to the field to listen.

The end was near now. Aro, Caius and Marcus stood with their hands joined in conference. This was when Aro's false sentence would be passed and the Cullens destroyed whilst incapacitated by the guards' powerful gifts. I looked at Jane, crouched and hissing, and at Alec, with his concentration focused on the group before them.

They should be deaf and blind, immobilised, or writhing on the ground screaming in pain. Not calmly, in infinite emotional agony, by the looks of it, saying their goodbyes and kissing their loved ones – some passionately, for the last time. This was not a group under any illusion that they would be treated fairly. They knew that they would soon be fighting the hardest fight of their lives. Squaring their shoulders, they finally focused on the Volturi guard before them.

Picking targets?

I saw the slight shimmer then, the edges of Alec's desensitising gift, drifting across the narrow divide. A sudden wind whipped the snow against it and a fissure opened in the ground before it, but it did not slow in the slightest. The Cullens, it seemed, had some interesting gifts on their side of this fight, too. This I would watch; if I could identify who the gifted ones were, maybe I could do some acquiring of my own once the fight broke out.

Inevitably, the shimmer reached the Cullen group, but moulded and shaped around the area where the Cullens stood. It rose, high into the air and surrounding a dome of – what? No one I knew of had a shield that strong. Alec's face dropped into a mask of disbelief and then one of intense concentration. The shimmer roiled around the edges of the shield, searching for non-existent weaknesses. Edward's bride smiled then, a huge grin that caused Jane to shriek and snarl. It seemed that Edward's wife, the newborn, was the shield.

How a newborn, one obviously so young, was not a howling, crazed, bloodthirsty monster was beyond me. I had seen so many pass through the early stages, and I'd controlled them only because of Jasper's gift. How did she manage to stand there with the child actually in her arms, blood pumping inches from her mouth and nose, and still maintain a shield immense enough to cover that many vampires and their foul werewolf guard?

Aro seemed intent on continuing this farce, trying to salvage some scrap of dignity from this train wreck of a confrontation. I knew that the Volturi witnesses would not live long; what they had witnessed was a liability to the Volturi. I smiled to myself then, at the situation Aro had backed himself in to. He could not win! If he fought and tried to slaughter the Cullens, their own numbers would also be decimated. If he backed down he would lose the power he ruled over the rest of the vampire population, power that he thrived upon. He would lose that anyway even if he fought, because enough witnesses had escaped to pass on the story that the Volturi justice was merely a ruse.

Aro offered clemency to the gifted and places in the Volturi ranks; he was "merciful," he'd said. Now we came to the crux of it; finally the truth was out there, the real reason that they had come. With sudden finality, as if fed up with this game, Caius announced that the child should die. My eyes shifted to Marcus, who appeared bored as ever. He believed that there was no immediate danger and she should be allowed to live for now. This decision rested, as it always had, with Aro. His face darkened into a grave mask of pity as he prepared to speak.

Edward appeared to smile then, actually smile! He asked a question that seemed to bring him relief and victory filled his voice. If they knew, without doubt, that the child's future was no danger to our existence, would she be allowed to live? I tensed again, anxious. I sensed that not all was what it seemed. Aro conceded that the child could live and they would part in peace if, and only if, they knew without a doubt what her future would bring. A look of triumph spread across Edward's face.

Footsteps could be heard running through the forest and then Alice, Jasper and two unknown vampires burst from the trees, jumped nimbly over the shreds of Alec's shimmering attack, and ran forward to join Edward. I hissed and snarled; the sight of Jasper was a physical blow to me. He had become a softened version of my ultimate warrior. It took every scrap of my self restraint to force myself not to charge into that field and take him back. With immense effort, I brought my focus back to the proceedings. Unlikely though it was, the Volturi might still fight; I might still have that chance to regain my prize.

One of the unknown vampires was a hybrid like the child; calm, controlled and immortal. Her potential future personified. All Aro's posturing was at an end; it seemed that the Cullens had won this particular round. There was no way he could attack now. Not without cause, with irrefutable evidence in the Cullens favour, and Aro's rash promise to leave peaceably.

The Volturi backed down, their witnesses fled, and with a few last words the guard started to depart.

I needed to think. The chance to reclaim Jasper had passed. I looked once more through the leaves, across the field that divided us, and at the man who belonged to me, the man I had made, the man I had once owned and would own again. He looked down at the dark-haired girl beside him and smiled. Before my snarls could give me away, I ran.

The sounds of cheers, howls and celebration rose from the field. It faded quickly behind me as I put distance between us; the fury and bloodlust drove me fast through the trees. Had I been paying attention I would have noticed sooner the burning sensation in my throat and the irresistible smell of human blood. The hunting instinct took over and before I knew it I had killed the man I had almost run into.

The hot blood quenched my thirst, soothed my bloodlust and cooled my fury. Frustrated, I looked at the crumpled body at my feet, mangled and broken in my frenzy. What was I? Some out of control newborn, or the most feared leader of all the Southern clans? I kicked the body into the bushes and slumped at the side of the path.

Think, plan, but don't decide or she'll see it, the prescient little bitch! How the hell was that meant to work? Something unplanned, impulsive, or spur of the moment – that was the only way I wouldn't get seen and stopped before I got my chance. How could being impulsive give me a hope against the Cullens?

I needed a little time for their guests to depart and for their guard to drop. If I happened to be in the right place at the right time, then I could be impulsive. But I was only one and they were eight, plus their damn pet dogs.

Their scent was heavy in the area, so it was not a good place to wait and hope to remain unnoticed. I could smell their usual hunting range, so I moved through the landscape until their scent faded, still present, admittedly, but very old. However, there were other tantalising scents. Miles from any town or road, this meant they wouldn't be noticed for weeks and their disappearance wouldn't forewarn the Cullens. Maybe a little local muscle would come in handy.

I quickly followed the trail and spotted two men, heavily built and powerfully muscled, perfect for my needs. Before they even knew what hit them I had bitten them, gathered one under each arm and ran far from the trail. The screaming would alert any other humans in the area, so I put them in the back of a cave to muffle the noise and left them to the transformation.

I just waited and listened; there was no point spending the time planning. Even half-formed plans might trigger a vision of a possible future and prepare the Cullens. Instead, I dwelt on the Jasper I knew, the one I wanted back by my side; ruthless killer and vicious monster, a manipulator of moods. He had been an invaluable tool in my Southern army, and he would be again.

~o~

Eventually the screams lessened and the heartbeats started to race. It wouldn't be long now, and I hoped they wouldn't kill each other. I hadn't really looked at the men when I'd grabbed them; it was a moment of being impulsive rather than decisive. Now, as they neared their new awakening, I studied them.

Both of them had the weathered look of men who spent a lot of time in the wild; well worn, sturdy clothes, rough beards and tangled, slightly too long hair. But they weren't scrawny; they were either very good at living off the land or hadn't been back in the wild for long. The dark haired one appeared slightly taller and broader than the red head, but both would be formidable newborns once I had them under my spell.

The red head's heart stopped first. He lay unnaturally still and breathed in the scents in the cave. The darkness would calm them a little, but newborns were so damn jumpy. I had to wait for him to notice me or he would be catapulted into a frenzy and I'd have to kill him – such a waste of time when that happened.

He opened his eyes, shut them fast, and opened them again. Even in the dark I knew he had seen me clearly. I raised my eyes to his and smiled; a gentle, non-threatening, charming, oh-I'm-so-glad-you're-here-to-protect-me smile. He blinked and smiled tentatively back, and then his hand raised to his throat as the thirst hit him. Panic filled his face and his eyes darted everywhere like a cornered animal.

"It's okay," I said softly.

His glare swung round and fixed on me, unblinking. "I can help you with that – the thirst that you feel. I'm here to help you, guide you, look after you." He looked confused. Ah, yes, I'd forgotten that the human male was the next step up from a caveman sometimes: Big strong man protects woman, woman does not protect big strong man.

"You've changed; you're something different now, a Vampire. So am I. You're more powerful now, stronger, faster, but there is a lot to learn. Help me and I will ensure you get to satisfy that thirst." Disobey me and I will destroy you. "Calm now, be still. Your new brother is awaking. If you startle him you will probably die." With one last surge the other man's heart raced, faltered and stilled.

"W-What?" the red head stuttered.

The dark haired newborn sprung up and pressed against the back wall. He crouched, hissing and snarling; his eyes were wild trying to take in every new thing at once. The red head had the sense to freeze; understanding even in his confusion and desperate thirst that if he moved, or made another sound, he would die instantly and probably painfully. It took me much longer to soothe the dark haired newborn, but at least they were both alive and not at each other's throats – yet.

Their names were Red and Buck, how damned original.

"Come with me. Let's get you some food." I beckoned them to the entrance of the cave and then jumped down onto the forest floor. I started towards the nearest town. Well, the nearest other than Forks – taking them there would have been too conspicuous. I heard the trees smash and fall as the newborns discovered their strength and speed, but obviously not the grace and coordination that usually came as part of the package deal.

I scented a small hiking group that had camped not far from where I had picked up these two. In the early morning light, before the humans were even properly awake, the tents were ripped open and the occupants quickly and messily dispatched. The end result looked like a fair approximation of a bear or mountain lion attack. Thank goodness I didn't plan on keeping these guys for long. Subtle and discreet would never be part of their vocabulary.

I returned to an area that the Cullens had used in the past. Faint traces of their scents were barely discernable on the foliage. I settled on a cliff which gave me a high vantage point overlooking the trees, but was protected from the direct sunlight. This would be a good place to sit and wait; a place to ponder.

Time passed, and suddenly the sound of footsteps and muffled laughter cut through the quiet of the forest, racing towards me through the trees from upwind, well away from our own scent trails. I sat taller, tense and listening. The newborns heads shot up too and they came to crouch closer to me. I didn't want to look too soon in case I unconsciously made a decision and sent them scattering away from us.

They ran beneath the cliff. As they passed, I glanced down to see short, dark hair and long, blond hair whip past. My stomach clenched, venom filled my mouth, and fury rose up my back. As I turned to the newborns I heard the steps below me falter.

"KILL THEM! Rip them apart!" I snarled.

The shriek rose from below as I jumped.

"Rosalie! EDWARD! Oh God, NO!"

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