Author Note from DragonGirl323: "Here's the next chapter finally! I apologize for the extended wait. Besides having difficulty with the writing process I had a slew of other problems I had to deal with. Hopefully now that things are smoothing out both myself and Mortal can update more regularly. Also, thank you to everyone supporting this story. We greatly appreciate it. I hope you enjoy the next segment!"

Author's note from mortal-paralight: "Alright guys, so I know that this chapter is very late, but we've both had stuff going on, which is the reason for the delay. I hope that you guys enjoy this chapter that DragonGirl made and, without further ado, please READ AND REVIEW!"

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Chapter 2

In Purgatory's Shadow

Stefan's Point of View

The day of days had finally arrived.

The air around me and Vladimir was crackling with anticipation as we led Sulpicia and Athenodora out of the castle and into the snowy field beyond to meet their doom with the entirety of their coven and, not to mention, their husbands watching. The only sounds to be heard were the crunch of our feet in the snow, the rustle of our clothing as we walked, and one corner of my mouth curled up into a smug smirk as I shot a sideways glance at Sulpicia. Her sullen expression and the slight droop of her shoulders was the picture of utter defeat; she knew there was no hope for her or her sister.

I shifted my gaze to Bella as we came to a halt in the middle of the snowy field and smiled triumphantly. The clear, focused glint in her oh so lovely deep crimson eyes, the product of an extra dose of my compelling influence as a precaution, filled me with pride. She was my edge, the only thing that could tip the scales in my century's long struggle against the Volturi.

If only I had her from the beginning, I thought woefully. So much decimation could have been prevented.

Of course, my focus on brute strength had been mine and Vladimir's downfall; our newborn armies had been no match against Aro's merry band of gifted vampires, something I would be rectifying shortly.

I detected the change in the air immediately, the subtle shift as the frigid mountain wind carried the scent of approaching vampires to me, and my head whipped toward the thick cluster of snow covered trees fifty meters away. Vladimir, having picked up on the Volturi's advancement at the same time I did, moved so he was standing directly beside me and squared his shoulders, holding Athenodora in front of him in an unrelenting grasp. Anticipation raced through me, turning each nerve in my body into a live wire, and the charge was palpable in the air around us. After a millennia, the retribution we had been waiting and struggling for was in our reach.

This was a day of days indeed.

My senses snapped me into battle ready alertness when the gathering of black cloaks oozed out of the trees, the guard lining up obediently behind their figure heads. I recognized the small, child-like forms of Jane and Alec standing closest to Aro and I couldn't help but smirk. They would be all but useless today. I also identified Demetri, Felix, Santiago, Afton and Renata standing in front of a small cluster of gray cloaked forms and I snorted under my breath.

Lower enlisted, I thought. They didn't even bring the whole guard. They're either over confident or resigned to the fact that they've already lost.

"Extend your shield, my dear," I requested, turning my attention to Bella just long enough to ensure my influence over her was still steadfast.

She met my gaze and I could see the flames of defiance burning inside her irises, but my unyielding hold over her demanded dominance. She nodded stiffly once, then the shimmering film of her mental shield extended over all five of us, protecting us from the witch twin's infuriatingly irritating gifts.

After a few human breaths of silence, Aro, Caius and Marcus pulled back the hoods of their midnight black cloaks and set their gazes on Vladimir and I. Both Aro and Caius were visibly shaken I could tell. This was the only time their wives had ever been threatened and to think that it had taken the temptation of a mere shopping trip for our plot to come to fruition.

"How good to see you, old friend," I announced with a sickeningly pleasant smile.

Vladimir chuckled. "Oh yes, we missed you."

"Hello, Stefan… Vladimir," Aro responded, his voice laced with hostility. He folded his hands in front of himself and squared his shoulders. Even though his expression was guarded, I could clearly see the turmoil writhing beneath the surface as his gaze drifted to his wife. "I'm sure we can easily come to an understanding without any unnecessary violence."

"Nothing you say or do will save your precious mates' lives," Vladimir drawled. "We are going to kill them, and we do not care what you have to say about the matter."

I nodded in agreement. "There will be no understanding, Aro. All I want you to do is stand there and watch while I kill your wife." I smirked as I steadily tightened my grip on Sulpicia's neck.

The growl that rumbled through Aro's chest as he took a step toward me, even though it was supposed to sound menacing, made me want to laugh. "You will do no such thing! Return our wives to us unharmed and we might consider overlooking this crime!" he shouted, a flicker of his inner desperation briefly flashing through his eyes.

Vladimir snorted – he knew as well as I that such a bargain was nothing but a ploy – and leaned his head closer to mine. "Of course, we would just kill them by default." I recognized the deep baritone of Marcus' growl and was genuinely surprised that he had decided to vocalize his own anger instead of standing behind his so called brothers and brooding. "But how do we know you will uphold your end of the bargain, hmm?" Vladimir added, keeping an agitated Athenodora held tightly in his grasp.

I laughed humorlessly, directing my full attention back to Aro. "I believe it is time that you experience the same pain I've lived with for more than a thousand years, Aro," I told him, the increasing strength of my grip causing Sulpicia's chalky porcelain skin to crack. Her sharp, pain filled hiss made Aro's top lip curl back from his teeth and another growl tear up his throat.

He took a step to advance on us, but Caius promptly clamped his hand down onto his brother's shoulder, holding him in place. "Do not assume that I will apologize for what was done in the past, Stefan!" he yelled vehemently at us. "What is done is done! Justice had to be served!"

I arched an eyebrow, inwardly amused by Aro's state of distress. I'd never seen the bastard so unsteady in all the years I'd known him and, frankly, it was comical. It took a great deal to bring him out of his perpetually cheerful state and I was enjoying the show immensely.

No wonder they keep their precious mates locked up in that God forsaken bell jar, I thought smugly. The poor dears have probably been pining to see the outside world for centuries.

"How was slaughtering our mates before our very eyes justified?" Vladimir shouted back at him as he dug his fingers into Athenodora's neck, making her gasp in pain. "We were the ones you wanted yet you took them instead! How is that justified?"

I nodded, shooting a like-minded stare in Vladimir's direction, before bringing my gaze back to Aro. "But you can rest assured that justice will be served here today," I said over the cracking and sharp metallic grinding that had suddenly become like sweet music to my ears. My fingers were embedded so deeply into Sulpicia's chalky skin that I could behead her with a simple snap of my wrist. "I would say my goodbyes to her if I were you."

He scowled at me, his fingers curling into the edges of his cloak, and I assumed he was wishing he could get his hands around my throat. That thought made me smirk inwardly. I was awaiting the day when I could tear his eyes out of their sockets. "There will be no goodbyes! You will not be taking them away from us!"

I laughed condescendingly. "Are you so sure about that?" I asked, arching one eyebrow. I found it ironic that he was still barking orders even though he was the one who was helpless now.

He looked toward his guard and, in a desperate attempt to wrench his control back, he flung his arm out and pointed at Felix and Demetri. "Felix! Demetri! Retrieve Sulpicia and Athenodora!" he snapped, a faint undercurrent of panic audible in his voice.

I rolled my eyes and swiftly lifted my free hand to Sulpicia's jaw, grabbing her chin roughly in preparation for separating her head from her body. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Vladimir mirroring my movements, following my lead. "I would advise against that," I warned.

Both vampires paused uncertainly, their eyes flicking back and forth between us and their masters. Felix was much stronger than Vladimir and I, and Demetri was exceptionally experienced and ferocious in his own right, but the pair of us were one man armies with thousands more years of fighting expertise than the both of them combined. The wives would be beheaded long before they could manage to reach us, then we would take great delight in tearing the both of them apart as well. As long as Bella had us encased in the protection of her shield, we were untouchable and Aro knew it.

He snarled in indignation, then shook his hand dismissively at Felix and Demetri, calling them off, and they obediently melted back in line like the dogs they were. Marcus moved his lethargic gaze to Aro and stepped forward, curling his hand carefully over his shoulder, then directed his attention to me. I lifted my eyebrows only just as a way to acknowledge his intentions to speak. It wasn't often that Marcus chose to voice his opinions, – he was usually content to stand behind his brother's and be the deciding vote when it came to slaughtering a rule breaking coven or leaving them in peace – so I could only assume that whatever he was about to say was something profound.

"I never thought you would wish to endure the same pain twice, Stefan," he said, his voice shockingly threatening as he shifted his gaze to Bella.

I paused, but retained enough control to keep my gaze from drifting over to her and prevented a sudden surge of irritation from leeching into my expression. I knew what he was insinuating and wasn't about to give him the satisfaction of knowing that his statement had actually effected me. His gift had always been a point of contention with me and whether or not he actually saw a bond between Bella and I was irrelevant. The only thing binding her to me was my own influence and that was something even the all powerful Volturi were ignorant of.

"A-Aro... I love you..." Sulpicia rasped, her voice labored and barely audible because of my constricting grasp on her neck.

He mouthed those words back to her and I inwardly rolled my eyes at the sentimental gesture. I had always been skeptical of Aro's affections toward his mate, this small display of affection made little difference to me. "Get your hands away from my wife," Aro ground out between clenched teeth.

A sinister smirk crawled across my face. He'd just given me the opening I was waiting for.

"Very well," I responded, then sharply snapped Sulpicia's head to the side and yanked, completely severing it from her shoulders. Her body collapsed to the ground in a crumpled heap, lifeless and unresponsive.

Before the shock of his wife's beheading could hit him, I plucked a lighter out of my pocket, lit it, then dropped it onto Sulpicia's prone form. His reaction as he watched the lighter fall was as violent and satisfying as I had been hoping it would be. When her body burst into flame, the tendrils of fire consuming everything in their path, the keening, tormented screech that erupted out of his throat and the agony reflected in his eyes made me laugh, filling me with an indescribable sense of glee. A chorus of shocked gasps rang out from the guards and they shifted uneasily where they stood, their eyes drifting between us and their masters. Not only had I dealt the phony King a debilitating blow, I'd successfully made the guards doubt the three men they were forced to serve.

For the first time in over fifteen hundred years, I felt powerful again. My patience had been richly rewarded.

"How does it feel, Aro!" I shouted, brandishing her head at him like it was nothing more than a trophy before tossing it into the blaze. "Revel in your misery for the rest of eternity!"

I saw Caius' eyes widen and looked over just in time to watch Vladimir viciously slice through Athenodora's neck with his teeth, then push her headless body on top of Sulpicia's. The fresh venom oozing out of her neck caused the blaze to roar even brighter, but I was still able to hear Caius' grief filled cry, prompting Vladimir and I to laugh in unison, their pain bringing us the sickest kind of joy imaginable. Our mates had been avenged, some meaning finally brought from their tragic deaths, and nothing, not even the most succulent mouthful of human blood, would ever taste sweeter to me than in this moment itself.

"Such a shame," Vladimir crooned condescendingly before unceremoniously dropping Athenodora's head into the blaze.

The resulting distraught cry from Caius prompted the both of us to take a defensive stance, prepared for the assault that we had been predicting would come. Vladimir and I had spent days in the drawing room going over offensive and defensive strategies in case our actions goaded them into a fight. We were ready for anything. To take out all three leaders and a vast majority of their prized guard in one fell swoop was an outcome we were sorely hoping for.

As the seconds ticked by agonizingly slowly with Aro and Caius still pining for the women that were smoldering at my feet, I realized I had irreparably broken these men that thought themselves gods, shaken them down to the cores of their very beings, and I smirked. They finally knew the pain they had brought down on Vladimir and I when our own mates had been burned in front of us and the understanding I thought I saw cross Aro's expression was all the validation I needed.

He and Caius forcefully tore their gazes off of the ashen bodies of their wives and simply stared at one another, silent and unmoving, their guard standing behind them still in a state of shock, the disbelief in their eyes blatant. Marcus curled a hand around each of their shoulders and gently turned them away until their backs were facing me. The whisper of his deep baritone reached my ears, but I didn't care what was being said. Their postures and the haunted looks in their eyes spoke louder than their words ever could.

When I detected movement to my right, my delighted gaze landed on Edward Cullen as he stepped forward, his topaz eyes staring longingly at his mate. I knew what he wanted and I couldn't stop myself from snickering under my breath, remaining silent to watch my epic finale unfold.

"Bella, come," he requested, stretching his hand out toward her. "We've come to bring you home."

Bella stared at Edward's hand for only a brief moment before looking away, her own hands curling into fists. "I'm not going home, Edward."

A satisfied smirk crawled onto my face as his jaw slackened, stunned confusion swirling through his eyes, and I held out my hand to her, hoping to emphasize her resolve to her precious 'family' that she intended to stay here. When she quickly looked away from me, though, keeping her arms at her sides, I shrugged my shoulders indifferently and folded my hands behind my back.

Perhaps it was better that she hadn't accepted my invitation, I thought as the young Cullen glanced uncertainly at his sire. I do want to keep my gift a secret after all. If she had, they might have suspected coercion.

Carlisle stepped forward and placed a hand on Edward's shoulder, setting his calm, placating gaze on me. "Stefan, would you allow Bella to return to us? She has done what you asked. Her place is with her mate."

I ignored Carlisle's question, instead looking to the brunette standing not far away from me, and offered her a pleasant smile. "Well, Bella? What do you want?"

Her shoulders became rigid as my influence forcefully held her in place, her eyes locked on the snow covered ground beneath her feet. "I'm...I'm staying in Romania," she answered.

I almost laughed out loud at the resulting looks of shock on both men's faces, neither had been expecting this and her refusal had set them back on their heels, all their plans of returning to Forks with her in tow completely blown out of the water. Carlisle's mouth straightened into a grim line as he glanced sideways at his 'son' and Edward simply stared at Bella, thunderstruck.

No one spoke for an uncomfortable stretch of time until Carlisle's mate, Esme, came to stand on Edward's other side, a pleading look in her eyes. "Bella, please, there's no need for you to stay here any longer. We love you and we want you to come home. None of us can even begin to imagine what you've been through, but we want to help you heal."

My gaze briefly drifted to the three other members of this quaint little 'family', coming to rest on the smallest of them, the Seeress. She was clearly distraught, just like the rest of them were, but seeing her upset only solidified my victory. She knew there was nothing Bella's precious mate could say or do to sway her decision.

Bella bit down on her lip hard, a deeply conflicted look in her crimson eyes, and I once again found myself impressed by the strength of her will. Never before had someone under my influence been able to fight and resist me quite like she could, and I couldn't help but be intrigued. I assumed that was because of her powerful mental shield, but couldn't say for sure. The girl was as stubborn as a mule.

"I can't come with you... That's it. I just can't," she insisted, her hands balled into fists at her sides.

"Bella, please," Edward beseeched softly, taking a few steps closer to her. "I'm sorry, love. I'm so sorry. I don't expect you to forgive me for abandoning you like I did, but, please, give me the chance to make it up to you. Give me the chance to make it right."

She turned her head away from him, then stuffed her hands into her pockets. "I just can't, Edward! I can't go with you! I have to stay here, so your apologies and pleas mean nothing now! Just...just please go! There's nothing left to bring back to this so called 'home' of yours!"

Esme and Carlisle shared a helpless glance as Edward continued to stare at Bella with bewilderment. His despairing stare finally landed on me and I could practically feel his desperation. "You forced her to come here. You can force her to leave."

I shot a feigned incredulous look at him. "That may be, but if she wishes to stay, I will not refuse her," I replied, inwardly grinning at such a bold faced lie.

Bella began grinding her teeth and I stole a glance at Vladimir, easily detecting the amusement in his eyes. He was enjoying the show just as much as I was. I imagined she wouldn't be too happy with me later on, but I wasn't bothered by that.

A long, heavy silence followed, stretching on for longer than I thought it would before Carlisle sighed in resignation. "If this is what Bella wants then..."

Edward whipped his head in his sire's direction as he was speaking, flabbergasted. "Carlisle, you can't be serious." He paused and shook his head, turning his attention back to Bella. "No, I can't just leave her here. I won't."

Carlisle looked over at Edward, his gaze sorrowful. "But I won't force her either. It has to be her choice, Edward."

The Seeress whispered a soft apology directed at Bella and she nodded once to her before looking away, but not before I caught the pain that was evident in her expression.

"Bella, you don't belong here, especially with him!" Edward shouted, leveling me with an angry glare, which I returned with an impassive mask even though I was inwardly laughing. I was sure he was feeling exceptionally guilty over being forced to leave his mate behind when he hadn't exactly been there for her in the first place and, frankly, I found the irony hysterical.

Bella turned her back to her mate and wrapped her arms around herself, squeezing her eyes shut. "Please, just go. Please..." she pleaded.

As Carlisle and Esme began pulling Edward away I noticed out of the corner of my eye the Volturi gradually beginning to regain their bearings and silently congratulated the Cullens on their impeccable timing. I didn't want any of them getting in the way if Vladimir and I needed to do anymore slaughtering.

Edward allowed his adoptive parents to pull him away, but he kept his gaze locked on Bella's back, his jaw clenched and upper body rigid. "I love you, Bella," he whispered, continuing to stare at her as his family retreated with him in tow.

I heard Bella's breath catch in her throat and she lifted a hand to her mouth, keeping her back turned. Vladimir and I exchanged knowing glances once the Cullens had disappeared into the snow covered trees, then immediately directed our attention back to the Volturi as Aro turned to face us, his eyes once again falling to the ashy remains of his mate.

"Return to Volterra," he announced, his voice haunted as he gazed upon the small fire that continued to roar in front of me. "There shall be no further loss of life."

After just a few seconds, the guard complied and turned on their heels, melting back into the forest from whence they came. The leaders remained for just a few moments longer before following behind their guard, their abnormally heavy footsteps echoing solemnly through the empty valley when their gait had been regally graceful as they arrived.

When the edges of their black cloaks were no longer visible, I finally released the laughter that had been begging for release, a delicious chill of victory surging down my spine and spreading through my entire body. I had just achieved what so many other vampire covens had yearned centuries for, what Vladimir and I had been yearning for. We had just brought the Volturi to their knees; their wives had been the glue holding them together and now it wouldn't be long before they fell apart at the seams.

So this is what success tastes like.

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Mortal-paralight & DragonGirl323

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