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Edited- 12/18/13

Chapter 9- Rescuing the Not-So-Damsel-in-Distress

Alice

I glanced at Edward briefly, making sure that he was confident in his decision of letting me look into Bella's future. He nodded quickly, reading my hesitation in my thoughts, and firmly confirmed, "I'm fine with it."

I closed my eyes and let the blocked visions flow. It was such a freeing, exhilarating feeling. It was the feeling you got when a stomachache cleared up, or a migraine disappeared. It was just that wonderful of a feeling.

And then I was sucked into my visions.

The first thing I saw was somewhat blurry, as if the people in it were unsure of what they wanted. It was as if this vision was dangerously balancing on the edge of a cliff, and it didn't know where it was going to go.

Frustrated, I looked a bit closer and saw two vampires- one male and the other, female. Their faces were unidentifiable but one had fair hair and the other had darker hair. They were standing across from each other, close enough for me to know that this wasn't a friend to friend relationship.

And then I was pulled out of this vision and into another one. I was about to protest as I was interested in the previous one, but I stopped and gaped as I saw the next one play out.

There was Bella, in the throne room of the Volturi quarters. She was wearing the mandatory uniform for a guard, and she was gliding to her spot in the guard. She shared a quick smile with Jane before turning to the doors with a grim expression on her face, as if awaiting something that didn't appeal to her.

And the vision ended there, leaving me wanting more. Why did Bella choose to become a guard? Was she that upset?

I slowly turned to Edward, afraid to see his face expression. And when I did see what it was, I immediately regretted complying with his wishes of looking into Bella's future. He look like a mixture of anger and confusion. His eyes were scrunched up, and he was running his hands through his hair as if wondering what went wrong.

And then realization dawned on his face. He shouted, "They forced her to join them! They kidnapped her as she was running away from me, and then they had that vampire who can form relationships tie Bella to the leaders."

I wasn't so sure that that was the explanation for Bella's presence in the guard. "Are you sure, Edward? Bella didn't look forlorn, and she even shared a smile with Jane."

He protested, "I'm sure. She's putting on a front and in reality, she misses us."

Was what he said, true? Bella may not be a good liar, but she was good at covering up her feelings. The two things may sound the same, but in truth, they were different. Bella was in a terrible state when Edward left, but she didn't break down sobbing at school, or so Edward claimed from what he read from other students' minds when we returned. She had just looked empty and a bit lost.

Maybe that was what was happening now. She didn't want the Volturi to think she was against them, and in truth, she was miserable. My visions were one dimensional, as mentioned before, so this made sense.

I nodded at Edward, who had read all of my thoughts about Bella.

"So, what do we do about this?" I asked.

"We rescue her," he replied.

"As always," I sighed. Harsh, but true. You would've thought that Bella would be able to take care of herself and move on, but apparently not.

"Let's go tell the others," I told Edward.

He nodded, and we ran as fast as we could to the house.

As soon as we arrived, we heard chatter inside the house.

We walked inside without knocking, and froze as we saw our family members interacting with Vera. Shoot, I had completely forgotten about her. I took a quick look at Edward and saw that, as I had been afraid of, he was looking at her with puppy eyes.

I sighed as I realized I would have to be the boss of this operation. I cleared my throat and it became silent. I smiled at my family members who looked excited about the arrival of Vera.

I turned to Vera and said, "So, I see you've met the rest of us."

"Yes, and may I say. They're wonderful people," she flattered them.

They smiled at her, and I realized just how much charisma Vera has. I turned to Jasper, desperate to see one face that wouldn't be under her charismatic influence. My desperation turned to relief as I saw Jasper just looking at Vera with an uncomfortable expression on his face.

I grabbed him and dragged him out of the house. He happily followed and as soon as we were out, he blurted out, "Something's off with her."

"She has the gift of seduction. She can make any single male fall for her. My vision was wrong, Jazz," I shrieked in panic. "And Edward found out when I took him away from her and allowed me to look at Bella's future. And we saw her as part of the Volturi, and we think they forced her to join!"

He hurriedly shot calm waves at me, and I shot him a gratified look. "Alice, calm down. We can fix this. I'll take Vera somewhere like the forest and claim that I'm giving her a basic outline of our hunting grounds, while you explain the situation to the family."

I kissed him lightly and murmured, "Always the calm one when under pressure. You're the best, Jazzy."

He chuckled against my lips and before he could head back inside the house, I asked, "Is this why you avoided Vera like the plague before?"

"Yes, I didn't feel right around her and I assumed it was because I needed to hunt. I guess I was avoiding the truth of the matter," he confessed.

I nodded and pranced inside, him following me. When we got inside, he asked Vera, "Would you like a basic understanding of where we hunt?"

Confused, she asked, "But I've hunted here before."

At a loss of words, Jasper turned to me. I filled in, "Well, there are some hidden places where you can find an abundance of animals. He can show you that."

Of course I was making that up, but Jasper would figure out something. Vera nodded excitedly at the prospect of finding somewhere where she could be satisfied within seconds. She and Jasper headed out and after I was sure they were far enough, I turned to my family.

Edward was shaking his head lightly, and turning to me. "I was under her influence again, wasn't I?"

I nodded, and I was pretty sure he can read the sympathy written all over my face.

Emmett, always the impatient one, interrupted, "What do you mean 'under her influence'?"

I sighed, knowing this will take a while.

I explained the situation to them, all the way until the part with Bella being part of the Volturi, forced. Their reactions were all pretty uniform- a gasp and a "no!"

"No one blame Edward… he was helpless. Anyway, we have a plan. And it's simple. We're going to the Volturi and getting Bella back."

They all nodded in agreement, some more reluctantly than others. The Volturi were fearsome and it was going to be a challenge to help Bella, but we owed her that much.

Edward asked, "Can you get last minute tickets to Italy, Alice?"

I quirked an eyebrow and replied, "With enough money, you can get anything."

And God knows we have a whole lot of money.

"Wait, before I book a flight, Carlisle, can you make up something to get Vera out of here?"

He nodded. "I can think of something."

Vera and Jasper came back minutes later and Carlisle cleared his throat. They looked up and Vera raised an eyebrow. "Yes?"

"Vera, we have bad news. You see, we will be joining another coven shortly and they don't want any strangers. Of course, we'll continue being the Cullen coven, but we'll be staying with that coven for extra protection. Do you mind being a nomad? We're sorry for leading you on, but Alice forgot about that little fact when you asked her to join. I just realized it myself, you see."

"But… but… Fine," she gave in. "It's not like there aren't any other vegetarian covens."

We all nodded and watched her run away. I sighed in relief. Now, Edward won't be under influence, and we can begin our mission, that being the best word to describe this little rescue trip we were organizing.

I quickly booked the flights (don't ask me how- like I said, money buys everything) and we were off.

Bella, here we come.

Short chapter. Sorry about that. It just seemed like a good place to end.

Thanks for reading.