Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.

AN: New chapter! Also, TwilightG, don't worry. Edward will make his REAL appearance soon enough ;) And also thank you Bella Sangue, Tinc, mydirt09 and everyone else for the amazing reviews!

I heard the door slam in the distance. I looked in the mirror to check my appearance. I looked calm and composed. I was ready.

I slowly made my way downstairs. When I entered the living room everyone was already there. Tyr looked up as I walked in. His grey eyes were scanning me over in confusion. I looked away and went to sit alone.

Everyone seemed to be waiting for something. I unconsciously started fiddling with my skirt but immediately stopped myself. If I wanted to be a Queen I had to start acting like one.

I decided to begin, "I never really talked about my past in much detail. My life wasn't very exciting up until around two years ago. That's when I moved to Forks to live with my dad. I hated it there at first. It was always raining, I didn't know anyone and the whole town was just so boring. But that changed on the first day of school when I saw them. They were beautiful, pale, perfect…Alice, Jasper, Emmet, Rosalie and Edward," my voice almost wavered at the thought of them.

I continued, "They were a family adopted by a local doctor, Carlisle Cullen and his wife Esme. These kids weren't friends with anyone else but their family. Obviously they caught my attention and surprisingly so did I. Edward seemed to be intensely attracted by my blood and it took him a lot of control not to kill me. So he tried to avoid me. I mistaken his actions for hate."

I paused for a second to see everyone's reaction. Their faces were unreadable but I could tell they were listening intently.

"He surprised me when he saved me from a car accident. He moved unnaturally fast in order to prevent a car from crashing into me. Eventually someone told me about a legend that claimed that the Cullens were vampires. At first I didn't believe it but then it started making sense. By that point Edward gave up on trying to ignore me and instead started getting closer to me. We talked a couple of times and finally he admitted to the fact that he was a vampire."

At that Deidre gasped but Blaise shushed her quickly.

I proceeded with my story, "At one point a group of vampires who weren't vegetarians visited his coven. Their names were James, Laurent and Victoria."

Deidre gasped again.

"James was a tracker and after he found out that I was close to the Cullens he thought of me as the perfect target. So Alice and Jasper ran with me while the others tried to intercept James. Eventually he fooled me into believing he had my mom and I gave myself in. He bit me and at the last second the Cullens showed up. They killed James and Edward sucked out the venom."

Everyone seemed to be gaping at me by this point.

I tried to ignore it, "Long story short I grew attached to Edward and his family. I wanted him to change me but he wouldn't. He thought I didn't know what I wanted. After an accident when Jasper almost killed me he concluded his presence put me in too much danger and left. You can see why I didn't want to see them today."

I surveyed the room. The vampires seemed to be in deep thought. Finally Blaise's deep voice broke the silence.

"He sucked out the venom without killing you?"

I nodded.

Blaise's expression was hard to read but his feelings told me he was impressed by that.

"That takes a lot of self control. I don't think any of us would be able to do that."

Somehow his amazement made me angry and I pursed my lips. I turned to Tyr and gave him an inquiring look.

"So what happened after we left?"

His smooth voice calmed me almost immediately, "It took them no more then half a minute to get to me. They thought I was one of the newborns but I convinced them I wasn't. I allowed the bronze haired one to read my mind."

He gave me a pointed look and continued, "I didn't let him see you. As soon as I felt him reaching deeper I focused on seeing their past. Edward voiced out my ability immediately and told me to stop it but I said that I could not control it. The older one told him to stay calm. He asked me what I was doing here and I told him that we heard about the trouble with newborns. I had to tell him who I was. As soon as they found out I was one of the guardians of the vampire lords the tone turned friendly. The bigger one introduced himself as Emmet and asked me if I killed all the newborns alone. I knew your smell still lingered as you left so recently," he nodded towards Dee, Atticus and Blaise, "so I told him I had three more people with me."

"He asked why you left and I said that we could not leave our coven unprotected for long. I offered them our help if they ever ran into any trouble in hopes that they would trust me enough not to follow me when I left. The older one accepted graciously and we gave each other our contact information. I left soon after," the room became quiet again.

So he saw Edward's past. No wonder he looked confused when I came into the room. I let out a small groan. But still, Edward did not see me and that was very good news.

It was now or never. I coughed to get their attention and stood up. All eyes were on me. I closed my eyes for a second and imagined the near future. Yes, I wanted it.

I looked at them and tried to look as serious as possible.

"I have something to tell you."

Four pairs of eyes were watching me intently.

"I want to take my place as a Queen."

The moment the words left my mouth the room came alive. Deidre emitted a moan and sank deeper into the couch. Atticus's face morphed into one of his rare frowns. Blaise started muttering to himself and Tyr's face turned to stone. I waited for them to compose themselves. I didn't think such negative reaction was justified.

Atticus's pleading voice spoke up, "Bella you don't know what you're doing."

I was starting to get angry. Did they all think I was completely incompetent?

Tyr refused to look at me, "It's been almost two hundred years since a chosen one actually declared himself."

Blaise growled, "Do you even realize in how much danger you would put yourself and us in?"

Atticus quickly interrupted, "It's not about us, Blaise. Bella if you announce yourself you'll have a ton of dangerous people after you and if one of those people kills you and gets your power…the consequences will be grave."

I hissed through my teeth, "I'm not helpless, when is anyone going to understand that? Did you not just see me destroy those vampires? I have a right to be in power and you can not stop me from achieving that."

Deidre seemed to be snapping out of her despair, "Bella, please, think this over. You were practically just turned! You're not ready!"

I let out an angry yelp. My eyes were flaring in frustration. I could not deal with this anymore.

I hissed, "My mind is made up. Talk to me when you've finally accepted your responsibility of doing what I tell you to do," and with that I was gone.

I sat in the clearing where I and Blaise used to train. It was sunrise. The bright rays were hitting me and I noticed that really up close my skin did seem to sparkle a little bit. Or maybe it was just my imagination.

I have finally cooled down after that argument. I felt bad for lashing out like that at the others. They have not done me any harm. I let out a long breath.

I could hear someone approaching and I lazily looked behind my shoulder. It was Atticus.

He sat down on the tree trunk beside me and looked towards the sun. He was glittering everywhere and it was a bit distracting. I kept looking at his gentle hand. He really was my guardian angel.

He tuned to meet my gaze and gave me his signature smile. I returned it but mine had a certain sadness to it. Atticus's emotions were so pure. I could feel his brotherly love, caring and worry for me. It made me feel even guiltier.

He looked very calm, "Bella I know you said your mind is made up but I just want you to listen to me for a minute. You need to know your options before you make such an important decision."

He cautiously waited for my response and I simply nodded for him to continue.

"What Kane and many others did was remain here, in seclusion. Most were known to the Volturi but on very unofficial terms. If there was a problem that was serious but wasn't being fixed Kane went to fix it. The Volturi obviously knew about it but as long as Kane wasn't trying to get any of their precious power they didn't have anything against him. What other vampire lords did, for example the famous Darius, was take their throne. This meant without him no political decisions were made. He was the Lord, than there was a small group of advisors, usually his guardians, and then a counsel. The counsel consisted of powerful, established vampires. It was usually those vampires who wanted to get rid of the Lord."

He became quiet for a minute and I soaked the information in.

"There aren't many large vampire covens because vampires are aggressive beings. We're selfish. We don't like being told what to do. Now imagine a government. Without intimidation it would be chaos. During Darius's time his system stayed together because his guardians had a firm hold on the whole counsel. The counsel was threatened and watched all the time. Without that Darius wouldn't have had time for anything else but protecting his own life from frequent assassination attempts. Now imagine you come out of nowhere and declare to the Volturi that you're their Queen and they have to do what you tell them to. Just envision their reaction. They'll be furious! They'll start planning your death before you get your name out! It will be a constant fight for your life."

I could feel myself getting nervous. Atticus was really driving his point home. I knew what it felt like, being on the run twenty four seven. I didn't want to be like that again…for my whole life.

I urged him to finish, "Is there something else?"

His brows furrowed in thought, "There is another option. It's risky but it kind of borrows from the other two. You organise a coming out gala. Everyone who's anyone is invited. You make yourself known, officially, to the Volturi and the rest of the community but you don't force them to serve under you. You would not command them but out of formality they would probably alert you of any important decisions anyway. This way they would not be intimidated by the fact that their power might be decreasing because it won't. You'll simply say that a life of seclusion is not for you and that you want to be known of."

Thoughts were running through my head at the speed of light. Would that really work? Would I be satisfied with being a passive observer?

I didn't notice Atticus stand up. His fingers lightly touched my arm and I jumped. He smiled and motioned me to walk with him.

We started back in the direction of the castle. I pondered over my options and to my disappointment noticed that I seemed to be favouring the latter.

I groaned, I was too easy to persuade.

We made our way back in silence and Atticus opened to door for me. The moment I walked into the castle I was hit with anger, panic and confusion all at once.

I could see Dee opening her mouth but I quickly silenced her. I did not want to hear any more begging or accusations.

My eyes scanned them over and I simply stated more to Atticus then anyone else, "Fine, I'll go with option three."

His smile grew which was quite the contrast to the other's confused faces. I left him to do the explanations and fled the scene.

The library waited for me.