A/N: Sorry about the cliff hanger in Chapter 11 guys, some people were confused. Caius IS dead, I repeat, Caius IS dead. Also, I'm sorry about the slightly cheesy dialogue in this chapter, I'm not very good at eloquent speeches, so just bear with it.

Chapter 12:

Or so I thought. His scent was off, as if it was comprised of the same little hints of decomposition and malice, if malice could have its own odour, combined in a different way. And there were other slight differences, the pure white hair reached further down, his eyes were also missing that milky texture, the red shone through as clear as day as he glared at Carlisle. He sure looked a lot like Caius, sounded like him too; he must be at least related to him.

'And who are you?' asked Carlisle, braced against the hostility coming towards him in waves from this stranger, but still keeping his calm façade.

'I am Vasilios, brother of Caius of Volterra' his brassy voice rang out, so I was right, there was a relation. I hadn't ever heard of a brother though, judging by the shocked stares of the audience, neither had anyone else gathered here. Why would Caius hide his brother, did he foresee that one day the Volturi would be dead, and keep his existence secret so that he could survive the battle and claim power? I had no idea what this man wanted, judging by the hatred in his gaze and his pompous manner I didn't think he was here to talk knitting patterns; I glared at him as his creaking voice continued. 'It is my birth right to take my place and rule our kind, but your perverted ways have made a mockery of vampires, the mere presence of these worthless dogs' he said gesturing at Jacob and Sam who snarled, 'is enough to warrant slaughtering you where you stand… and then there's the half breed' he hissed and Nahuel straightened himself up, ready to defend against a physical attack, 'this mutant shouldn't even be alive, I can see why my brother was right in wanting to annihilate that disgusting female your son created' this last statement received outrageous hisses from everyone, especially Edward and I.

'Your brother was wrong!' a tall woman, with hair so blonde it was almost white, yelled from the back, her bronze eyes burning with fury. It looked like one of the Volturi witnesses, judging from her eyes she had recently taken up the vegetarian lifestyle, I thought as I watched her glare at Vasilios. 'Him and those pigs that called themselves our rulers were intent on killing an innocent child, all in the quest for power. We all saw it, and those of us who didn't, have heard the stories of her innocence and this family's kindness, this is why we wish for them to rule us. I'd rather someone as compassionate as the Cullens, who are willing to hear my voice, than have it drowned out by your delusions of grandeur and ignorant hatred. The wolves have fought time and time again alongside the Cullens, they are allies and the hybrids are part of our kind, they do not deserve to be judged by you!' The witness growled, glaring at Vasilios whose lip was curled up in distaste, clearly enraged by being talked down to.

'I agree with Violet!' A tall, blonde nomad I had never seen before said as he stood up, 'I was hunted by your brother and his guards, intent on forcing me to join them. I had lost many friends to their endless pursuit of power before the Cullens and their allies did us all a favour and removed their presence from this earth. If you do not believe me than I will show you that every single person here felt nothing but fear and hatred towards the Volturi.' He said and looked around at the rest of the audience, 'I will ask any person who has ever lost a loved one at the hands of the Volturi and their so called justice…' he said, spitting out the words, 'to stand up now against this bigoted swine', he looked around and one by one, vampires across the room began to stand with him. Each person showing that they had lost a loved one to the Volturi, their faces flushed with emotion ranging from sorrow and grief to pure rage. I saw Kate and Tanya stand up, holding hands. They were still grieving for Irina and Garrett, Carmen and Eleazar joined them. In what seemed like hours but was more likely only a few seconds, three quarters of the entire crowd all stood to face Vasilios. 'As you can see you ignorant pig, no one here wants to be ruled by the likes of you' he spat and Vasilios snarled at him, the nomad didn't waver though, confident in the overwhelming presence of those around him who were now standing against Vasilios.

The people standing were only a small percentage of the vampire population; every last one had lost a loved one to the Volturi. If it was any indication of the carnage brought by the Volturi, then I had severely underestimated the amount of pain that they had caused, it made me sick to my stomach that they had been allowed to go on for so long. I could only wish that they had been destroyed years ago. Why hadn't anyone stood up to them before? Then I realised, most of these people probably had, that was most likely how they had lost the people they cared about. Any person who ever dared to go against them would have always been slaughtered on sight, or forced to join their ranks. All I could do now was take solace in the fact that they were dead and buried, the only remainder being the decrepit piece of trash that was standing in front of us now, a look of disbelief and repulsion causing his translucent skin to pulsate with anger.

One of the few vampires left sitting now stood up, I recognised him from the clearing, he was originally one of the Volturi witnesses who had helped dispose of the Volturi's remains. His slightly wavy chestnut hair was tied back at the nape of his neck in a manner that reminded me of a handsome pirate. His clothes bore the typical eclectic fashion of someone who spent their life wandering from place to place. I hadn't had a chance to meet him at the clearing, because he had left soon after the battle ended, but I wondered what he was going to say. I feared that he would stand up for Vasilio, though he didn't have the look of cruelty about him, he looked more caring than the average vampire, the light of compassion burning in his golden eyes.

'I too was there that day; I was initially called upon to witness the destruction of an immortal child. But when I got there, I saw the purity of the little one and knew her to be innocent, and not a monster as your brother claimed. Likewise, I could see the purity of this coven and their allies, every last one of them held more kindness in their souls than I had ever seen in my life as a vampire. When they thought against the Volturi, my gift allowed me to see the true justice in their actions, for my power allows me to see the deepest feelings of the heart.' So his gift was similar to Jasper's I thought, except instead of everyday emotions, he appeared to see the deeper feelings that most of us never really thought about, but were always there in all our actions. I understood now the reason behind his living by the vegetarian lifestyle; some of the vampires were introduced to it by people like the Cullens. Others had decided to make the change following the battle, their eyes were now bronze in colour, signifying the recent change in diet. A rare few though, chose the life style on their own accord, without any prompting from anyone else. I figured that someone who could feel the love or pain of their victim would have a very difficult time taking their lives.

'Even though they were angry, I witnessed that they had the purest of intents, all they wished was to end the suffering that the Volturi had caused, and protect those that they loved. I have seen many people fight in my long life, and it has always been for money, power, hatred, prejudice or just plain cruelty. With the Volturi it was all of those impurities that I saw in their blackened hearts. But then I saw their opponents, the Cullens, fighting just as fiercely, but with such contrasting emotions. Inside them I felt a little hatred to be sure, for who could blame them for hating the people responsible for trying to murder their loved ones. But their anger was rooted by a deeper desire to protect, to love and to prevent any pain from further tearing our kind apart. I doubt they would have felt all of these emotions running through them, but I did. I could feel their determination, their wish to end the suffering caused by the Volturi, shining through in their actions and it made me hate myself for believing the lies that your brother span against them.'

'I am asking you all now to believe me when I say that this family and their allies, the wolves, are the purest of hearts I have ever met. Such darkness and impurity that dwells within this beast, Visilios, and his mate who is still hiding over there…' he pointed to a woman with dark wiry hair and a pointed face who scowled and stalked over to Visilios' side, '…could never dream of tainting the compassion of this family. Now who here agrees with me, that this disgrace to our kind should crawl back to wherever he came from, taking his narrow-minded views and delusional hatred, along with him?'

Again, vampires began to stand; those who weren't already standing were up in a second. Before long, there wasn't a single person sitting as they all stood against Vasilios. The pale vampire and his haggard mate began to retreat, anger still burning in their eyes but they knew that they had been beaten. They had obviously come expecting us all to automatically bow down to his claim of power, but now the realisation had hit him that no one wanted his warped leadership. His body shook with restrained fury and disbelief as he and his mate left the lecture theatre to the sound of hisses from everyone in the audience.

'Whatever happened to vampirism making you beautiful, it looks like it had the opposite effect on her' said Sam, causing everyone to laugh and the subject of his scrutiny to growl from the hallway. 'This isn't over, Cullens' said Visilios, 'I'll take my rightful place, and then your whole family will be dead' he smirked from the doorway before he disappeared, silence rang out and we all waited to see if Carlisle would respond.

'Okay then' Carlisle said, 'where were we?'

Once everyone got settled down, Carlisle was able to answer the remaining questions, most of them about the pack or Nahuel and my daughter which was to be expected. Everyone had pretty much gotten past Vasilios' little power play and where focused on the meeting once again as Carlisle explained how the wolves were our 'supernatural brothers' and how when we live in a world full of myths and magic we needed to support others of our world. I was worried that they would discriminate against Sam and Jake, especially with the way they smelt to us, but the main response was curiosity. After the confrontation with Vasilios and his mate, and the ensuing show of solidarity, the atmosphere had become a lot less formal. Instead of straight question asking from the audience, they were watching in awe as Jacob described the process of phasing and how the gene was activated.

'Can we see?' the pretty vampire next to Anthony asked, immediately slapping her hand over her mouth in embarrassment, Anthony laughed and nudged her slightly, causing her to smile faintly back. Jacob looked to Carlisle shrugging, I knew he didn't have a problem with phasing but he wanted to make sure that it wouldn't panic anyone. Carlisle glanced at Edward who nodded slightly, a small smile spreading across his lips as he placed his hands behind his head and leant back in his seat.

'Okay guys' Jacob's deep voice rang out and everyone sat on the edges of their seats, awaiting the demonstration. I chuckled at the image of so many vampires, most of them several hundred years old at least, acting like a bunch of children eagerly watching a magic show. 'I'm gonna stand behind…this' he said pulling forward a rolling chalk board, 'not that I don't like you guys but I don't really fancy getting naked in front of so many blood suckers' he grinned and a ripple of laughter ran out at the use of his pet name for vampires, he stood behind the board and a couple of people raised their eyebrows as he chucked his clothes, piece by piece out in some sort of bizarre strip tease, all he needed was a smoke machine and some stage lighting to make the effect complete. Done stripping, he tipped the board down slightly so that they could see his upper body and feet but not the…private part of him, I raised my eyebrow at his showman ship and he shot me a wink, that type of exchange would have caused Edward to growl in the past, but since the imprint there hadn't been any sexual tension between us, so he just smiled and rolled his eyes at Jake instead.

'Just do it already Jake' Sam sighed, moving back slightly to give him some room.

'Okay. One…two…three' Jake said and then his whole body began to shake.

The energy and heat rolling off him caused several vampires near the front to shift backwards whilst they watched with awed expressions. In a matter of seconds his whole body erupted outwards, his form morphed from human, into a giant russet coloured wolf, his huge dark eyes took in the shocked gazes of the audience and his lips turned up in a wolfy grin as he gently padded out from behind the chalk board, careful not to make too sudden a movement in case he startled any of them. A lot of the people had seen the wolf forms of the Quileutes during the battle, but none of them had witnessed the actual transformation from human to wolf. I stood up and walked over to Jake, standing by his side and placing my hand in his fur and scratching him where I knew it tickled. He made a few huffs and let out a soft wolf-like purr, leaning into it and I chuckled. I know it must have looked odd for me to do this in front of a room full of vampires, but I had a feeling it would help them shake off the shock and fear. Many of them had heard of werewolves being uncontrollable and animalistic in their wolf forms so I felt like I needed to show them how the Quileute shifters were nothing like the insane werewolves that would kill without question. A few titters of laughter rolled outward from the crowd as their wariness wore off and they relaxed back into their seats, twisting around as Jake jogged up the stairs at one side of the hall, across the back and down the other side, finally pacing up the middle aisle, letting the occasional brave vampire reach out and touch him as if they were unsure he wasn't an illusion. He circled round and stepped back behind the board as Sam held it upright, a look of amusement on his face, probably at the bizarre image of Jake being petted by their ex-enemies. I had to agree with him, it was a very surreal experience indeed. Jake emerged a minute later with his clothes back on and a smirk spread across his face as he sat back down next to Sam.

Now that the show and tell was over, everyone settled, though a buzz was ringing in the air as people murmured about Nahuel and the wolves. I knew we were going to be electing the ten people chosen to be pretty much in charge of the vampires shortly. I originally thought that ten was too little but then I realised that there were a lot less vampires than humans, besides, the way that Carlisle had described it to me when he first thought of the idea, was that they would just be the ten people on top, apparently it was up to everyone to protect our kind and he thought that having 'representatives', as he had called them, would give the general population someone to defer to when they needed, but for the most part he envisioned a sort of network of vampires, all connected and allied with one another. It was time to decide on who would be filling the roles of the central pieces of the network. Jasper sent a wave of gentle calm over the audience to settle their excitement and everyone immediately sobered, waiting for Carlisle to speak.

'As I mentioned earlier, we need to decide who's going to be our ten choices for…does anyone have idea what we should call them?' He asked the crowd

'Well they're kind of like our supervisors, you know, who we report to if we have a problem so maybe that' piped up a pixie like blonde in the third row.

'Nah we should call them the legendary guardians of our race' grinned Garrett causing Kate to elbow him in the ribs, rolling her eyes.

'Hmmm, how about we call it a committee, because that's sort of what it is, like with the human politics except maybe a bit less ridiculous' said Siobhan.

'That sounds good' agreed one of the nomads from near the back while everyone murmured in agreement.

'So that's settled' said Carlisle, 'we'll call this whole thing a committee, at least that's less formal than legendary guardians' he chuckled, raising his eyebrow at Garrett. 'These ten members will then be charged with the duty of both protecting our kind and offering guidance, as well enforcing when need be' he continued as everyone nodded.

'After we have the nominees, you will all write out on a piece of paper which people you think would best fit the roles, and then place that paper in this box' Edward said, picking up a box from under the desk that had a little slit in it, 'I have a psychic sister and she told me we'd be doing it this way' he laughed.

'How do we decide who the nominees are?' the girl, Violet, asked and Carlisle tapped his chin pensively.

'You can nominate anyone here that you believe have the qualities that would fit the job, or you can nominate yourselves' he answered and Violet nodded her head in understanding, 'so who's first?' he asked, the question was immediately followed by an explosion of shouts from the audience and he had to hold his hands up to get their attention. 'One at a time please, okay…Peter' he said, gesturing to Peter who smiled and stood up, holding onto Charlotte's hand.

'I think that Thomas should be a member of the council' Peter said and the handsome pirate man, as I had nick named him, that had spoken against Visilio earlier, snapped his head around in shock.

'What?' he gasped, raising his eyebrows at Peter, who smiled back at him.

'I think he'd be perfect' added Charlotte, 'with his ability he will be able to see whether a vampire is truly evil if they are being coerced into committing evil acts against their will. If they want to change their ways then he will be able to sense it and we can save them from themselves. Plus he's a good person and he speaks the truth, he would be a good addition.' I could tell the vampire named Thomas was about to disagree when a large portion of the crowd murmured their agreement with what Charlotte had said.

'Thomas?' Carlisle asked, looking to him, 'you can refuse if you wish but I happen to agree with everyone else, I think you would be a credit to our kind in this role'.

'That doesn't matter Thomas' Edward answered an unspoken thought, 'you're worried that no one will trust your authority if you're a nomad, but you're forgetting that a good percentage of those here are themselves nomads. They all seem to think you'll be fine, and as you can see, those in the covens also think you would be good as a council member'.

'Well that was my basic concern, well that and being inexperienced at fighting, but I can always learn. So…okay, I accept the nomination' Thomas sighed, rolling his eyes and shooting Peter an exasperated look, Peter just smirked back at him.

After that they came in quick succession, soon we had a list of twenty including Tanya, Carlisle, Jasper, Edward, me, Peter, Thomas, Siobhan, Maggie, Eleazar, the pretty vampire next to Anthony who was named Paige, as well as the tall blonde vampire who had spoken up against Vasilios named Oliver, who was apparently a tracker. Kate was also nominated, much to her own embarrassment, a man named Oscar and his mate were also nominated and finally several members of the nomads. We all had a vote, even Sam and Jacob, which I thought was odd because this was the vampire council, but people seemed to want their input anyway so we figured it couldn't hurt. Once all the votes were in which only took about thirty seconds because of vampire speed, they were counted by three different people who were picked at random to make sure it was fair, not that anyone would really cheat, but you never knew. Either way, we finally had our ten.

I was nervous about the outcome, I would have liked to be chosen, if only so I could help people but I didn't like to do things without Edward, I knew he'd get voted in though, on account of his mind reading being so useful. I was just hoping that I would be able to stand by his side. Imogen, the vampire who had asked the first question earlier stood up, ready to announce the final count and we all waited in rapt silence, waiting to hear who we'd all decided on.

'I'm not reading these in any particular order so nobody really knows who got how many votes, so here goes; we have Eleazar of the Danali coven. The nomad known as Paige Claremont. Carlisle of the Olympic or Cullen coven as well as his son Edward and his mate Bella. Violet, formally of the Aurora coven. Maggie of the Irish coven. Jasper, also of the Cullen coven. Oliver, formally of the Solano Coven and finally Thomas, the nomad' she read aloud and gestured at the ten people who had stood upon hearing their names; myself, Jasper, Edward and Carlisle included. 'These people have all been chosen for their gifts, compassion, experience and readiness to protect those that need protection whilst defending against those who would harm us. In all it seems like an awesome bunch' she smiled and sat back down while a murmur of excitement rippled through the sitting vampires, followed by a small spurt of applause.

The meeting was pretty much finished after that, everyone was milling around in small groups, talking. Some of the nominated council members had agreed to come and stay with us for a couple of weeks. Much to my annoyance Tanya was going to be coming back with Eleazar and Carmen, whilst Kate and Garrett went to go visit some of his old Nomad friends. Maggie was heading back with her coven but she promised to be in contact with Carlisle soon. We still had Violet, Paige, Thomas and Oliver coming back with us, which took some of the sting out of having to deal with Tanya's obsession with Edward. I watched thoughtfully as she kept shooting glances at Oliver, who was talking with Paige and Anthony, and a small spark of hope flared to life in me. I'd never seen her pay much attention to men, no matter how attractive they were. She was usually too busy trying to cosy up to Edward, but now that I watched her, I noticed the way her whole body language was focused towards Oliver, as if a magnet were pulling her towards him. I smiled to myself as I watched him notice her presence, stopping mid speech to lock gazes with her.

'Why do you look so smug? It's kind of scary' Jake asked, coming over and looking in the direction I was staring and spotting Tanya. 'You haven't done anything have you, like planted a bomb in her car or something? I know you don't like her, I don't either, but that's too far Bells' he grinned, nudging me and I laughed.

'I'm happy because I think she's just found her other half' I grinned and he looked confused.

'Wait, I thought you didn't like her' he mumbled, trying to figure out why seeing Tanya happy would cause me pleasure. It wasn't like I wanted her to be miserable, I just wanted her attention focused on someone other than my husband, and it just happened that finding a mate would do the trick. Beyond my annoyance at her though, I did want her happy. Partly because Edward cared about her but also because, despite her bitchiness, she had been through a lot recently and she deserved happiness, especially if that happiness made her stop trying to get Edward into bed. It was a win win situation in my mind.

'If she's found her mate Jake, then she won't be after Edward anymore you idiot. Plus she's not all that bad, just a huge ho. Which will change if she finds her own person to rub up on, preferably one not married to me' I whispered so Edward couldn't hear me and Jake nodded in understanding, winking at me.

'Want me to play cupid?' he asked and I looked at him questioningly, he just smirked and moved off towards Oliver, I watched worriedly as he tapped him on the shoulder and then beckoned for him to follow him, leading him towards Tanya who was trying to act nonchalant and failing dismally. A cold shiver ran down my spine, Jake was hardly subtle when it came to romance I thought, the human memory of him trying to kiss me and my punching him in the face coming to mind as I watched him move towards Tanya. Please let him just introduce them, please let him just introduce them, I chanted in my mind over and over again when he reached Tanya.

'Oliver this is Tanya, Tanya this is Oliver' he said and I sighed, good, now leave Jacob, don't do anything stupid. 'Me and Bella have been watching you and we're pretty sure you're soul mates, so please feel free to start rubbing up on each other' he grinned, winking as both Tanya and Oliver's eyes widened slightly and I thought the urge to groan. Tanya looked over at me, not with hatred but with curiosity, she actually seemed to be wanting to know if I had indeed seen the spark between them and I nodded, giving her a little smile of encouragement, ignoring Edward as he looked between us trying not to laugh. Jake came back over, a triumphant smile on his face and threw his arm over my shoulder.

'Am I or Am I not a miracle worker' he grinned and I elbowed him in the ribs.

'You're a moron that's what you are; you just made an ass out of yourself and embarrassed both of them in the process. You've probably made them feel awkward now' I hissed but he just wriggled his eyebrows at me.

'Then tell me dear Bella, what do you call that?' He asked, turning my head towards the corner of the room where Tanya and Oliver were sitting close to each other, sharing a whispered conversation and laughing quietly at each other's jokes, I could feel the heat between them from here and noticed Tanya give me a tiny thumbs up from behind her back. Well that worked fast. And I noticed how just being around Oliver had melted her icy exterior, she appeared to visibly mature from the bitchy person I'd gotten used to into a happy and friendly person before my eyes as she talked animatedly with Oliver. Maybe we could even be friends now. Not best friends by any stretch of the imagination, but definitely friendlier now that I didn't need to worry about her wanting Edward I thought. I smiled over at them and turned back to Jake.

'Fine, it worked. But it was fluke, you're still a moron though' I said laughing as Jake hugged me to his side.

'It's why you love me Bells' he grinned and I looked over at Edward who was smiling at us, I rolled my eyes nodding over from Jacob to where Tanya and Oliver were sitting and he laughed, shaking his head in amusement before turning to join in the conversation between Carlisle and Violet.

We didn't go back to the hotel; instead we headed to the airport. Carlisle had chartered a private plane this time, because of our extra guests, our group was a little too large to go unnoticed on a public airplane so we waited in the private hanger for our plane to arrive. Thomas was discussing training with Jasper; he wanted to improve his fighting skills and was worried that he wouldn't be any good. Jaz assured him that he and Emmett would be able to whip him into shape in no time, though I'm pretty sure that Thomas would regret his wish to train once he was subjugated to Emmett's method of fighting. Eleazar kept a keen eye on Paige, who was deep in conversation with Anthony, I supposed it must be something to do with a power because that was usually the only thing that would cause Eleazar to stare at someone. I looked forward to finding out what it was, I wondered if it had something to do with her hair, the scarlet waves were so unnaturally vibrant that they had to be caused by whatever mysterious power she had, I had never seen a vampire with hair so vivid a red.

'The plane is here' Carlisle said, walking in the door and we all stood up, ready to leave. I looked back over at Anthony, anticipation and excitement dancing in his eyes. In only a few hours we were going to be giving Rose the shock of her life I thought, smiling as we boarded the plane.