Huilen and Nahuel's stories are also truncated. Please refer to Breaking Dawn.

"Get ready. It's starting," Mama said. They were hitting her shield.

"Chelsea is trying to break our bindings," Edward informed us. "But she can't find them. She can't feel us here." I sat up smiling, thinking of Mama shielding ALL of us. "Are you doing that?"

She grinned at Edward. "I am all over this."

I saw my father reach for Carlisle. "Carlisle? Are you all right?"

"Yes. Why?"

"Jane," was his answer. She would never get through my Mama's shield. My pride in my mother was ready to burst. I tried to imagine Mama's shield for Jacob. Did he understand just how wonderful, special and strong she was? We would last this final minute. I was sure.

"Incredible," I heard my father whisper and wondered what they were trying now.

I listened to my father explain to Tanya that the Volturi often incapacitated those on trial to prevent escape.

A snarl came from the middle of the clearing. It sounded feminine, likely Jane. My Mama is stronger than you! I thought happily. My father and the Romanians snickered. "Just look at the witch's face." Stephan laughed.

Mama was suddenly wary. They must be trying something new.

"Are you okay?" she asked my father.

"Yes."

"Is Alec trying?"

He answered with a nod, "His gift is slower than Jane's. It creeps. It will touch us in a few seconds." I held my breath.

There was a rumbling under Jacob's paws and the wind swirled up snow. Benjamin was putting up his own defense, trying to blow whatever Alec was sending away. Seeing the snow swirling I could make out a distortion in the light. Like looking through flawed glass. Only it was moving toward us. That was what Benjamin had aimed at. Sadly, his winds were ineffective.

The ancients hadn't moved before, but now they broke apart. Benjamin had opened a rift in the center of the clearing. I looked at the gaping hole in surprise; the snow was falling into it. Benjamin was stronger than I had imagined. The distortion was unaffected and drifted across the opening, floating it seemed. Everyone held their breath as the wave to crashed over us. But it didn't. It hit Mama's shield and flowed over and around us instead. Now I could see Mama's shield, how carefully she had fitted it to each of us. The distortion filled the space between myself and my parents. Mama had truly discovered the nature of her shield, she had made it more supple and pliable than I had dreamed it could be. It was so precise. And so strong!

"I'm going to have to concentrate," she was reminding my father. "When it comes to hand to hand, it's going to be harder to shield the right people." It wasn't going to come to that. Not anymore. You stopped them again. They are afraid of you, Mama.

"I'll have to keep them off you," he declared as though it were obvious.

"No," she argued. "You have to get Demetri. Zafrina will keep them away from me."

My friend nodded. "No one will touch this young one."

"I'd go after Jane and Alec myself," Mama offered, "but I can do more good here." Don't even think of it, Mama. We need you here, doing this. This is why we pushed you, why you had to learn so fast. Not combat, your shield.

I listened half laughing as my friends chose partners in the deadly dance to come. Kate claimed Jane. Vladimir wanted Alec. Tanya planned to go for Caius. My father was still taking Demetri. Emmett wanted Felix; that would be an interesting one to watch, but I was glad it wasn't going to come to that. Alice should be in Edward's range any second.

"Before we vote," Aro said calmly, though he must be uncomfortable that we were all still listening. "Let me remind you, whatever the council's decision, there need be no violence here."

My father laughed. It frightened me. The menace in it was so clear.

"It will be a regrettable waste to our kind to lose any of you. But you especially, young Edward, and your newborn mate." A new terrible thought hit me. My mother and father killing one another to prevent either falling into their hands. I knew in an instant they were capable of it. I sent the image to Jacob hoping he could deny it. He just whined.

"Let us vote then," Aro declared.

Caius spoke first, "The child is an unknown quantity. There is no reason to allow such a risk to exist. It must be destroyed, along with all who protect it." His answer was no surprise at all. Yet I couldn't hate him as much as Aro in that moment. He was honest.

"I see no immediate danger," Marcus said, surprisingly rational. He had been so quiet I hadn't really noticed him before. Would he be the voice of reason in all this madness? "The child is safe enough now. We can always reevaluate later. Let us leave in peace." His words echoed the thoughts of the circle earlier.

"I must make the deciding vote, it seems," Aro said. Well, so much for reason winning out. Except that we had one more ace to play, and she was late.

"Yes!" my father whispered loudly. I smiled broadly and sat straighter on Jacob's back sending him the image I'd been holding back for what seemed a very long time. Kachiri and Alice bringing someone with them. Someone who would help us.

"Aro?" my father called now.

"Yes, Edward? You have something further?"

"Perhaps. First, if I could clarify one point." I listened attentively. This would tell me what Alice had brought, who Alice had brought.

"The danger you foresee from my daughter, this stems entirely from our inability to guess how she will develop?" Really? I thought. Someone like me?

"Yes, friend Edward. If we could but be positive, be sure that, as she grows, she will be able to stay concealed in the human world," Aro was hedging and my excitement made it problematic to listen to him.

"So if we could only know for sure exactly what she will become, then there would be no need for a council at all?" I was able to focus on my father's clear voice.

"If there was some way to be absolutely sure. Then, yes, there would be no question to debate."

Then my father tried to gain assurance. "And we could depart in peace, good friends once again." Sarcasm, perfectly executed. We would never be friends with these monsters.

"Of course."

"Then I do have something more to offer," my father announced with a chuckle.

Aro was troubled by this. "She is absolutely unique. Her future can only be guessed at."

"Not absolutely unique," my father argued and my grin widened as I stared Aro down myself. "Rare certainly, but not one of a kind."

There was a slight pause and my father asked, "Aro, would you ask Jane to stop attacking my wife? We are still discussing evidence." I tried not to glare at the woman and her brother at the front of the guard.

"Why don't you join us, Alice?" my father called, and I laughed.

"Alice," I heard whispered all around me. Only Zafrina and Senna were silent and grinning as I was.

Alice danced toward us from behind, Jasper her constant shadow. How long since I had seen her last? How many days? weeks? She was followed by Kachiri, who I recognized instantly. I smiled at her and she caught my eye to smile back. Two more came next. Two? I thought. One was obviously a vampire. Her coloring similar to my wild friends'. The other was a man. His skin was dark and his eyes, warm brown. Not a vampire to be sure; he was the one like me.

Alice jumped over the distortion and came under Mama's shield. She stood in the middle of our family. I couldn't reach from Jacob but was glad to see my grandparents and parents resting hands on her.

My father was disturbed by the thoughts coming from the guard. Of course, they now knew Mama's shield wasn't tangible; they could pass through it. He began explaining again, "Alice has been searching for her own witnesses these last weeks. And she does not come back empty handed."

I let relief spread through me as Alice introduced Huilen and Nahuel.

Kachiri laid her hand on Huilen's shoulder to answer Aro's command to bear witness. Now we would all understand her Portuguese. She told of her sister, Pire, who like Mama, loved the baby she bore a demon angel, vampire, enough to endure pain and death. Pire had named Nahuel before his birth and died in the process. Just as Mama would have without my father's extraordinary intervention. Pire, on her deathbed, begged Huilen to care for Nahuel, and she could not refuse. However, his bite was venomous and Huilen was converted in his first days, just as Mama was in mine.

It was Nahuel who made the decision to come. He wanted to meet me. He was one hundred and fifty years old. He had aged for seven years, at which point he reached adulthood.

I wasn't going to die, not soon anyway. It seemed impossible to process the idea. Once I had I was filled with joy. I was going to spend years with my family. Provided the Volturi saw reason and left.

"You were able to create an immortal?" Aro asked, seeking confirmation.

"Yes, but none of the rest of us can." Now I was as surprised as the others, though once more Senna and Zafrina were aware of this information.

"The rest?" Aro voiced the question aloud.

"My sisters," Nahuel shrugged. At Aro's prompting Nahuel told of his father, whom he obviously despised, named Joham, who was trying to create a super-race. Breeding. Disgusting. I understood Nahuel's distaste in this part of his heritage.

"Is your daughter venomous?" Caius asked.

"No," Mama answered. Nahuel had sisters. Were females of our kind... our kind, I had a kind!... normally not venomous, was that a male trait? Did Nahuel or his sisters have any children? Were they still aging, just too slowly to notice? I had so many questions for him now.

Caius still wanted his fight, "We take care of the aberration here, and then follow it south." What danger could he possibly claim I posed now? Obviously I would continue to pass as human, in fact, in six years I would be exactly as risky as my parents, less so.

Aro knew this, he also knew that Mama's shield took away their advantage. This would be at the best an even fight, at the worst, we would blind and slaughter them.

"Brother," he told Caius. "There appears to be no danger. This is an unusual development but I see no threat." Victory!

"Is that your vote?" Caius spat.

"It is."

"And this Joham? This immortal so fond of experimentation?" I would not be sad if they chased him down and eliminated him. Condemning healthy, loving women to death.

"Perhaps we should speak with him," Aro agreed.

"Stop Joham if you will, but leave my sisters be." Nahuel wasted no love on his father, but he was right, his sisters were no more dangerous than I.

"Dear ones," Aro said facing his guard. "We do not fight today."

I was probably alone, but I cheered quietly. I saw Alice bouncing; no, I wasn't alone.

"I'm so glad this could be resolved without violence," Aro crooned to my grandfather. "I hope there are no hard feelings. I know you understand the strict burden that our duty places on our shoulders." His lies were so acidic.

"Leave in peace, Aro," Carlisle commanded. "Please remember that we still have our anonymity to protect here, and keep your guard from hunting in this region."

The wolves probably hoped they would split up and try. I hoped they didn't, they might find Jane or Alec instead of Demetri or Felix.

"Of course Carlisle. I am sorry to earn your disapproval, my dear friend," and that was likely true. He would rather have Carlisle available for his use. "Perhaps in time you will forgive me."

Not this century, I thought. "Perhaps, in time," my grandfather answered, much more diplomatic than I, "if you prove a friend to us again."

No one moved until the last of the guard were hidden by the trees.

Then everyone seemed to breathe for the first time.

Mama broke the silence, "Is it really over?" she asked.

My father's smile was broad and warm and full of victory, "Yes. They've given up. Like all bullies, they're cowards underneath the swagger." He laughed, and I laughed too.

Alice joined us and added her own assurance, "Seriously, people. They're not coming back. Everybody can relax now."

Still there was no sound but our few giggles.

"Of all the rotten luck," this time it was Stefan who spoke in the quiet. I laughed louder.

Unable to bear the goodbyes, I was happy to examine all my friends show their signs of love and relief. I made sure to pass Jacob my own expression of gratitude and happiness. Rosalie and Emmett were kissing, Carmen and Eleazar were squeezing each other tightly. Benjamin held Tia. Esme hugged Jasper and Alice. Garrett swung Kate in a circle and kissed her. I smiled smugly at that. My eyes rested on the circle, whole once more. I wondered idly if they'd still let me join them.

Mama practically climbed Jacob to reach me. As soon as I saw her coming I leaned to her with open arms. She squeezed me as tightly as Emmett had weeks ago, then my father was pressed against my back hugging us both. I wished there was a way to fit Jacob in this hug.

"Nessie, Nessie, Nessie," my mother was whispering. It was the first time she had used my beloved short name. Jacob laughed at her.

"I get to stay with you." It was a statement, not a question.

"Forever," Mama confirmed.

"Forever," my father echoed.

Then, as I'd always hoped they would again some day. They kissed over my head, passionately and fully. The warmth that shot through me was wonderful. It was the love that had created me; it was still strong and alive and wrapped around me. It was perfect.