I thought I'd point out how mean I am when it comes to titles...

Disclaimer - Stephanie Meyer owns the Twilight Saga. I only own Edward... what? I don't? God dammit.

"The first tip off was Felix," Dad pointed.

Him, Edward and I were all seated in the map room, recording all the past events that had gone on – particularly the ones the tipped us off about the rebels. Dad decided to leave Marcus and Caius out of our little meeting, for which I wasn't sure why.

I felt my back slouch at the mention of Felix. He always knew how to make things seem less terrifying. I knew that from experience when I was little.

I quickly changed the subject. "Then the newborn immortal child in the Amazon."

"That still doesn't make sense to me…" Edward said.

Dad looked up from his writing to Edward. "I have a feeling they wanted to confirm you, Edward. You said their coven was very intrigued to see you… maybe they were pursued afterwards for information after the rebels placed what they knew would lure us in, in their possession."

"Do you think they'd tell you if you gave them a call?" I asked. I didn't like the idea of the rebels wanting information on Edward. It made me uncomfortable. I wanted to know if my dad's "feeling" was correct or not.

Dad shook his head. "As far as I'm concerned the rebels could threaten them a lot more than we could. I've always thought of them as a peaceful coven and I don't want them in more trouble for it."

Now I saw perhaps why Marcus and Caius were not here. Caius would be down Dad's throat about now for ignoring the Amazon coven's involvement in the rebel's business. If not me – then Edward was much more level headed then someone like Caius.

"Then there was the plane crash. And Joshua." My fingers curled into the wooden table and when I felt my nails cutting into in surface I quickly pulled away. Joshua was a trader. He was supposed to be on the look-out when in reality, he took part in attempt of my death.

Dad nodded. "That was our first hint about James."

"Sorry, my mind was a little pre-occupied…" I muttered.

It was true. The minute Joshua said his name my mind shut down. I couldn't think straight. I just saw Edward kill him and that was it. I'd been trying to block out the interaction ever since, but it didn't fail to come up once and a while.

Dad ignored my comment, but Edward's hand reached for mine under the table.

"Michael is next. You found him in the city after he fed on that woman?"

I nodded.

"It wasn't too far from the castle," Edward added.

"Then the most recent is the school in Forks; you already know those details," I said.

I'd never felt so uncomfortable in this room before. Yes, I had to do the same thing after killing James, but this time was different. After I killed James, we knew it was all over. But now the future was unknown. "Can I leave?" I suddenly asked; like I wasn't in control of my voice. But after I said it, I knew why.

Edward looked like he was about to get up and leave with me, but I stopped him. "No, you two keep… you know," I gestured to the book Dad was writing in. "I'll just– be around."

My dad and Edward were silent as I left the room. I wasn't really sure where I was going but it didn't take long for me to be out of the castle and in town.

I wondered if my brain was trying to tell me that I didn't want to be part of the castle anymore. But that couldn't be true, could it? Maybe my dad should've kept everything from me. Maybe the secrets would've kept my brain safe, they would've kept it from all this spinning, all the wondering.

I stopped myself. No. I wanted to know all the details.

Then, for one spilt second, I saw everything from Alice's perspective. Alice could easily see the futures of Edward and I. So what would happen if she saw something she didn't like and there was no way to prevent it? She didn't want anything to do with what was going on. She was trying to protect herself – even if turning off her visions was impossible.

So then the next fact confused me; when we got into that fight, just as I was leaving she muttered "I may not be on the guard, but you bet I'm going to protect my family."

How did she plan on protecting Edward by keeping herself safe?

How did I plan on fighting when I couldn't take the facts? The secrets?

I already knew the answer. I was going to have to take the bull by the horns, look the enemy straight in the eye and tackle it. The answer completely contradicted the question; I was going to have to listen to the facts and the secrets and store them in my brain to fight and I couldn't let them bother me.

I believed in my guard. We were strong... even with a few setbacks. If we trained and faced the facts, we could win, we could survive, and we'd all be safe.

Once it was all over, my brain could finally be safe.

A bell rung throughout the cool air and my eyes focused on the church. I was standing a few yards away from it.

It made me wonder if maybe my parents went to this church, if they took me here once.

But as the last bell tone rung, my mind took on a whole new problem. The doors opened and people swarmed out and lined themselves up on either side of the door.

The church bells were wedding bells. And soon a handsome man and a beautiful woman were running out the doors, hands linked together, laughing as their friends and family showered them in rice. The people in town clapped as they watched the happy couple make their way to the car and I found myself clapping along with them. My eyes stung and I instantly thought of Edward.

I still felt terrible and embarrassed for saying no. My reasoning behind my answer remained the same but my heart still ached to say yes. And watching this happy couple made me want the same for Edward and I. But there was no way we could ever have that. We weren't human, and that was the bottom line. We weren't human and we didn't even live normal vampire lives.

One day, though. One day we will get married.

"Her dress was beautiful," Alice's voice came from beside me. She hadn't been there for long, but long enough.

"It was," I agreed.

"You want one like that?" she asked – obviously knowing about Edward's attempted proposal.

"I prefer something simpler."

"Why did you say no?" Alice suddenly asked. "I didn't see that part."

I swallowed hard. "I love Edward more than anything in the world. But I'm not stupid."

She looked at me questioningly.

I continued. "With all the drama going on, plus an oncoming threat, I'm not going to break a promise. And even if we get married in these next three weeks, I don't want a wedding stuck in the middle of all this grief and drama. It's supposed to be happy." I thought of how happy everyone was at the wedding that just took place in front of me.

Her eyes widened a bit with understanding. "You don't think you'll survive." It wasn't a question.

"Not necessarily, but anything could happen."

A silence fell between us before I asked, "How did you know I'd be here? I didn't even know I'd be here."

She smiled a a bit and shrugged. "I guessed."

I smiled back and it reminded me of something I'd wanted to say to her. "Thanks for giving us a time zone, by the way."

Her smiled disappeared and I regretted bringing up the topic. "I've been miserable."

I shrugged. "I know why. I understand why. That doesn't mean I like why, but you get the picture," I told her. It was true. I saw why Alice didn't want anything to do with us, but the question of what her plans were still took residence in my brain.

"You haven't figured it all out yet though…" Alice pointed out.

Her words confirmed my suspicions.

"Edward's a little worried, by the way. Aro's not."

"You talked to him?" I asked.

"No, I just eavesdrop a lot."

I almost laughed. "Are you gonna talk to him?"

She shrugged. "I haven't planned on it yet."

"You should," I told her honestly. "He hasn't mentioned it yet, but I know he hates not having everyone's approval." I saw it every day in Edward's face. I knew he was keeping it all together for my sake. Because of my fragile state… but that was about to change.

I eventually made it back to the castle, where I went straight to our room and Edward pulled me into his arms.

That's when I told him everything. I told him what I thought about my decision to stop myself from letting everything take over my brain. Then he kissed me for a long time.

Afterwards we just lay in our room together. Occasionally bringing up small topics that didn't mean much but then silence went on for a while. The tension in the air grew thick and I knew we were both thinking the same thing.

I finally broke the silence. "Do you want to talk about it?"

He shook his head."Not particularly."

Of course he didn't. He even tried to hide how much he hated the break in his relationship with Alice. But he had to get it out sometime, so I did something I knew I shouldn't; I started pushing him. "Are you scared?" I asked.

He just shrugged.

I sighed.

"How would anyone have any idea of what could happen afterwards?" He said it so quietly, I barely heard it. "Not even Alice could determine that."

"You know she has something up her sleeve, right?"

He spoke with a louder voice now. "I'd know better than anyone."

"So what do we do?"

He sighed. "We have to get her back on our side. We– I don't–" he broke off and squeezed his eyes shut before restarting. "I don't want this for either us."

I couldn't stand seeing him like this and wrapped my arms around his waist. His head fell into my neck and his arms wrapped around my shoulders. "I'm sorry, Edward. I'm sorry I ever brought you here. I never thought this would happen."

"I'm not sorry. Neither of us knew she was going to react like that." He lifted his head and rested his forehead against mine. "It doesn't change that fact that I'm glad I came."

I smiled. "As much as I love having you here, I hate that you're involved in this mess."

"Hey," the corners of his mouth turned up a bit, "we're mates right? Both of us or not at all."

A/N - Basically a filler chapter. Hello to all my new readers! There's been a lot of activity over on Ignite lately! New chapter next week!