Nothing owned here

Some of you (including my betas) have been confused about the ages of everyone. Here they are!

Bella: 21 (human) 36 (vampire)

Edward: about 121

Guiseppe: 26 (kinda weird but Quil is older than Claire more than Guiseppe is with Sage)

Sage: 15

Avery: 15

Leone: 35

Alcee: 35 (she was 20 when she met Leone)

If I missed anyone, review me the missing person and I will inform you of their age on the next chapter. Thank you and enjoy (:

Nothing owned here.

When we last left off…

He was right, Edward admitted to himself. Even if they did escape, Demetri could find them where ever they went. They would find Guiseppe. Sage and Bella would be fine but what about everyone else. Demetri's power was too overpowering.

"Edward!" Both of the vampires turned their heads towards the voice that had called out. Jasper stood at the door of the dungeon, a sleek silver cell phone held in his right hand.

"Alice called and she has a plan."

Now

BPOV

"Cullen? As in Edward Cullen's sister?" Avery Anthony Cullen's eyes narrowed at the small form in front of him. He wanted to shut the door right into her face but before he could even reach for it, her tiny arm hit the door as if she predicted what he was planning.

The woman in front of him, Alice, sighed. "Yes, unfortunately. Let me tell you, though, it was not my idea. He did have good reasons for what he did even if they totally backfired."

Her words registered in Avery's mind but only added gasoline to his growing fire. "You're saying that it was a good thing that he left my mom? After what he called her? After he told her he disgusted her?"

Alice rolled her eyes. "If you want me to be truthful, the man who said those things was not Edward Cullen. Now may I please speak to your mother, we're wasting time."

Avery opened his mouth but I had already come up from behind him. I gently pushed him out of the door frame to get a better look at my sister. She was still my sister even after he had left. That did not change anything between us.

"Alice!" I threw my arms around her and I slightly felt a sense of déjà vu. Only, when I had hugged her like this before I had been very human.

"Bella! I'm so sorry about everything, I am going to explain." I nodded barely understanding her words. The sight of seeing her felt wonderful and tore into my heart at the same time.

"Yes of course. Let me finish making dinner for Avery and then we can talk." Alice nodded and followed me as I led her into my living room. She sat down on the couch and flipped through the channels as I went into the kitchen and began to finish the lasagna.

I heard Avery's breath and I turned to see him sitting on the counter.

"What have I told you about sitting on the counter? The area where I cook meals for people to eat?" I smirked and was satisfied when he jumped down.

He gave me a stern glance that reminded me all too much of him. "Why did you let her in?"

I turned back to check the lasagna in the oven and then turned back to Avery. "It isn't polite to speak about people when they can hear you, Avery."

"I don't care." His eyes were firm and waiting for an answer.

"She's my sister." I told him. "Here eat your salad so you get some vegetables today." He took the clear plastic bowl and fork I shoved at him filled with an uncomplicated assortment of greens.

Opening the refrigerator with his free hand, he grabbed the Italian dressing and poured a generous amount. He then sat leaned against the counter. "Yeah, but she left you."

"Yes, that's true." I reached into the oven and pulled out the glass pan that held the lasagna. The wave of heat warmed my face.

Avery sighed and discontinued the conversation. I used a spatula to cut the small pan of lasagna into six pieces. Maybe he could take eat some of this for lunch tomorrow. Knowing Avery, he would probably eat it for breakfast.

Scooping up the hot serving with the same spatula I sliced it with, I placed it on a paper plate and handed it to him.

"You can eat in the living room." I told him as I walked past to sit on a recliner across from my sister.

Alice flicked off the television with a flick of her fingers on the remote. "How have you been, Bella?"

I looked at her honestly curious face and sighed. "I have certainly been better. The pain is not as bad as the first time, because I have both Jake and Avery." I took a deep breath to try to stay calm. She had not even mentioned him and I was beginning to break down. "But it still hurts." I brought my knees up to my chest and rested my head on them, turning my body so that I had a full view of both Alice and Avery.

She nodded and moved the remote control onto the scratched up wooden coffee table. "You need to know the truth Bella. The man that you last saw, who you thought was Edward, was not him."

My face felt cold and I desperately tried to reign in the feelings of hope I felt. It was too early for that. "What? Then why hasn't he come back? Who was he?"

Alice relaxed on the couch and stretched her legs so that they barely reached the coffee table where she rested her feet; it was obvious she was getting ready for a long explanation. "A few days after we left you when Edward was turning back into a vampire, Edward left without a word to any of us when he had gone off hunting. A day later he called me." The mention of his name so many times made my chest ache but I waited for her to continue. I needed to know what had happened.

"He told me that he had made a deal with Aro."

"What?" My voice rang out interrupting her story. "He made a deal with the Volturi?"

Her head nodded and she pulled on a strand of hair anxiously. "Yes. When he had been hunting, Demetri, Jane, and a new member of the Volturi Guard found him. Jane had told the Volturi that you had not been changed so Demetri was sent to find Edward assuming that you would be with him."

My heart constricted at a sudden thought. "Did they hurt him?" If he had gotten hurt when they had been looking for me…

Relief spread through me at the sight of Alice shaking her head from side to side. "No, not as far as I know at least. Edward told them that he would go to be the Volturi Guard if they left you alone. None of the vampires that had been sent could strike such a deal so they took him to Aro. Edward was able to convince Aro to let him switch places with you if he was a Volturi Guard and if he never spoke to any of Carlisle's coven or you again. He was allowed one phone call to tell us that we were not allowed to speak to you.

"Edward made me promise not to come in contact with you because the Volturi Guard was very strong and they had Jane and Alec." Alice rolled her eyes at this point but I knew she still held fear of them. If she did not she would not have agreed to Edward's request. "I promised him that I would keep an eye on you and him even if I could not come into contact with either of you."

"A few months later I had a vision of you and Edward in the forest by Charlie's house. It was horrible and I absolutely hated Edward." I winced of my own memories and then reminded myself that Alice had said that it had not been Edward. "At the same time Edward had been in Volterra wondering the halls asking Aro for a favor about a werewolf. This conversation later helped me to understand why Edward's future would sometimes disappear but it told me that Edward was not the one who spoke to you that day in the forest.

"Continuing on, I was very happy to see you give birth. I am very sorry I was not there." Alice sent me a look of solemn regret and I nodded that it was fine, it was already done. "I saw your daughter being taken away. I saw her being treated and healed. She was perfectly fine." She began to shake her head. "Another doctor then took her away, pronouncing her dead to the others. He took her to a helicopter and told the driver 'Volterra'. He must have been part of the Volturi. When the vision began to end his features began to shift. It was very strange to watch." She nodded thoughtfully completely agreeing with her thoughts.

"My daughter is alive?" I could not help it; a gigantic grin broke out on my face. Despite the pain that was still in my heart I felt like something was better in this world.

Alice nodded. "Yes, but because she was not breastfed she developed less antibodies than normal children. She was around someone who had a cold. With fewer antibodies to fight it off she developed a cold which since left untreated, by the arrogant spokesperson for the Volturi Aro, developed further into pneumonia. Although there were able to get her to the hospital in time for her to live, she now has asthma. I will explain more about that in a moment."

It was almost too much to comprehend at one moment but I allowed Alice to continue. "I saw you get off at an airport in Portland two years later. The reason that woman turned down the taxi was because when she had turned to look at him his eyes were blood red and he was snarling at her with fangs. I suspect that the fangs were an added drama but there was not doubt that this was the shape shifting Volturi Guard that took your daughter. When you turned to look at him he hand changed fast enough for you to assume that he was a normal taxi driver."

"I saw the note that the Volturi left with you and understood that Aro never meant to keep his promise at all. He wanted all that he could get. He wanted Edward, you and both of your children." Alice scrunched up her nose and her eyebrows. "Horrible man."

Thoughts raced through my mind like electrons around a nucleus. "My daughter is in the Volturi castle." I could feel my own face contort into an expression of panic and worry. Vague memories came into my mind of Felix calling 'Dibs' on my blood, Jane torturing…Edward…for no reason but her own pleasure, the screams of their victims—

"Yes," I let out a strangled breath trying to keep the images at bay. "But there is good news." Alice quickly informed me. Avery began to stand to come to me. "Aro has your daughter well looked after. He gave her to a guard that he knew had the most self control and needed the most training. He named her Sage Marie Cullen."

"Edward," I breathed the name along with the air I had been holding in my lungs. The wind came out smooth from my mouth.

"Yes." Alice smiled. "He is such a good father; you should really see him in action." Alice smiled at a memory. "He never allows her to go off alone in the castle, always playing with her and spoiling her the only ways that he can." Suddenly, a shiver violently shook Alice's body and I was immediately tensed again, waiting for the terrible news.

"What happened, Alice?" I asked.

She looked at me warily, taking in my ragged emotional state. "I don't think that you should hear it. It may be too much of a shock."

I shook my head violently. "No, please Alice, I need to know."

Giving me a wary look she spoke in a hollow voice. "Edward told her about his past, she was thirteen. Sage saw how much it pained him to remember you so she decided to lighten the mood by offering to play hide and go seek since it was raining. They only play in the rain because it hides her scent, therefore Edward has no advantage. He began to count and she ran as fast as she could. Unfortunately she had forgotten her inhaler in her room and collapsed in a violent asthma attack." My nails were digging into the cloth of the arms.

"Mom, you need to relax. You are going to leave holes." Avery whispered and took my hands in his from his place sitting on the floor. I quickly took them back, afraid that I would crush his hands if I held them for comfort.

Alice gave me a cautious glance and continued only when I nodded fervently for her to go on. "Edward sent a friend of his to go get it. They were able to give it to her in time but Edward was very upset with her for forgetting her inhaler when he always reminded her and himself for allowing her to play the game."

She sighed but I found nothing wrong. It was only a scolding, how much harm could become of this? My grip on the armchair lessened.

"By the look on her face I judged that it was the first time Edward had really yelled at her. She yelled at him back saying-" She gave me a warning look. "Don't take this too hard but she told him 'You say that you would do anything for your love, but you will not even listen to her! You selfishly thought that she was not capable of loving you as much as you did for her, had it not occurred to you that it may be so? No.'" I winced. She was scolding him about me. Alice continued in a voice I guessed must be mimicking my daughter's. "'Perhaps I do not want you to approve of me, your standards and ideas are not excellent ones.'"

"That was where everything began to go wrong." Alice's face looked strained as she continued. "Sage went off alone to go find the woman who had replaced Gianna whom she had become nearly best friends with. Edward was too shocked and pained by her words that he did not go after her. Sage did not know the way and was soon lost among the many halls." Alice paused watching me very closely. "Felix found her."

My eyes widened and my sight began to dim. My chest went up and down rapidly and I could not control the speed of my breathing. A voice from far away was calling my name and another one was shouting 'Mom'. A sound close to a thunder clap was made and a stinging sensation formed on my cheek.

Soon my sight began to clear and my chest did not ache from the slow breaths that now passed through my lips. Alice and Avery were both in front of me, Alice's face showed slight annoyance as Avery told her, "That was unnecessary."

"On the contrary it was. See, she is coming to." I nodded to Alice and Avery.

"Thank you Alice," I shifted my position on the chair and glanced at Avery. "Stop glaring Avery, it is impolite."

He rolled his eyes and sat back down next to my feet on the carpet. Alice continued to reside on the couch.

"Do you want me to finish?" Alice asked hesitantly.

I took a deep breath. "Tell me the extent of the injuries and what happened when he had finished please."

She glanced at me mistrustful of my confidence in being in control, but carried on. "A slit on her left wrist, most of the bones fractured in her left hand and an asthma attack. He wanted to play hide and seek in order to 'get the blood pumping and warm'." I grimaced and nodded towards her. "She ran and reached a door I have seen Edward go into many times before. From there on I could not see anything."

"What!?" No, no, no, please God no…

Avery rested a hand on my arm clearly seeing Alice's calm state. "Calm down Bella. I assume that that is where the werewolf resides. Aro had the idea of putting a werewolf in the castle after he read my memories of not being able to see you when you were with a werewolf when we went to rescue Edward. What he miscomprehended was that a person had to be with the werewolf at all times. So he put Edward to watching the werewolf they held in a dungeon so that I would not be able to tell what was going on. Sage went through that door and a few hours later I had a vision of them going to the Gianna's replacement for a first aid kit to set the bones."

I exhaled and nearly laughed. "I cannot believe she grew up in that sort of environment. It is disgusting."

Alice nodded. "That is why we are going to rescue all of them."

I sat up straight immediately. "What? How would we do that? These are the Volturi…"

"I know Bella, I am still working on a plan but I have one pretty well thought out. I just need to know what your power is."

My eyes blinked in surprise. "Uh, I can make people remember and forget things. I cannot read their memories like Aro can though and I have to know exactly what I want them to remember or what I want them to forget.. I've never tried it on a vampire before."

She shrugged. "Try it on me now."

"Um, okay. What do you want me to do?"

Her teeth bit the inside of her lip and she thought for a moment. When she finished she glanced up at me. "Make me forget I ever knew you."

I bit my lip in worry but nodded. It would take a while; I would have to erase all of our memories together but it was possible if my power worked on vampires.

I stepped up from the arm chair and strode over to Alice. I placed my finger on the middle of her forehead, both of her eyes looked toward it making her looked cross-eyed while looking upward. I chuckled and she grinned up at me.

Maintaining a formal look I concentrated into her memories.

Working my power onto vampires was much easier than working it onto humans. Human memories were usually vague and long forgotten so I had to strain to work them up. Making them forget was easy, since human have such fragile minds.

Pulling up the memories was no trouble at all while deleting them proved to be more of a difficulty. Vampires had such vivid memories and could never forget, this caused the job of deleting the memories to be much like disassembling a car piece by piece. I dare not imagine how hard it would be to assemble it back again.

Visions, meeting me, finding Edward and me together, conversations on the phone, shopping sprees with me and by herself looking for things with me, all the things related to me or her talking to me were covered with an ocean of black. She could not remember these if she tried, but the memories would still be fairly easy to uncover.

I opened my eyes that I did not realize I had closed and pulled away from her. Alice's eyes had closed also but they snapped open as soon as I began to walk away from her backwards.

She scrunched her eyes at me and pursed her lips in concentration. I began to fidget and I looked away from her face and towards the hem of my t-shirt. I tore away a loose thread. Was she beginning to remember? Was a vampire's memory harder to cover?

Alice's eyes snapped wide open and she grinned. "I know who you are; you're the girl in the photo with Edward!"

I could feel my own eyes crinkle. "Excuse me?"

"That girl, that Edward's hugging." She told me in a voice that showed that it was obvious. "You two are holding hands and kissing. The picture is absolutely adorable." She grinned. "He keeps it right beside all his music. He also has a song he composed about you, did you know that?"

I shook my head and waved my hand. "No, thank you though. Do you remember anything else, even far as you can remember?"

She looked at me strangely, "I don't understand. As in my human memories?"

"No vampire ones, something covered." I hinted but she still shook her head.

"Should I? By the way, I'm Alice Cullen." She smiled at me.

I grinned back. "No, you shouldn't." I placed my finger back to her forehead and lifted the heavy blanket with my mind. It was difficult, like lifting the soaked thick comforter out from the pool while you're inside it but it was handled. I made sure that she remembered the feeling of forgetting.

I took off my finger and stepped back a step. Avery had gotten up earlier to get another slice of lasagna.

Alice beamed bigger than the sun and hugged me tight while laughing miraculously.

"Yes! It's perfect!" Alice chuckled again and let go of me. "Bella, listen carefully, alright? We want to do this as soon as possible."

For some reason, I always imagine Sage and Avery (especially Avery) with English accents. Kinda weird, but that's just me. Envision them however you like (:

Mia