19th December 2033

Bella Cullen

Chloe and Nessie were sitting with Zac at the end of the room, they had been talking most of the morning, Nessie didn't go back to sleep after the wakeup call at 5am. It was coming up to 9am now, it wasn't long ago that Isobel had come down and crawled into my lap, I watched Aladdin with her whilst everyone else was out or asleep. There was just Edward, Chloe, Nessie and Zac in the room with us. The vampires were still out, they'd never be here if it wasn't for Jacob, we lived on the edge of La Push, actually inside the reservation and if Sam had been in charge anyone without the surname Cullen wouldn't be setting foot in La Push. They understood though, they hunted outside of Washington and they put 1 foot out of line whilst inside of La Push, they're never allowed back, or worse, they'll never make it out.

I was partly paying attention to Isobel and the movie, partly to Edward who was sitting next to me and partly to my daughter and her friends across the room. Nessie and Chloe had a lot to catch up on with Zac, I felt sorry for Nessie, I knew she never wanted Zac to truly be in our world, but his knowing about us saved his life and saved many others too.

"You're always welcome here you know, you're part of the family."

"I know, thanks Ness, I still have my family though, in 100 years when my family is dead and gone I'll probably come back." He told her, I frowned at the grim thought.

"Good morning" Chantelle greeted the room.

"Hey Chanti" Nessie greeted her. "Hey Matthew" she added when she saw him in Chantelle's arms.

"Wow so this is your son?" Zac asked walking up to Chantelle.

"Yep." Chantelle smiled. "Matthew Lucas."

"You said 5 months old. He looks at old as Isobel" he gasped. Matthew had his head on his mothers shoulder but was looking at Zac curiously.

"He's a hybrid Zac" she smiled at him.

"Right, wow I didn't know Nessie or you as a baby but, you grew this fast too?"

"Yep" she laughed.

"He looks so much like Zio" Zac whispered in awe of Matthew.

"I know, his hair used to be a lot lighter, he was a perfect mix but now he's much more like Zio" she told him, Zac smiled.

"This is your uncle Zac, Matthew" Chantelle said to her son.

"He's a vampire" Matthew whispered.

"He's a good vampire, not the ones trying to take you away" Chantelle told him, this made him smile and he lifted his head from his mother.

"Thank you" he told him.

"Of course" Zac smiled. "Do you like to play games?"

"Yes!" Matthew exclaimed. "Do you know how to play Mario kart? That's my favourite"

"I do" Zac smiled "want to come play?" he asked.

"Can I mom?" Matthew asked Chantelle.

"Of course you can" She smiled, I smiled too, Matthew always loved someone new to play with. "Need to eat breakfast first though ok?" she asked. He nodded and Chantelle put him on the floor.

Few minutes later she brought it in for him.

"thanks mommy!" he exclaimed, the kids didn't get to eat in the living room often, but since only Matthew and Isobel were the ones awake I knew Chantelle was making an exception.

"So Zac do you have a gift?" I asked him, he shook his head.

"Not that I know of."

"I do!" Matthew told him.

"Really? What's your gift?" Zac asked him.

"I make you forget" he grinned.

"Oh really" Zac said.

"Why don't you make the Volturi forget you exist?" Zac asked. The room went silent. I saw Chantelle light up.

"That's a great idea! Uncle Edward, wouldn't it work?" she asked, looking to my husband.

"Er…" he didn't want to reply. I turned to look at him and frowned. It was actually a very good idea, why wasn't he saying yes?

"Chanti…" he began slowly. "Matthew has to touch someone to make them forget. You would want him to interact with them?" he asked.

"If it worked…" Chantelle trailed off. I walked over to her and gave her a hug.

"They'd kill him as soon as they realised what he was doing." I told her. she sighed and hugged me back.

"Right" she mumbled.

"Im sorry" I told her, I knew she had hope and it may have just been crushed a little bit more.

"What about Lidiya?" Zac asked.

"What about her?" Chloe asked.

"Her gift, its death, or it was. Why can't she just think and they can die?" Zac asked.

"Because we have to give them a chance" Edward answered.

"Well after they say no and they try and take Matthew, she can just kill them, that's what you're going to do anyway right? This would make it easier, more likely to win and not lose someone in the process" Zac said just as I heard Esther walk into the house.

"Can't risk it." She said entering the room.

"Esther" Zac whispered when he saw her. He hadn't seen her in a very long time.

"Hey Zac." She said with a sad smile, I had a feeling she didn't want him turned anymore than Nessie and Chloe did.

"Hey" he smiled.

"You were saying... We can't risk it?" I asked, eyeing Zac carefully, he may be a vampire now but he's still married. Happily married last time I checked.

"Lidiya, even if Sophia gave her ability back, Lidiya never learnt to control it, we took it from her before she understood it, it was too dangerous for her to be taught. After what happened with her family she never wanted to learn, she wanted to forget it ever existed. There isn't enough time to teach her and im sure we're going to be lacking volunteers to help. We could come out with less than we started with"

"But Sophia can reverse it right? If Lidiya accidently killed someone she could reverse it?" Zac asked. I could see he was trying so hard to help out, I was just glad Lidiya was still asleep and wasn't hearing this.

"We've never tried it; Sophia's gift isn't to give life. That was Anelie's gift, but shes not here. She was Lidiya's antidote. If she was here, they'd be indestructible as twins."

"Well, you said Lidiya killed her sister right? Why don't we dig her up, I know its kinda awful but if Sophia could try to reverse it? And then we'd know if she can reverse it" Zac asked his voice high in excitement. Edward shook his head.

"We've already had this conversation Zac, Lidiya's family was cremated, not buried. There's no body to work with, trust me we thought about it."

"Wait…" Esther said; her eyes going to Zac. "I only burnt Jane, Aleksander, Katerina, Izabela and Anton's bodies. Not Anelie, she died long before them."

"What happened to her?" I asked.

"I don't know. I was here when Anelie died. I wasn't there. Jane and Aleksander didn't like to talk about it when I went back to them. They never told me." she said, wonder in her voice.

"So she could have been buried?!" Zac asked, he jumped up from the floor, excitement in his voice. The room was buzzing, everyone was watching Esther.

"Maybe yes." She said.

"Esther… don't" Edward began.

"I know I know, I can't get my hopes up"

"Thing is how do we know where shes buried?" Chantelle asked, she had pulled away from my hug by now.

"And wouldn't she still be a baby?" Chloe added. "She died over 20 years ago. You do realise this right? We'd have to train a child. A child that has a twin sister that looks at least 17 years older than her."

"Anelie always had more control over her gift than me" Lidiya said entering the room. Had she heard it all?

I saw Esther nod to me.

"I don't want my gift back. As much as the idea of having my sister back excites me, I refuse to believe it could happen. I grieved for my family and I moved on. Im happy now, I don't want you to tell me you can bring my sister back and then don't. It's cruel" she said and frowned.

"No Lidiya, we're not telling you we can bring her back, we're just theorising. We're sorry" Esther said walking over to Lidiya.

"You don't even know where she is anyway"

I could see Lidiya was trying to keep her hopes down, this conversation was bringing back her broken heart over losing her family and she didn't want that pain again.

"Was she buried?" Esther asked Lidiya.

"I don't know. I was young. I remember seeing her sleeping, we had just been playing and she wanted my favourite toy, we were barely physically 3 years old, she was screaming at me and crying and I just got angry. I snatched the toy and pushed her hard. IT would have done nothing had we been human but I killed her without even knowing. I remember telling her to stop being silly and to wake up but she didn't. My mother came in and started crying tearlessly over her body. She didn't even look at me; she was just holding my sister. I sat there with my favourite toy wondering why my mother was crying so much. IT was then my father came in. My mother informed him that I killed Anelie and he grabbed me, my father was never abusive but he was firm and was always the disciplinarian. He lifted me but I didn't struggle he took me out of the room and into the basement, he told me to stay there and think about what I had done. I remember him locking the door behind him. I didn't see anyone for at least a day. I could hear crying, neither my mother, my father nor any of my siblings came to see me during the day Anelie died. I don't know if they buried her during that time or if they burned her, I never asked, I didn't want to know. One day later the door opened, Katerina, my older sister came in and sat with me on the bed. Do you realise what happened? She asked. I nodded, I didn't speak. Anelie isn't coming back. She told me, I nodded again and I finally allowed myself to cry. Katerina hugged me and cradled me in her arms as she carried me out of the room.

I always thought my parents hated me, it wasn't until I Esther came back that I spoke again."

"So you don't know what your family did to your sister's body?" I asked. She shook her head.

"And we have less than a week to find her and train her and Lidiya?" I asked turning to Edward.

"I don't want my ability back" Lidiya said firmly.

"But if Anelie was here, she'd be able to reverse it, Sophia too!" Zac said enthusiastically.

"I don't care. I don't want to kill people"

"Not even the Volturi after Matthew?" Esther asked Lidiya softly. Lidiya thought for a second and looked over to Chantelle.

"Chanti I can't… what if I kill Matthew by accident, or Sophia? Or my sister again? I can't… I can't" Lidiya said and started sobbing.

"This was a bad idea" Esther said and pulled Lidiya into her chest. She glared at Zac and I knew she blamed him for bringing it up. She took Lidiya who was crying out of the room.

"I didn't mean to upset her, im just trying to help" Zac said sadly.

"We know" Chloe said softly and gave Zac a hug.

"Thing is... Anelie died 20 years ago… she is going to be like… a skeleton right?" Nessie said slowly.

"We'd have to see, shes not a human, we've never buried a vampire before. She might be perfectly preserved, or you're right she might be just bones. Sophia won't be able to do it if it's just bones, im positive of that" Edward explained.

"This is depressing" I mumbled. I didn't want to see the skeleton of a baby; I knew it would break my heart.

"This subject is depressing. It doesn't even sound like Lidiya wants her sister back. Let's not push her." Nessie said. The room went quiet after that. Zac and Matthew began playing Mario, Isobel wasn't happy with them taking over the TV but she soon joined in with playing Mario kart.

"You're making my baby girl into a gamer Zac" Nessie frowned when she saw Isobel with them. Chloe and Nessie were now talking with Chantelle, it was almost like old times, except they weren't teenage girls anymore, no matter how much they looked the same, they were now women and wives and mothers.

"Why are you watching them?" Edward whispered into my ear. I turned my attention from my daughter and her friends and turned to Edward. His face was millimetres from mine. I smiled at his curious face; it was his 'what are you thinking' face.

Just noticing how much they've grown up. They look no different now than 20 years ago, I'm just thinking of everything that's changed. I pulled my shield away to explain. He smiled.

"I know right" he laughed quietly and turned to look at them. Nessie briefly looked over and gave us a smile before turning back to her friends.

Sometimes I wish… I began. I wished Nessie was little again; I occasionally got nostalgic like this.

"I know" he cut me off, always knowing what I'm about to say. He then kissed my cheek.

"Mom" Sophia said walking in the room, she was followed in with William, Esther, Lidiya and Zio. Chantelle looked up and frowned.

"Yes sweetie?" she asked.

"I'm going with them" she said. "I'm going to see if I can help"

"What?" Chantelle asked, her voice rising and immediately looking at Zio.

"Lidiya agreed to allow me to try and so did dad."

"Zio..."Chantelle said slowly, "do you realise...?" she trailed off.

"I know, I wont let her see anything until I'm sure that Anelie isn't... is preserved" he said looking down at Isobel and Matthew watching curiously.

"Are you sure about this? I only suggested... i know it made you upset... Lidiya I'm sorry." Zac said in a broken rush. Lidiya managed to smile at him.

"It's ok. Esther made me come around," she said. Zac's eyes went straight to Esther. She refused to meet his eyes.

"We're leaving tonight" Sophia added still watching her mother.

"Who?" she asked walking over to her daughter.

"Lidiya, Esther, Dad and me" she said. Chantelle frowned.

"'Wouldn't it be best to keep our best weapon here?" I asked suddenly, looking at Esther.

"There's nothing Esther can do that others here can't, you and Eddie together as a shield are more powerful than her by herself anyway. I trust you and Eddie would protect Matthew whilst she and I are gone and we'll be back before anything happens anyway" Zio told me.

"I'm coming too" Chantelle said.

"no Chanti, you're staying here" Zio argued. Chantelle frowned at her husband.

"I'm coming"

"You're not" he told her with a soft glare. "You're staying here with our son, I wont let anything traumatise our daughter, if anything this will help her understand the limitations of her powers. This could really help us if we had Anelie on our side" He calmed his wife. She sighed.

"Ok"

Zio leaned in to kiss her forehead.

"We'll be back in 2 days, depending on how quick we can find her body... if she's buried. Esther is going to use her fancy 'history of an object' power and see if she can work out what happened that day. I promise we'll be back way before Christmas eve" he said to her. Chantelle hugged Zio before turning to hug her daughter.

"When are you going?" I asked then.

"Carlisle's booking the tickets now, we're leaving in 2 hours" Esther said to me.

It wasn't long before the 2 hours were up and we were saying goodbye. No one was emotional except I knew William was holding his emotion back and Chantelle, she'd never let her daughter out of the state without her.

Sophia was in the arms of William the longest.

"I wish I was coming" he told her.

"I'll be fine, I'll see you soon, you're needed here with the pack. This could save my brother," she replied. He nodded reluctantly and kissed her on the lips. Sophia was then pulled into a hug from Chantelle.

"Dad will be with me mom, don't worry" Sophia said to Chantelle and kissed her. "Bye mom" she said as they left, Sophia was watching William as she left.

William went straight back upstairs without saying anything, I was debating whether to go after him but Jacob beat me to it. I watched as Chantelle turned and walked over to the couch where Nessie and Chloe were talking earlier in a sulk.

"They'll be back soon don't worry, and we might even have a new little Cullen" Nessie smiled at her. "or new Balev but Lidiya's always been a Cullen really" She sat down next to Chanti and they began talking about what it would be like if Anelie came to live with us.

I watched them for a while, Chantelle soon became relaxed in Nessie's presence.

"Let's go for a run" Edward said to me, i barely noticed he was still glued to my side. I turned to smile and watched his lips as he smiled back.

Ok. I told him and held his hand as we walked to the front door.

"Where are you going?" Jacob asked coming down the stairs.

"Out" I explained.

"Sure... have fun" he winked. I rolled my eyes at my best friend. "See ya Jake" I said as we left the house.

Edward and I ran to our meadow, we didn't want to go too far away but we always seemed to end up in our meadow, like it was a magnet drawing us in every time we were in the forest.

I lay down on the dead grass, i couldn't wait for it to be summer again, I missed the heat and the sun and the bright flowers. Edward lay next to me and wrapped his arms around my waist to get me to curl into him. I did so and watched the trees around us sway with the wind.

I can't wait till all this is over. I admitted to him, visions of us in my head. I looked up at him to see him smile at my thoughts. Edward and I were going to fly to Isle Isabella for the New Year, providing all this blows over. Should anything bad happen we weren't going anywhere. I was hopeful though, these Volturi were the last survivors, they were small in numbers, they had to be; they couldn't stand a chance against us.

I told myself this everyday otherwise I think I'd go insane with worry. I strived as a young mother to keep my children from the terrors of Volturi, now im doing it all over again as a young grandmother for my grandchildren.

I wondered when the threats to my family would ever end, or is being a Cullen a gift and a curse?

Only short but its just a little insight from Bella and the Cullen's new plan. Will be updating between the 6th and 10th Feb.

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