Good Morning! And I hope we've all had a good week, because this chapter is a wham-doozle! It's an Irina that no one will expect, and I've read quite a few versions of her character that were outrageous. We're about to find out something very important, so pay attention.

I don't own Twilight, but this Russian Bitch portrayal is mine. Irina still belongs to SM.

Also, this is all un-beta'd, so any lingering mistakes are mine.

Some more important stuff at the bottom!

Secrets of the Past

She is dressed completely in white, from the five inch heels to the ribbed, turtle neck sweater and skintight pants. While she's carrying a small silver pistol in one hand, her other hand is carrying a white ski mask. One would think black would be better because it's so dark, but I now know how Jane didn't see her because Aro's walls are stark white.

Only Irina would know this and be able to use it to her advantage.

"Impossible."

This is the first thing that Aro says after she steps into the light that's revealed her to him, and she smirks, still holding her pistol high and taking her steps forward slowly.

"Of course not, yes?" she says, the Russian accent in her voice thicker than I remember. "But I would not be here unless Vladimir knew something he is not meant to know. And that is something very valuable to him, especially because it is Edward who possesses it. Vladimir is very interested in helping anyone who knows how to bring you down."

Aro shrieks softly, obviously shaken by this turn of events, and he drops his gun, staring at her like she's a ghost and probably wondering how any of this is even happening.

"What?" she teases, still smirking. "You didn't honestly think I would go anywhere so remote with Stefan, did you?"

The man who just a few minutes ago was ready to put a bullet in my brain is so stunned by her appearance that he stumbles back into his desk, unable to even form a new sentence as a witty comeback.

Very few people have the ability to render Aro speechless, but Irina has done just that.

Though I can't speak because I'm pretty much drained of every ounce of energy I had left, my mind is turning cartwheels trying to figure this out too.

I saw her when James pulled her out of the car in Siberia.

Granted, it was snowing heavily, and it was dark. I wasn't wearing night goggles, and I didn't actually get close enough to see her face. But the woman I heard scream sounded just like her. I don't know her as well as I do her sisters, but there are things about her I'm well versed in, like her smirk and her voice and her Russian superiority — something she's gained because she's earned it.

How did she manage to find a woman who sounded like her and would react the same way she would have if what happened actually did? I spent months following Stefan and Vladimir, and I knew their every move. I saw her get into the car before it left for the safe house.

I saw her.

While I'm sitting here trying to figure out how she fooled me, Irina moves in just close enough to be only a few feet from me. But she's not paying me any attention. In fact, it's like she doesn't even know I'm there as she still aims her pistol at Aro.

He's almost hyperventilating now, gripping the Glock and aiming it at the floor like that's going to do him any good right now.

Then Irina does something neither Aro nor I expect.

"The only reason I defected to the Romanians was to deliver information," she tells Aro calmly like it's common knowledge. "You sent me there thinking I would bring it back to you, and that was your first mistake. I am not your whore. I do not do what you want, and when you tried to do the same thing to my sisters, I knew it was time to stop you. The story of my marriage to Stefan was just that — a story. He is nearly as despicable as you, and twice as disgusting. Though his bodyguard is much more to my taste, and he never cared, as long as I knew when you were planning to move."

Aro sent Irina to Stefan for information. This is nothing new to me. A lot of the female operatives are used this way. It's not fair and isn't something I agree with, but it's the way Aro chooses to use them. It's also one of the reasons why my father never allowed Alice to come anywhere near Italy until after she was well trained in gun handling.

But a whore? Why would he do that?

Irina was one of the best he had, better than me, and there were so many other things he could've done with her abilities. Why waste her on a mission like this when he knew I was closing in?

Before I can answer my own questions, Irina speaks again, this time lowering her eyes to me, acknowledging me for the first time.

"We were planning our assault when Stefan was marked," she says, recognition and maybe even relief sparking in her eyes. "We sent a prostitute from Vladimir's escort pool in my place. I told her to pretend she was his wife, and I made sure she was wearing my clothes. I'm guessing she performed perfectly based on your reaction to seeing me."

She smirks again for a split second, but then she lifts her eyes to Aro and glares.

"Then we discovered the new assignment."

Some kind of emotion I've never seen on her face makes a new appearance.

Regret and . . . annoyance.

"I tried to tell Carlisle it was a trap," she says without looking at me, "but he refused to listen. No way in Hell would Aro set up his precious Edward, his son. That was the whole point."

Without taking her pistol off Aro, Irina steps up next to me and lays her hand over my shoulder, still not looking at me but clearly speaking to me.

"He was going to make an example of you to Carlisle for people who held more favor than he did. After you, it was going to be your mother, your sister, everyone who had ever helped you. I had to get a message to you."

She stops talking, squeezes my shoulder and takes another step toward Aro.

"So I leaked Vladimir's location and made my way here. I knew I would have barely enough time given the movements I had to make from St. Petersburg, but it was worth it to see the look on this pitiful excuse of man's face when he realizes that he has fucked up his last chance at destroying everyone who could bring him down."

Because I'm weak and can't lift my head from the back of the chair, I'm staring up at her face when tears well in her eyes and a glare penetrates Aro's trembling body.

"No more, you evil, sadistic bastard," she warns. "No more selling us and expecting us to do your bidding, you worthless, spineless pimp! I am not your whore! No more!"

The tears in her eyes spill down her cheeks, shimmering in the light as she composes herself and backs up so that she's again standing in front of me with her pistol still aimed at Aro. He hasn't move a muscle since his legs have met his desk, but I can't look to see if anything she's saying is making any difference to him.

Based on everything she's saying, this is all Aro has used Irina for, but I know she's not the only one. I've never personally had to compromise myself that way even though I've come close. I know a few of the others who've been sent on missions that required them to do undesirable things to get the job done, Tanya being one of them, and I know it changed her. She's damn good with a long range rifle, but she also has an exterior thicker than the Earth's crust. That's why she acts the way she does to the male operatives — to protect herself.

I'm sitting here wondering how many others have actually had to do this. I only know a handful of the people working for Aro. How many of them have been told to do the same thing as Irina? A few, half, more than half?

"Based on everything my sisters told me," Irina says after she's regained her composure, "I knew Edward would give himself to the guards if the girl was safe. And with her safe, it means I get to rid the world of you, you monster!"

Something she's just said has cracked through Aro's surprise and paralysis, and I can just barely make out him clenching his teeth, turning his eyes to hers and raising the Glock to aim it at her. Irina is immediately on point, locking her legs and bringing both her hands to the handle of her pistol.

"Now, now, my dear Irina," Aro says with his voice back in its usual emotionless tone. "We all know you volunteered to go to Romania, and we all know you had your bags packed days before you came to me and told me you could get me what I wanted. Is it really my fault it was the only way you thought you could be useful?"

"I made you think that," she grinds out though her own clenched teeth. "I wanted you to believe I wanted to go. It was the only way you would allow it. But in Hungary and Bulgaria and Ukraine, that was all your doing!"

"You're a beautiful girl," he tells her. "It would have been ignorant of me to not use your beauty to my advantage, and let's face it, we both know you enjoyed it."

She growls and screams at him. "Lies! You never gave me a choice! And you lied to my father, telling him I was no good at anything else! Don't forget I am the one who just tore down the walls to your fortress!"

Aro laughs, taunting her. "Oh, dear, let's not forget either what this is really about. I remember it now. This is why I decided to send you to Romania. Yes, it was a civilian. I believe he was some sort of attache to the Bulgarian Embassy. What was his name again? Oh, yes. Laurent."

"Do not speak his name!" she orders, squeezing the trigger of her pistol and firing but missing as the bullet hits the glass behind Aro.

He laughs again. "But it's such a wonderful thing to talk about. I can still remember hearing back from Diego and Riley. They couldn't believe their eyes when they saw you with him for the first time, but I did. I knew you were weak, and this only proved my point. So after your assignment was finished and you were planning on taking him to Romania with you, I sent Felix in to take care of him."

Irina is sobbing now, still holding her pistol but unable to squeeze off another round because she's shaking so badly.

Everything Aro is saying is making me question everything about Irina I thought I knew. She fell in love with a civilian? How is that possible? And how could she be that stupid? Didn't she know it would end the way it did?

If she'd loved this man, she wouldn't have gotten involved with him at all.

I might as well be talking to myself.

Why didn't I kill Bella when I first saw her? I don't know. It was wrong, and she was so young. How could she have possibly done anything to Aro for him to want her dead? The truth of it though is that I made that call. I was the one who felt wrong doing it, and it was my decision to keep her alive. I didn't plan on feeling these things for her I do, and I know I don't have any control over them anymore.

But it's my fault she's in danger. It's my fault she had to run, and it's all my fault that I might die before I tell her what I'm feeling.

I can't blame Irina for this. She probably didn't have any more control over loving this man Aro killed than I did disobeying his orders. He never planned on me caring about Bella or maybe even loving her. All he knows is that we've both gone against him, and to him, this is punishable by death.

"You murderous son of a bitch!" Irina yells. "He never did anything to you. He was innocent!"

"No one is innocent!" Aro shrieks at her. "Not to me, and not when they get in my way. That's why you're the tools and I'm the one who wields you as I see fit! None of you will ever stop me! I am completely invincible, you treacherous little slut! I told your father you would betray us, and now look at what you've done! First, I'll kill you, and then I'll put poor Edward here out of his misery. After that, everyone else you love will die, including your mother!"

She screams again and squeezes the trigger of her pistol just as he does, and the noise is so deafening that I think I lose most of my left eardrum because both their guns go off right next to my head.

Instantly, the ringing overpowers everything else, and my eyes close all on their own. I can't move except to hold my breath and wait for the next part to be over.

Aro never misses. He never aims unless he knows he won't miss. Irina is less than twenty feet from him. She doesn't have a snowball's chance in Hell of dodging his bullet.

I know this. It's the only thing that makes sense. And soon, Aro will aim at me.

He won't miss, and then I'll die.

But then a small hand grabs my face and then an even smaller body slams into mine, knocking me and the chair into the floor.

My head slams against the marble floor but the rest of me is cushioned from the fall as Irina pins me to the floor. I think for a minute she might go ahead and finish what Aro started, but when she touches my face again and smooths my hair from my face.

"It's all right," she whispers. "Open your eyes. I shot him. He's down."

I'm so dizzy and weak and aching that I can't obey her commands. She has to drag me out of the chair to look over my injuries.

"Edward, we must move. Now. Come!"

Whispered words leave my mouth, but even I can't hear myself. She leans in closer, still holding her gun high.

"I can't walk," I breathe just loud enough.

"You must," she orders, getting back on her feet and wrapping her arms around me to pull me up.

She's stronger than I remember too, able to hold my weight on her tiny frame and then start walking toward the door.

"Where did you hit him?" I think to ask after a few steps.

"I don't know," she says. "But I hit him. We must move. Quickly."

She's half-walking, half-dragging me across the room, but my feet won't work right to help her along.

I wish I knew where she shot Aro, because anywhere else but his head and —

Irina's body jerks just before we make it to the door, and because I'm so goddamn weak, we both go down.

This is when I look back and see Aro on his feet with the Glock aimed at us both, having risen to his feet and regained his aim.

NO! Another cliffhanger! What have I done? *rubs hands together evilly* You'll see.

Now, did you expect that at all? Irina weaves an interesting story, doesn't she? But how much of it is true? Surely, Carlisle wouldn't keep information like that from Edward. We'll have to wait and find out.

Oh! I now have a FictionPress account. alexajaye1379 is my name, and telling fantasy romance stories is my game. Look me up and let know what you think, and I will be eternally grateful.

Next chapter for this story still has to be edited, but stay tuned. It could be ready any time.

Later!