Author's note- I know it has been a long while, my friends. Edward's piece was definitely the most difficult. I hope the length makes up for the delay. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I own nothing of the twilight series, all rights of which, are reserved for Stephenie Meyer. No Copyright infringement is intended.

BPOV

The tunnels breathed in and out around us, expanding and narrowing around corners. My heart and mind were fatigued and bleary, my hand still tightly wound around Alice's. Our caravan slithered through the intestines of the city, dreading what may lie beyond any stretch of cold stone.

The walls dripped dirty water from the streets above, having seeped down through the ground. The coolness of the air was enough to invade even my skin, resting icily against me. My breaths came shallow and sharp, my lungs detesting the environment around me. I edged nearer towards desperation.

And then we came to a door. A wooden, locked door. It was great and heavy, its ancient metal supports blackened.

In soot, in the center of the entrance read,

Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me.
The Carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.

My eyes fell dismally to the floor as my breath escaped me. How much longer? I didn't know how long we could all hang on. I wasn't sure how much farther I could go. The door creaked open, its hinges protesting the movement. We stepped carefully, warily through the arch.

I felt Alice let go of my hand and spun to see them all gone. Every single one of the members of my family that I had fought to save had disappeared, as if nothing more than apparitions to begin with.

"You thought you had rescued them all, didn't you?" The silky voice made me wince, sending a frozen dagger down the length of my spine.

He leaned casually against the far wall, his red eyes gleaming in the low light, sparkling like rubies.

"Let me finish this, Aro," I insisted, my words deflated. He smiled condescendingly and tapped the tips of his fingers together.

"No need to worry, pet. You will get your chance," he paused, letting his eyes comb over my appearance. "I was wondering what smelled so delightful as your charming group entered," he was suddenly behind my shoulder, coaxing the sleeve of my bloody shirt down from my shoulder.

My skin crawled where his fingers came into contact with it, scaly and thin. He trailed a finger down my bare shoulder where the shirt had left a residue of blood. He rubbed his fingers together under his nose, smiling wickedly as he circled to the front of me. He leaned close by my shoulder, his breath skimming over the rim of my ear.

"Go on, Bella," he paused, "go save your family."

I wrenched away from him and ran into the adjacent shadowed hall, praying to reach somewhere fast. But as I approached a lit area my hopes changed. Suddenly I wished I was anywhere but here, not this

place again. The cylindrical room came into focus, the slits high up casting the glomine of the day down onto the floors. I gasped and fell onto my knees.

He was okay.

Edward lay in the corner, three guards holding him down as two more stood in front of him. My heart throbbed angrily at the sight but another part felt relieved, he was still here. I still had the chance to save him.

His skin sparkled as his face passed through a spot of light, his perfect features reflecting rainbows onto the walls. He struggled in the grasp of the guards, forcing the three to grunt and thrash in order to keep him in control.

"Edward?" I said quietly, still on the other side of the room. His fierce eyes met mine, black and dangerous. His jaw snapped and his lips curled back as he growled and roared.

"Who the hell are you?" He spat. His eyes still locked with mine. The guards seemed only then to realize that I was there. They turned and took notice, grinning evilly. The three that had been restraining him let him free.

He flew at me, his granite body pinning mine to the wall.

"Why do you come here?" He screamed, his voice raw and feral. I stared into those onyx jewels, completely taken aback. What had they done to him? "Who are you!" He yelled, his teeth revealed close to my face.

"Bella," I sobbed, trying to bend away from his stance.

"Yeah, I'll be damned to Heaven if you are!" He said, throwing me to the ground, "who have you sent to torture me so?" He asked the guards, his voice strained, "where did you find such a creature? Such an impostor?" He threw his fist into the wall, shattering the stone, "what kind of Hell is this?"

"It's me," I cried, my body collapsing onto the stone.

"My Bella's dead," Edward said from above me, his body shaking. What? Dead?

"No, Edward, I'm right here!" I demanded, banging my fists against the floor.

"I saw it!" He bellowed, closing in on my vulnerable position.

"W-wh-what! How?" How could he have seen me die? My head was reeling, my bones aching, my heart shrieking.

"I watched it," his voice cracked, he leaned his wrist against a wall, his forehead resting against the stone, "God dammit I saw it all through Aro's head. They had some monster rip her to shreds, licking blood of others from her clothes."

His ribs began to quiver as he shrank against the wall.

"So you tell me, right now, who the hell you are before I rip you to pieces!" I was horrified and longed for the topaz of the merciful eyes I knew so well. But I only saw the anguish and loss in them, his expression desolate, his bronze hair matted and filthy, "I have nothing more to lose, so you'd do best to take heed of that."

I looked up to the ceiling and felt like crying the pain of a thousand deaths.

And then she understood the devilish cunning of the enemies' plan. By mixing a little truth with it they had made their lie far stronger.

The words blazed up above, singing the song of brilliant cruelty.

"It's me," I croaked, my eyes pulling back to his.

"How can it be!" He beseeched, his voice hysterical. He jumped from me and turned to the guards. "Kill me," he stipulated, his stance rigid.

They stayed still.

"Do it!" He pleaded, running towards them.

"NO!" I screamed, coming behind him. "Edward, you saw a lie! Just like Aro saw a false future in Alice's head when I came to save you!"

He spun on his heel, his eyes still furious but deeper. He grabbed my wrist and forced me to the ground.

"How do you know about that?" He demanded, his expression pained.

"Edward, it's me," I begged him and the heavens above. He yanked me up and put his hands against my shoulder and neck, wrenching my head to the side. He fingered the scar, tracing it delicately. My skin sang at his touch, however brutal.

I raised my head and met softened eyes. He placed hands on the sides of my face and stared into my eyes, searching.

"It is you," he whimpered, dragging me into his chest as he wept. I stole a glance to the guards behind us and noted their startled expressions. Apparently, Aro hadn't instructed them in what to do had I been able to convince Edward that it really was me. They looked warily to each, gauging the others' expressions. A decision was obviously quickly made as one of the guards kicked a ticking wheel of chains that sent bars flying down in front of every exit. The metal clanked loudly against the solid floors.

Edward angled his body in front of me, crouching in his feline manner and baring his formidable snarl. The guards smiled, flipping back their hoods and mocking Edward's stance. I planted my feet behind my husband, ready to hurdle towards anyone that came at him. The guards were five in number, two

extremely large and three average in size. Their red eyes prowled over us greedily, two against five, they hummed voraciously in their heads, no chance.

The biggest one lunged first, sprawling Edward onto the floor for a split second before Edward had spun out from underneath and sent his heel into the giant's skull. The guard flopped onto the floor, his chin slack against the cobblestones. Two came at me, their eyes flickering. I realized mutely that they were identical twin boys who couldn't have been older than fourteen when they had been turned.

They licked their lips as they circled, snapping their jaws as I danced around myself. I could hear the two others go after Edward. One of the two twins reached forward and secured my wrist behind my back, shoving my cranium into the wall. A shooting pain cracked through the crown of my head. I wrestled and spun in their grasp, kicking one straight in the jaw. The scene apart from ours caught the corner of my eye, my heart jerked as I saw Edward pinned as I was.

I didn't understand the strength these two held against my own. They had to have been changed recently to be overpowering me like this. My moment of wonder had cost me a chomp to the shoulder. I hissed in pain and sent my knee into his stomach.

Bellows and roars rocked in my eardrums as I seized opportunities to bite and tear, sever and flail. I realized dismally that I may have come so far only to fail. My muscle tissues screamed in agony at every move I made, the wounds in my skin beginning to tingle. I cried out as one of the replicas forced an elbow into the back of my neck and sent me into the floor's unforgiving embrace.

"Get up, Bella!" Edward's panicked words flew swiftly to me as I labored to spin back onto my feet. "Watch out!" His warning reached me half a second too late as one of the fists came into contact with the conjunction between my head and neck.

I collapsed into a third pair of arms that should not have been there.

You never believe in guardian angels until one is thrown at your face, full force. The grip didn't tighten around my throat as I expected it to but rather lowered me back to the floor and stepped over my body. I would have recognized that princely stature anywhere. His movements were milky and swift. His brown hair hung in his face, his strong jaw line obvious even from this angle.

"Raph," I whispered, my eyes wishing they were allowed to close.

The twins seemed bewildered by the stranger's arrival and left open a two-second window during which most of their limbs had been disembodied. Raph's muscles rippled beneath his skin as he shredded the granite tendons between knee and femur, thigh and rotary cup, elbow and wrist, shoulder and humerus.

My head lulled to the side and then my legs were suddenly rushing to the other side of the room. The other big guard straddled Edward's hips, his hands clapped over the throat beneath his palms.

"Thought you had us beat, didn't ya?" The Boston accent clanged through the words gracelessly. Edward's knuckles were stressed over the assailant's crushing wrists, his legs beating. I bowed close to the ground and shot at the back of the guard, his shoulder blade crashing into the side of my face.

He flew only a few feet but far enough to free Edward from his grasp. I bulldozed my forehead into his chest, securing my fingers around his neck. The stone wall hurtled into my knuckles and the pain shook up my arm. My other hand knotted into his hair and I yanked to the left as hard and as fervently as possible. My shoulders cried in pain from the pressure and the bones in my hands felt like they were splintering.

My heart hadn't quit racing as if I were living again since the strange hold that the guard had kept over Edward had first invaded my senses. I jerked my hands that last half inch. I heard and felt the loud snap that caused the guard to go slack in my arms. Raph and Edward immediately reached my side, ripping the guard apart as if nothing more than a hinged Ken doll. I crumpled to the ground and cradled my head against my knees. Edward's arms secured around my shoulders and I felt his lips at my ear, murmuring something inaudible.

I stayed there, my arms tied around my husband, relief flooding my chest. After a few moments I looked up to my savior. He stood, his eyes politely averted. He was still as stately as I recalled in my greatest memories of his charms.

"Raph," I sang, rising from the floor and placing my hand against his cheek.

"I am so sorry, bird," he cooed, unable to meet my gaze directly, "I should've arrived sooner, knowing what I knew of these evils."

I shook my head, negating him silently.

"You saved me." My words hung in the air, consequential and heavy. He glanced down to me for the first time and I lost myself in what I noted to be amber eyes. I smiled widely and he returned it, winding his arms around my back.

"Stay safe, Bell." He set me down next to my partner and shook his hand sturdily. "Best of luck."

And then he went away. To where? Perhaps I shall never discover. But is that really what matters? What I remember of Raph is the way his eyes could hypnotically convince you that the ground you walked on was actually made of jello if he wanted to, the ways that smile could knock on even the most dormant of hearts, and –most importantly- his actions that ultimately saved the lives of every member of my family.

I'm not sure there is a better definition for a guardian angel. Perhaps he was just a temporary one, meant to serve for only a time before retreating back into the mush of sin and penance, but none the less his regal posture and Irish tongue would be forever burned into my memory, to be savored and thanked.

Edward turned to me, his blackened stare now deep and warm. I wanted nothing more than to cuddle up with its murky pull.

"You saved me," he said quietly, his stare intense.

"Who's the damsel in distress now?" I joked softly, not cracking a smile.

"I owe you," he promised.

"I love you," I promised back.

We crept slowly out of the door that eventually we knew led to the lobby. Alec stood at the final door. His saucer eyes and placated expression looked ill placed beneath his demonic stare.

"Congratulations," he purred, his stare not breaking from mine, "you're free to go."

We heard bustling behind us and saw Alice being led out of a deep chamber, Jasper being carried by a separate guard. She kept her gaze to the blonde brother, running to him as he was set by our feet. Esme and Carlisle were next, both detained by a guard. They were tossed towards us. Esme's arms threw themselves around Edward's shoulders, her body quivering with reprieve. Carlisle stood by my side, placing a firm hand on my shoulder.

"We'll never be able to thank you," he murmured as a third door cranked open. Emmett had Rosalie over his shoulder and was glaring at the guard who led them towards us. I crouched beside Jasper and swept some of his hair away, his eyes were closed.

"Alice?" I asked, my voice wavering, "what's wrong with Jasper and Rose?"

Carlisle cut in, "they've been heavily sedated, dragged away from their chambers to wait to be released or be slaughtered," we all winced at the brusqueness of the latter of the statement. My heart felt a million weights lift.

"So they'll be okay?" I pressed.

"In a few hours or so, yes," Carlisle replied.

At the fresh sting of the night air I collapsed into Edward's arms, my face muffled against his chest. My hands shook and my breath rattled, I should have been crying.

"Bella?" He asked softly.

"We made it," I mumbled, my lips numbed at the thought. He nodded and smirked that half-grin that made those butterflies in my stomach jump around. His lips pressed momentarily against mine, whispering devotion and love at contact.

"Let's go home," Esme said, wrapping her arms around her semicircle of children. The crescent moon looked like a crooked smile in the sky, her creamy breath trickling over us. The stars were hung lazily next to her, sprinkling their winks over earth and promising for a better tomorrow.

I sighed and let the air blow out from my nostrils, thick and unsaddled. A final quote came to my head, one of my own choosing,

Love is much like a wild rose, beautiful and calm, but willing to draw blood in its defense.

My eyes fluttered again to the sky and I saw a glittering body fall, I made a wish, tucking it into the little space between my heart and breastbone. Edward's hand squeezed mine, tugging me from ahead. Sometimes those little pressures signify all that is worth bleeding for.

Author's note- Please leave your thoughts, opinions, anything. I treasure all reviews. Thanks for reading!

Citations: "Because I could not stop for Death/ He kindly stopped for me./ The Carriage held but just ourselves/ And Immortality." Emily Dickinson. "And then she understood the devilish cunning of the enemies' plan. By mixing a little truth with it they had made their lie far stronger." From The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis. "Love is much like a wild rose, beautiful and calm, but willing to draw blood in its defense." Mark Overby.