**** Chapter twenty-five ****

"Alice, what's going on?" Bella asks, pulling her girlfriend into their bedroom. Alice walked over to the other side of the room and took a deep breath before sighing and turning around to face Bella.

"I don't trust Lilly," Alice says simply.

Bella pauses for a moment, confused. "Lilly? Why, what's happened? Is this because of your vision? Alice, what did you see?"

The shorter vampire throws her arms up in exasperation before pacing back and forth on the carpet. "In my vision I saw her stopping me from going … somewhere. I don't know where or why but I felt the desperate need to get to that place or to someone right at that moment and Lilly stopped me! I don't know how she did it or why, but she did! She didn't even seem like the Lilly we've been trying to get to know!"

Taking a few tentative steps toward Alice, Bella says carefully, "Alice, maybe she was just trying to keep you safe? Maybe she thought she was doing the right thing?"

Alice stopped and turned to face Bella in complete shock. "You're sticking up for her!?"

Bella stops walking towards the shorter girl, wondering how to continue with this conversation having never seen Alice this panicked and confused before. "No that's not what I'm doing, I'm just saying because you don't know what was really going on in your vision you shouldn't be so quick to make a conclusion on somebody when you don't know all the facts."

"Bella, I don't trust Lilly and neither should you!"

"Okay then tell me why I shouldn't trust her, Alice. Give me something to go off. Your vision doesn't tell us anything!" Bella raises her voice while throwing her arms up in the air in frustration of the situation she is clearly not understanding.

"Well for starters, she arrived out of nowhere…"

"She was looking for Rosalie and has been looking for her for many years," Bella is quick to interrupt. Alice shoots her a glare.

"Right around the time the whole witch situation started, hmm?"

Bella folds her arms across her chest and rolls her eyes, "That doesn't mean anything, Alice."

"Well what about the fact that we hardly know much about her at all? Think about it Bella, we really don't know anything about her!"

"She's adjusting to us all. It isn't weird for her to not talk about her entire life to us after having just met us."

"But she's been strange, hasn't she? You can even admit that one, Bella."

"Okay, yeah she's a bit distant and seems distracted at times, but that doesn't mean we need to raise the red flag."

"How about when we all ran to get to Lilly and the three other vampires? Something was going on, I could tell!"

Bella takes a minute to remember when the three red-eyed vampires turned up and what happened between the moment they arrived to the moment Bella left to get help.

Sighing, Bella walks over to Alice and places her hands on the shorter girl's shoulders and says, "If you don't trust her, then I will be careful around her. Okay?"

Alice softens at Bella's touch and words. "Okay," she says softly.

Bella smiles, "Okay." She leans down a gives Alice a sweet kiss before pulling away and turning to leave the room.

"Bella?"

Turning around, she replies, "Yeah, Alice?"

The shorter girl runs her hand up and down her opposite arm in a show of nervousness. "Leave with me."

Stunned, Bella says, "Leave?"

Alice offers up a half smile, still nervous. "Yes. Let's just go somewhere, anywhere. Anywhere you want. Just you and me."

A few seconds pass before Bella responds. "What about the witches who are after me? They expect me to be here. They're going to come here for a war and what's going to happen with me gone? I can just leave everyone we love and care about behind to fight this battle, Alice." Bella shakes her head in confusion, not understanding why Alice was even asking her to do this.

"We'll just be gone for a few days. They won't show up during that time, I'm sure of it!" Alice pleads.

After a few silent moments, Bella sighs and agrees. "They better not arrive while we're gone, Alice. I mean it."

Alice jumps up and down in excitement, returning to her usual self. Chuckling, Bella holds Alice's hand as they walk back to the basement together.

"Girls, is everything all right?" Esme asks as she approaches the two girls.

"Bella and I are leaving," Alice chirps. Everyone in the room turns to face them is shock. "Oh, no I don't mean leaving for good, just for a few days."

"What's brought this on?" Esme asks, concerned and confused.

"We just need a break," Bella jumps in. "Everything has been kind of hectic lately, we haven't had much time to focus on each other."

Esme slowly nods her head while Carlisle looks on in interest. "But what about the witches?" She asks.

"We will be back before they arrive. We'll only be gone for a few days," Alice says with a wide smile. Bella could see through the smile, though. Something else is going on in Alice's mind that is worrying the girl.

"No need," Lilly says as she walks through the door with Rosalie following behind. Everyone's attention shifts to Rosalie and her sister. "I have decided I will go," after a moment she continues, "After many years I have finally found my sister again. I can tell she is happy here, she's found her family. She belongs here. Seeing her like this is all I have ever wanted. And at least this way, I can finally give her my proper goodbye."

Turning to face Alice she says, "I'm sorry. Me being here has only caused you trouble. I know you don't trust me, Alice, and I don't blame you. So no, you don't need to leave to get away from me. I'll go."

Everyone stares on with open mouths besides the three chained vampires who look on with hope, hoping that what Lilly says is true so she will no longer be a threat to them.

Rosalie was the most shocked out of all the Cullens, having no idea this was coming.

"I don't understand," Rosalie says looking slightly panicked. "You can't leave, I just got you back!"

"Rosie, I -"

"No!" Rosalie yells. "For many years I thought you were dead! But you found me, you came back to me, and now you're just going to leave? No. That's not okay."

"Rosie, you don't understand -"

"Tell them."

Stunned, Lilly says, "Tell them?"

"Yes, tell them. It's the reason you're leaving, isn't it? Afraid they'll find out. Just tell them!"

"Rosalie, stop it!" Lilly yells back at her, scared and pissed. She knows Rosalie is referring to her gift. But nobody can know about it, especially Carlisle and the three chained vampires. Was Rosalie going insane bringing it up in here like this? "This has got nothing to do with my decision! I don't belong here, but you do. We'll keep in touch but let's be honest about this, nobody wants me here. I'm just bad news." Lilly lowers her head, saddened by her truth.

"I want you here." Everybody turns their heads to face Jasper whose eyes are solely focused on Lilly. "I've never come across anybody like you before," he continues honestly. "And you aren't bad news. I've not known you for long, but I would like you to stick around. You definitely make this place seem interesting," he chuckles.

Alice has a quick vision of seeing Jasper and Lilly holding hands. Lilly sees this too, since the girl is the closest gifted vampire to her in the room. If Lilly could blush, she would be blushing bright red right now. Looking down trying to hide a smile, Lilly says back to him, "Yeah, well, you're not too bad yourself."

She looks up to see Jasper beaming at her. Alice can't help but smile at this, feeling happy that Jasper has found a new person to love and care for.

"But I still need to leave," Lilly says sadly, losing the smile. "There are some things I have to do."

Rosalie eyes her carefully. Turning her attention back to her sister, she gives her a big hug. "Don't be too much of an ass to your family," Lilly whispers in her ear.

"Our family. And we both know that is never going to happen." They both laugh at that as they separate from the hug.

Coughing out of awkwardness, Lilly says, "Bella?"

Bella looks at Lilly with curiosity. "Yeah?"

"Could I speak to you outside for a minute?"

Bella looks over to Alice to see how she feels about it. She can tell Alice isn't too pleased, but it must be important if she wants to speak with her privately. Turning her attention back to Lilly, she simply says, "Okay."

Following Lilly out of the basement, Bella grows more uncomfortable. She never had a problem with Lilly, and when the three vampires arrived to get her Lilly had her back, but she can't stop thinking about what Alice said about her vision and how upset and pissed off she was about it.

Finally out of earshot from the others, Lilly speaks, "I like you."

Surprised by what she heard, she becomes more awkward as she interrupts Lilly from continuing, "Um, Lilly, I'm with Alice and I don't like you like that…"

Lilly burst into laughter. "No-no-no, I didn't mean it like that. Jeez. And let me finish what I was trying to say." Bella visibly relaxes after Lilly corrects her. She nods her head, signalling the girl to continue talking. "What I meant was, I trust you. There's something about you that's different to the other Cullens. Maybe it's because you've grown up in a different time period than the rest of us did? I'm not too sure. But you're different, more pure. Innocent. And so I'm going to help you."

"Help me? With what?"

"Bella, I know about the vision that Alice had," Bella opens her mouth to speak but Lilly cuts her off before she can utter a word. "I'm not going to tell you how I know, but I need you to trust me when I say that Alice's vision doesn't tell her enough about the situation for her to have a proper judgment on it. I'm not the enemy here, Bella. The witches are. I need to go and sort some things out but in the meantime, I need you to start working on that shield of yours."

"But I don't know what to do, I never even knew I had a gift!" Bella says exasperatedly, wanting this whole witch ordeal to just be over and done with.

"I know that," Lilly sighs. "Look, your shield is only protecting yourself. You need to expand it to shield the others in the battle. Try to envision your shield, and push it outwards. Have the others help you with it but do not under any circumstances let Carlisle know about it. The less he knows, the better chance we have at winning."

"How do you know so much about my gift?"

"That's not important, Bella. All you have to do is learn to expand your shield, and get some god damn answers out of the three bastards down in the basement. And for goodness sake, do not unchain them."

Lilly turns around to leave when Bella calls out, "What are you going to do?"

"Save your asses, that's what," she calls back over her shoulder. Almost out of the house, she stops and turns around to face Bella. "And another thing, don't tell anyone about this conversation. It's safer that way."

And with that, she leaves.

"Expand my shield, get some answers," Bella whispers to herself. Nodding her head, feeling filled with newfound energy, she marches down to the basement and slams the door shut behind her, causing everyone in the room to jump. "Let's get this party started, shall we?"

Alice looks at Bella in surprise and awe and the others do the same, except for Carlisle of course.

"Esme, Carlisle, I think we have this situation handled down here if you want to go for a feed?" Bella says sweetly, but mischief shining in her eyes.

Carlisle was about to object when Esme agreed to Bella's offer. Not wanting to seem annoyed by this, Carlisle smiles as politely as he could manage as he made his way out of the basement. The Cullens all listened carefully until they were certain that their parent figures have left the house.

"Bella, what's going on? What did Lilly talk to you about?" Alice asked.

"She just gave me a few ideas on how to use my shield to protect everyone. And now with Carlisle out of the way for a bit, let's get started," she smirks.

Alice smirked along with her, loving this new confident side of Bella.

"So, who wants to go first?" Bella called out, looking around the room still smiling.

Everyone looks at each other, waiting for someone to volunteer.

"Maybe Alice should go first?" Jasper says after a few moments of silence.

"Jasper!" Alice squealed. Everyone chuckled at her response to that whereas Jasper threw his arms up in defence.

"I'm just saying," he begins to explain, "If Bella needs to learn how to expand this shield of hers, the best way to start it off is by using her primal need to protect the person she loves. In this case, you."

Everybody nods their head in approval. "That makes sense, yeah do that, Bells!" Emmett called out with a huge smile on his face.

Bella looks a bit hesitant now, losing some of the confidence and newfound energy she had when she stormed into the room. Not wanting to back down now, and knowing it was the best chance they all had, she agrees.

"Alice? Are you okay with it?" Bella asks softly.

"We need to expand your shield," Alice sighs. "And like Jasper said, I'm the key to this getting done faster and more proficiently. So let's just get started, then."

Bella could see that her lover was frightened of what was about to happen. She could only pray at this point that she is able to get control of her shield and protect her more or less straight away.

"So what's your plan, boss?" Emmett smirks.

"Laurent," Bella says simply, looking towards the leader of the trio bound with chains.

"What about me?" He asks, eyebrows furrowed.

"You have a gift. You told me that yourself, that your gift doesn't work on me. And I doubt whatever gift you were trying to use on me was going to be gentle."

Laurent laughs and his two friends smirk. "You want me to use my gift on your little friend there?" He nods his head towards Alice in amusement.

"Yes," Bella replies.

Laurent studies Bella for a few moments before saying, "And why would I want to help you?"

Releasing a low growl, Bella steps forward and says threateningly, "Because if you don't, I will personally make sure that you never leave this basement."

A few silent moments pass as Laurent contemplates this deal.

"And how do I know you're not just going to keep us chained up in here forever anyways?"

"That's a gamble you're going to have to take now, isn't it?" Bella walks around the basement, seeming to survey the area, "Would you really put so much trust and faith into witches who could so easily turn on you and turn you into mush? How do you know they're not just using you to get to me? I'm sure once you have done their dirty work for them, they'd obliterate you with just a snap of their fingers." She clicks her fingers in front of them to push her point across.

The three chained vampires flinch in response, giving more hope to Bella that they will crack and give the Cullens what they need.

After a few long moments of Laurent thinking hard about his options, he takes a deep breath as he stands straighter looking hard into Bella's eyes. "Okay." It was one simple word and yet it changed everything. Laurent was going to help them. He didn't fully trust the Cullens and he still felt somewhat devoted to the witches, but what Bella said was enough to get him doubting the witches' true intentions with the three nomads. "Okay," he repeats. "I'll help you."

Victoria and James share a quick glance at each other, both of them seeing the confusion and curiosity in each other's eyes, asking the silent question, "What is Laurent up to?"

Bella smiled triumphantly at Laurent agreeing to help them. "Then let's get started."

Alice looks uncertainly at Bella but nods her head anyways as she readies herself for whatever Laurent's gift was going to do to her. She can't help but pray that Bella is a fast learner.

A moment later, Alice's eyes open wide in fear as Laurent's gift is put to use. She can't move, but the tortured expression on her face says all it has to as Bella tries desperately in expanding her shield to protect her lover.

"STOP!" Bella yells out. Laurent stops and Alice falls to the ground in relief of being freed from her worst nightmare and brought back to reality but still shakes from the aftermath of it all. Bella rushes towards her and picks her back up, hugging her tightly to her chest. "I'm so sorry," she whispers to her. Alice's shaking dies down a bit but keeps her head nuzzled in Bella's neck and holds onto her tightly as she breathes in her lover's scent, calming her down.

"I know," she whispers back.

A few moments pass before Jasper clears his throat, "I know that was terrible for you, Alice. Believe me, I know… But in order for Bella to use her gift to shield the rest of us in the upcoming battle, we need to try again."

Alice freezes against Bella for a second before relaxing enough to slowly pull away from Bella. Looking at the ground she says barely above a whisper, "I know." Bella doesn't know what to do. She doesn't want to put Alice through that again, it hurt her just seeing Alice living in such fear, but she also knew that Alice was her best shot at getting control of her shield.

Studying Alice as she looks up at Bella with determination in her eyes, Bella sighs and gives in looking back at Laurent. He nods his head in understanding. Not soon after Alice had regained her composure, Laurent went back to using his gift on the girl and Bella was trying desperately to get her shield to cover Alice in protection against Laurent's torture. This time, Bella could see her shield expanding away from her body towards Alice. She couldn't hold onto it for long though as it went back to only shielding Bella.

"Stop." Bella demands. Alice slinks back to the floor after Laurent stops using his gift on her. "It's working. I can see it making its way over to you now, Alice." Bella couldn't help feeling a little excited about this, even though Alice was suffering from it.

The smaller girl just nods her head in response. Once Alice was ready, they were at it again with Bella getting further with her shield each time. An hour and a half later, Bella was able to shield Alice from Laurent's gift, much to Alice's relief.

"Alright, so who's next?" Bella called out eagerly.

Everyone looked to each other in slight fear that it would be their turn. Knowing that Jasper went through the same emotions Alice had gone through, she decided to spare him as she called out Emmett's name to be the next guinea pig for her to practice her shield on.

He looked to Rose in fear, but she just sighed with relief that it wasn't her taking over for Alice. He narrowed his eyes at her as he went and stood in front of Bella, cracking his knuckles and stretching out his limbs in preparation of what was about to come. He knew it wasn't going to be pretty if Bella struggled with it, considering she obviously didn't have the bond with him that she did with Alice that helped motivate her further in protecting her lover.

Bella nodded her head at Laurent, silently telling him to use his gift on Emmett. It took a little while, but eventually Bella got her shield covering him, automatically ending the torture Emmett was living in inside his head.

After a few silent moments, Emmett looked up at Bella with a big grin on his face as he ran over to the girl and enveloped her in a bear hug as he spun her around calling out joyfully, "You did it! The witches aren't gonna know who they're messing with!"

Everyone in the room laughed at Emmett's antics as he finally decided to put Bella back down on the ground. Alice was the next one to give Bella a crushing hug. "I knew you could do it," she smiles lovingly up at her.

Smiling back at Alice she replies, "You always believe in me." Alice's smile grows as Bella leans down to capture the girl's lips with her own.

"Okay lovebirds break it up," Rosalie interrupts rolling her eyes with a hint of a smile on her face. "We need to Bella to keep practicing before Esme and Carlisle come back. Let's try and get you shielding two people now, Bella."

The two girls break apart as Bella readies herself again. Rosalie grabs Emmett's hand as she takes a spot in front of Bella, preparing herself for the torture she is about to endure. Emmett does the same, never letting go of Rosalie's hand as they close their eyes and wait for their worst fears to play out like a movie in their minds.

Bella nods her head at Laurent to get started. He nods his head in response as he begins using his gift on the couple.

The torture of Laurent's gift and Bella's shield training starts again.