A/N: I finally have a beta! A big thanks to PaintedTeacheLady who beta'ed this chapter :)

That's all... for now... enjoy!

Mind Games

"Of course, my dear friend," said Carlisle, moving forward. "How are you?"

"Great, my dear friend," Aro replied, with a fake smile, "I can see your whole family is here."

"Of course, you know all of them: Esme and the kids," Carlisle mentioned, pointing all of us out.

"Sure I do. You know I have a great memory Carlisle," Aro stated while moving closer to us. "Edward, good to see you," he said, extending his hand for Edward to shake it – with all intentions to read his mind.

"Don't," I pleaded, "I don't want him seeing our memories."

"Don't worry love," Edward said to me, without looking, "just take your shield off of me."

"I won't. He has no power over us; he doesn't even haves an excuse to visit us."

"Can't I visit my dear friend Carlisle from time to time?" Aro tensely asked. His guard was equally on edge behind him.

"You don't need to put on an act Aro, just tell us what you are doing here. What do you want from us?" I said. Renesmee grabbed my hand tightly and Jacob, in his wolf form, came closer to her.

"Oh, my dear, I don't know what you are talking about…" he started to say.

"Aro, you know that my husband can read your thoughts," I abruptly mentioned, stepping forward. I was bored of the façade that he was trying so hard to maintain; we knew him well enough to know he had other motives. Then why to continue lying? Edward put himself in front of me and Renesmee, to hold me back.

"So much hostility coming from you my dear Bella," Aro grinned again, "I don't know why you are so worried."

"She's worried about her little hybrid," Jane said. Every person in my family growled in response.

"Her name is Renesmee," Rosalie growled, "and you have no business talking about her." Jane just glared, obviously pleased with the response she got; she always enjoyed the tension and the violence.

"Oh, yes, little Renesmee," Aro said, looking at her for the first time, acting like he hadn't noticed her, "How are you sweetie?"

Renesmee flinched by my side and subtly touched my skin. She told me through her mind that she didn't know what to say. I nodded, to let her know it was alright.

"I-I'm fine, tha-thank you," she stuttered in reply.

"Aro," I demanded, "can you cut to the chase?"

Aro turned his head slowly toward me. He wasn't smiling anymore. "The moment Edward gives me his hand," he stated, not trying to look friendly anymore.

"I won't take my shield off," I said fiercely, my voice was almost a growl. Aro smiled with satisfaction and he turned to look at Alice.

"Tell me my dear Alice," he inquired, "you were the one who saw us coming, right?"

"Of course, you know I can see the future Aro," she answered, confused.

"Were you able to see something else besides that?"

"No," Alice replied, shocked. We all looked at each other. How does Aro knows something like that?

"Gianna," Edward said, his eyes wide open.

"You saw it, right?" Aro shared, smiling even wider. "Gianna, my dear, can you come here for a second?"

"Sure master," she said, stepping forward. She stood beside Aro and grinned at us. Every person in the guard giggled with anticipation.

"My dear Gianna, I want to be able to hear Edward's thoughts, but Bella's shield won't let me, can you do something about it?" My whole family tensed - what could Gianna do about my shield?

"Sure master," Gianna obeyed. She started to shake - it was something barely noticeable, but I put Renesmee behind me and Jacob stood beside me. Gianna continued to shake as she looked into my eyes, and I felt like my shield was being torn apart. In the next second I couldn't feel my family under it! I tried to put my shield around them again, but I couldn't get a hold on it.

"What did you do?" I hissed and every person in Aro's guard laughed.

"When I changed Gianna I soon found out that she was very special," Aro explained, smiling at Gianna, who was now the one taking his hand. Jane stood behind them; she rolled her eyes when Aro said 'special'. Maybe Jane wasn't Aro's favorite pet anymore. "I noticed she had the ability to grab someone's power and mess with it, in every way she wants to: she can enhance it, twist it or… can make it disappear all together," Aro slowly trailed off, looking at me.

A shiver ran through my spine, and pure fear was crawling down my back. She took my power away. I wasn't able to protect my family anymore; I wasn't able to protect Edward's thoughts; I wasn't able to protect anybody from Jane's power; even worse, I wasn't able to protect anybody from Alec's power. Every person in my family was staring at me in disbelief. They wanted some kind of sign that my shield was still working, but my face gave away the truth, because Aro's guards laughed once again. A fierce growl came out of Edward's mouth.

"Don't worry my dear Bella," Aro sighed, "it's only temporary. You'll get your power back, eventually."

"What is it that you want, Aro?" Edward demanded through clenched teeth.

"Your hand Edward," Aro said simply, stretching his own hand. Edward took it reluctantly.

I was trying to get a hold on my shield, unsuccessfully. I was also trying to come up with a plan, but I couldn't think of any. We were doomed. Aro smirked and closed his eyes, hearing Edward's past and recent thoughts. Suddenly I felt a wave of calm emanating from Jasper. Good, he was keeping everyone calmed.

"What do we have here?" said Aro, after a while; he was looking at me. "Who's the red head?" he asked me directly.

"It must be Lillian," I said, "but you must have heard that in Edward's thoughts."

"Yes, I heard it," Aro smiled again, "what incredible power she has; too bad you are planning on killing her."

'Mommy, what is he talking about?' I heard Nessie in my head, as she sent me her thoughts through our clasped hands, 'Why do you want to kill her?' I looked down and I shook my head, letting her know we'd discuss that later.

"Maybe I'll stay around to see her," Aro continued, not noticing my little exchange with Nessie, "from what I can hear, Alice saw her coming tomorrow."

"No," I snapped, "you'll ruin my plans. I need to get rid of her! You can't intervene with that." Lillian must be stopped one way or the other, but Aro will ruin my plans and let her live.

"Maybe it's a good thing Bella," Aro suggested, "you don't want a murder on your hands, do you?"

"You don't know what I want; you don't know me," I told him bluntly.

"But, I have seen it," Aro uttered.

"That's not the same Aro, so don't act like you know me," I stepped forward, leaving Nessie behind with Jacob. "Now, can you tell me what are you doing here?"

"I just wanted to see how Nessie was doing," was the reply, "and I see no problem."

"So why don't you leave?" I asked. "Just leave me and my family alone once and for all."

"Am I bothering you?" Aro inquired, faking shock.

"Do I have to spell it for you?" I hissed. "I don't know why you came, but I know that I don't like it. If you came here to take a member of my family away, I must tell you I will fight back; I don't need my shield to defend myself."

"I don't want to fight my dear Isabella," Aro assured me, with a friendly smile that I wasn't buying.

"Then, why is your guard here?"

"It is merely a precaution," Aro answered, "I have no use to lose such precious lives; you know you have too great gifts to go to waste."

"Well," I said stepping forward, my mind working hard to create a plan; the only thing I could think of was relying on Aro's consideration of his own rules. "We won't fight and you already saw how Nessie is doing, so you can leave. We warned others about your visit; everyone will know if anything happens to us, and you know we have a lot of friends," I said, stepping forward once again. Aro's smile faltered. He must be thinking in all of the people who stood behind us during his last visit; he must see that if he does any harm to us, he will receive consequences – something he's not used to. Aro turned around and went to stand with the guard, Gianna followed.

"You are right, dearest Bella," he replied, grabbing Jane's hand. "We see no problem in keeping Nessie alive, so we must leave." He turned around and his entire guard turned with him, in a form they had practiced a million times. Aro and his entourage were almost entering the woods when he turned around and said, "I won't go too far though."

I moved forward to attack, but Edward grabbed my wrist. Aro continued walking and soon disappeared into the forest.

"Let him go Bella," Edward said. "We don't have a chance."

"He will ruin my plans… he will ruin our lives!" I cried, looking desperately at Edward's face for some kind of insurance.

"He'll keep a close-eye on us," Edward explained, "he's more confident about the fact that he has Gianna on his side, so he'll be waiting until the moment we mess up to come down on us."

"He must be stopped," I stated, exasperated that this was even being discussed.

"He surely must, but we can't do it right now," Edward said, stroking my hair. "Now let's go inside, we'll have another stressful day tomorrow," he said, reminding me about the fact that Lillian was coming tomorrow. She will come here and I will fight, and, at least, one of our problems will finally disappear. Maybe someday Aro will disappear, too.

I went inside the house thinking about the day that we'd be finally free. I also considered tomorrow, thinking about how I'm going to tear Lillian apart, which put me in a much happier mood.

Tomorrow is going to be a good day.

A/N: So, a big thanks to MrzCena8 who gave me the inspiration I needed to give Gianna a cool power. Maybe this isn't kirby's power, but is the close enough :)

Another IMPORTANT thing. There will be only one more chapter and an epilogue. Yes dear readers, ANL have come to its end. There will be a sequel but not in sometime, I'm going to spend all my focus on my other fanfic LL&L for a while (you are more than free to check that out, link's on my profile)

Thank you so much for reading this story. You are truly the best readers a fanfic author can have :)

Muchas Gracias! Connie :)