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Four chapters to go after this one...I've always known how this was ending...for the first time I know the exact path I'm taking there ;-)

This Chapter features Midnight created by the incomparable Black Rose of Night...I thank her for letting me use her.

Chapter 25

Carlisle

MPOV

Aunt Bella had lost her hat somewhere in the process of running between her chambers and the throne room. It's odd how in times of crisis you notice silly things like that. Then I looked over and sure enough, Alice was grasping the hat. Leave it to Alice to remain fashion minded in times of crisis...

Aro, Caius and Marcus were literally perched on the edge of their thrones. Their tension was palpable.

"Where is the body?" Bella burst out.

"You would do well to hold your tongue for once and listen Princess..." Caius growled. He was obviously way stressed, no one talked to Aunt Bella that way.

Bella bowed her head and muttered "I remain but your humble servant."

I couldn't help myself upon seeing Bella's artifice of humility. I chuckled and then an old village saying popped in my head, "Aunt Bella you're about as independent as a hog on ice." I even saw the corner's of the normally passive Marcus's lips twitch slightly upwards at my little bon motte'.

Aro gestured towards a bag by his ancient seat.

"We have recovered Alec's head, nothing else, the murder scene has not been disturbed as we presumed you, sweet Midnight or both of you would want to examine it."

"We do," Bella replied tersely.

The scene of the crime was a courtyard, just beyond the castle proper.

I immediately noticed three sets of impossibly huge wolf prints leading to a bench in the courtyard set upon flagstones which were without question hundreds of years old, yet still flawless. The bench itself backed up to a fountain where two children were at play, eternally perfect, happy statues, water cascading about them.

Aunt Bella was examining the tracks leading to the stone and then even more closely examining the tracks leading away.

"They would have surprised him, Alec's power is slow to activate..." She mumbled, though we could all hear it clearly.

She examined the tracks leading away, gazing at one set particularly intensely.

Finally she stood upright.

"Alec is not dead," She announced matter of factly...

"Isabella, beautiful one, I know it is hard for use to accept...but we have his head..." Aro gestured towards the canvas bag which Demetri had borne here with us.

"I will need to see that, " Bella said nodding at Demetri. Without any emotion at all he pulled Alec's head from the bag, holding it up by the hair...Jane, who'd joined us unbeknownst to me, screamed. Alec's crimson eyes were open wide and fogged over in death.

I'm not sure where she'd been hiding it in that little polka dot mini-dress (and I'd imagine many imaginations were peaked in speculation) but Bella produced one of her mini-daggers and slashed the cheek of Alec's head.

"If this were from Alec's corpse it would be in flames right now," Bella gestured around the bench, "If Alec were decapitated here there would be venom splatter scarring the stones...there is none..."

She paused and pointed at the prints leaving.

"One set of prints was heavier leaving than arriving."

Bella ran her hand through her curls.

"Obviously Alec has been abducted...brilliant really...I'm certain he could be tortured into using his gift against us and I'm the only one who can shield us all from it...this is an attempt to remove me from the fight and turn Alec's powers against us."

I think Aunt Bella would have produced less shock and consternation if she'd announced she wanted to pursue a career as a hula dancer.

Then everyone was talking at once, mostly asking where the head had come from.

Bella silenced everyone with a fake cough.

"It's apparent these people know more about shape shifters than we do...one of them must have given their all for this project...I doubt they volunteered."

She looked around the courtyard. There was me, Alice, Rosalie, the three kings, Jane and Demetri.

"I don't believe anyone here is our traitor, but what I say next does not leave this courtyard."

She fixed us all with a glance.

"I believe we can turn this to our advantage. Demetri can you get a sense of where Alec is? I rather doubt our enemies expected us to even try that."

"Yes Princess Isabella...he is to the south...I can say more the closer we get, " he finally answered.

Bella smiled, a wicked smile full of implied violence, I saw Alice shudder when she saw it. It simply thrilled me, I'd seen that look on my Aunt's face before. It suggested fun, arriving soon

"We're going to...how do the Americans say it? Adjust their attitudes Aunt Bella?" I smiled at her, my most innocent smile.

"I think we'll just kill them instead Middie," The wicked smile never left her face.

CPOV

Bella had sent that sweet little vampire Armani to summon me though Armani been quite formal about her delivery of the invitation, "Physician Carlisle Cullen, the Princess Isabella Swann Volturi requests you attend her two hours hence within her quarters in the Volturi palace."

"The palace! what is it?" I responded, a bit shocked.

"It's a large ancient building the where the Volturi reside but that's not important right now," Armani responded, an impish look on her face.

"Be there or be square Doc," she added and then she was gone.

So I'd prepared myself and now stood outside Bella and Alice's rooms.

The idea of Bella and Alice together didn't trouble me in the slightest, what Bella had become did. Alice and now Rosalie swore there was more to Bella than I was seeing, but I really only had my own perceptions to go by. What I saw was rage and violence, barely held in check by force of will.

Perhaps if I made her understand, made her really understand.

Well if wishes were horses then beggars would ride, we'd just have to see.

I knocked on the door.

"Enter," I heard Bella snap from within.

I did so and Bella said "Sit," nodding at a chair opposite her seat on the large couch.

I did that too, trying to gauge the purpose of this meeting.

"I'm about to ask you a favor Carlisle. I have nothing to offer in return, I don't particularly like you and I have not treated you well as of late, but I still think you will want to accede."

"Before you ask me Isabella, there is a favor I'd ask of you in return and it's simply this...when you are done to hear me out, to allow me to talk to you."

Bella gave me a pained look.

"I suppose that is not too onerous...what I want of you is simply this..." She held the bridge of her nose between a gloved thumb and forefinger, "No one knows more about vampire physiology than you. There is a battle coming, soon, somewhere safe from the battle but close I'd like you to be in charge of medical care and assistance...and I'd like for Esme to assist you. That is the boon I request."

She looked me straight in the eyes, her scarlet orbs free of any hint of deceit.

"I'd have done that without being asked Isabella," I tried to give her just as honest an appraisal.

"Then say what you feel you must..." Bella sounded resigned.

"I want to tell you about when we left Bella, this doesn't excuse what we did, what I did, but it is the truth."

Bella was just looking at me, eyes and face devoid of any emotion.

"Edward came to me, and his arguments, no matter whether you agree or not, were logically sound. Your life had been placed at risk, repeatedly, exclusively because of us...because of our presence."

"But that was not enough for me to support him in his plan for us to leave. I loved you, I still do (I saw her restrain herself from saying anything) I honestly believe Esme loves you more than she loves any of the rest of us..."

"Then why did you leave Carlisle? Why did you give your blessing to casting me aside like something used up and worn out?" Bella snapped, anger clear in her tone and her shaking hands.

"Because Edward said he'd leave us if we didn't. Edward was always the best of us, the brightest. His highs have always been higher and his lows lower. I could not stand the idea of our family shattering. Edward made me choose between you and him, I chose him. I'm sorry but it was a simple as that, as agonizing and simple as that."

Bella stared at me a long time.

"I'll think on what you said Carlisle, when the time comes...do as I asked you."

There seemed to be nothing left to say so I nodded and left.

A/N I hope you enjoyed that. Please Please review.