Alice's POV

Traveling with Nahuel was infuriating; I couldn't fathom how Huilen had put up with it for a century and a half. He was so slow! We had wasted so much time waiting and being patient so that they wouldn't bolt away from us and now we had to trudge back to the battle field at near human pace.

Jasper said that I was being ridiculous, that the boy was moving well beyond the speed of any human. But it didn't matter to me. I had no way of gauging when that battle would be begin and here we were, traveling so much slower than we were capable. Had it just been Jasper and I, we would have been there by now. I didn't like not knowing whether we would make it. I knew that I was being unreasonable. But I couldn't help my exasperation. My family's life depended on it.

Edward's POV

The last two days before the Volturi came for us was a game of waiting. During the day we tried to occupy ourselves the best that we could. We would watch Benjamin and Bella practice their rapidly developing talents. Zafrina would entertain Nessie with pretty pictures while several of us would spar in the open field. At night, we would hunt.

None of us were particularly thirsty, but we hunted to abate the boredom and to further sustain and strengthen us. After a short hunt, Carlisle and I would go to the clearing that would soon become the site of our final stand.

I hated leaving Bella and Renesmee at nighttime. Bella knew, of course, that Demetri would most likely be tracking Carlisle or me. It only made sense for us to be waiting for them where we wanted this confrontation to take place. It wasn't necessary for Bella And Nessie to be uncomfortable while we waited. They stayed warm and comfortable at the big house while Carlisle and I stood watch.

It was ominous, really. We all knew that this was inevitable. Alice saw them; they were coming. But just standing in the clearing waiting for them to come and pass judgment was enough to drive me crazy with the futility of it all. I wanted to do something, be proactive in our approach. But, what could we do? Any of us approaching them alone would be killed immediately without question. Our best offence was a show of force and solidarity. And so we waited in the open clearing for the snow to fall and our judges to arrive.

Carlisle and I spoke infrequently but our words were full of meaning. I hadn't spoken of this to Bella, but although I missed our time together, I was thankful for these quiet evenings with my father. I didn't remember my human father very well. I couldn't remember any goodbye that we shared before his death. Although Carlisle and I would never say the words, this quiet conversation before the storm was our goodbye.

"Nessie has been sleeping well despite the turmoil of sleeping at the big house again," I said.

She's a strong and resilient child, Carlisle thought.

"Too resilient," I mused.

"Why do you say that?" Carlisle asked.

"She shouldn't have to deal with any of this!" I raged. Suddenly too anxious and upset to stand still, I paced back and forth in the clearing at lightening speed. "She's only four months old, Carlisle! She shouldn't be saddled with the knowledge that her entire family might die because she's different!"

"You don't know--" he began, but I waved him off.

"I do!" I growled. "I see it in her thoughts when she doesn't know I'm watching. I hear it behind her questions when she asks me things. She'd never let on to anyone else, but she can't hide her thoughts from me as easily as she can from everyone else. She knows! And she worries so. It's not healthy."

What does she think about? He asked curiously.

"She thinks that Bella will be the one to save us. She's positive that Bella is the key to everything. She hasn't said as much to Bella, but I know that she is feeling the pressure of Nessie's trust. Bella already worries that our reliance on her shield might be the thing that dooms us; if she were to suspect that Nessie was predicting that Bella would save us all, --"

Renesmee knows things that she has no right knowing, Edward. Carlisle was looking hard at me as I paced.

"You don't think -- but she isn't a psychic like Alice, Carlisle. You can't think that she knows anything about the outcome of our confrontation?"

"No--," he said slowing. I think that she feels something about the confrontation and I wouldn't be the one to bet against her. She knows Bella best of all.

What he said was true. But even if Bella's shield was perfectly able to cover us all, which I doubted she could accomplish under all of that pressure, it wouldn't stop Felix and Demetri from throwing us in the flames when they had reached their decision. I shook my head and continued pacing.

"What are you thinking?" Carlisle interrupted me.

"That it won't make a difference either way," I said desperately. "If they won't listen even the strongest shield in the world won't make a difference. I shouldn't have spent so much time practicing, Carlisle. I should have spent time hiding my daughter, making plans for where she could go if they decide to kill us. What was I thinking Carlisle? What kind of a father am I?"

He chuckled and shook his head.

One of the best I know, he thought fondly. I just shook my head, too angry and nervous to be thankful for his praise.

"I mean that, Edward," he said, putting his hand on my shoulder to stop my pacing. "You are one of the best fathers that I know. I hope that my example has helped, but I saw the potential in you from the first. I'm proud to call you my son."

I looked at him and realized that this was goodbye, or as close as we would come to it. Neither of us would admit that this was possibly the last night we would spend waiting and watching. Neither of us would say the words aloud. I took him in my arms and held him close.

"I love you, Dad," I said finally.

And I love you, son.

The air seemed to shiver as the clouds began to roll in. The snow would come tomorrow evening at the latest. With the snow would come our judges and our time would be up. Carlisle and I both began pacing the field as the night wore on, both of us wondering whether Nessie might know more than either of us could guess.

Near dawn we looked at each other wordlessly and headed back to the house. It would be our last day and there were many preparations that needed to be made before tonight. We sprinted back to the house, eager be around our family and get the day underway.

Preparations had already begun by the time that we arrived at home. Although it was early, Nessie was up and alert to the flurry of activity around her. Her thoughts were quiet and resigned, but they were far from confused. I focused on her for a few moments after we walked into the house, trying to gauge how frightened she might be. I was not as surprised as I might have been at how calmly she watched the vampires swirling around her.

Bella's eyes caught mine just after I walked into the house and no words were needed. She knew what Carlisle and I saw as we stood on the field. All of the immortals gathered here had felt it as they hunted or pursued their other nighttime activities. Wordlessly, we embraced and I felt a tremor go through her. When we released each other, all of the fear in her eyes was gone and had been replaced by a steely resolve. It was a shocking transformation. Gone was the frail girl that I had protected for so long. My wife was fierce in her determination and protection of our daughter. I stopped for a moment to ponder what Nessie had seen in her mother from the beginning because I could easily see this version of Bella being the savior of the day.


Jacob, Bella, and Renesmee joined Carlisle and I the night before the confrontation. We set up a small tent just inside the stand of trees for Nessie to sleep in and Jacob joined her there, warming her through the cold night.

Sometime just after full sunset, I heard Benjamin coming through the brush. Immediately I was on alert, wondering what could have brought him out here. I thought that the rest would be hunting until almost dawn. But, as he came toward us, I could hear him estimating the weights and shapes of the rocks that he found and I realized what he was doing. He entered the field and looked right at me, smiling deviously.

"Good plan," I called to him.

He shrugged. "It can't hurt," he said, picking up one of the larger boulders that he had found and setting it to one side of the mouth of the clearing.

I watched as he arranged and rearranged the patterns of the rocks until they formed a natural looking formation. Carlisle and I both offered to help him, but he insisted that he knew what he needed it to look like. Just before the snow began to fall, Benjamin had set his traps.

There, he thought, pleased with the way the rocks looked natural in the moonlight.

"When the snow covers it," I said, "no one will ever be able to tell that they were placed by hand."

"Well, unless they know about me, which we know they do not yet, why would they even look?" he asked, with the impish grin back on his face.

"True," I said.

"I know it won't hurt them, but I've placed them on fault lines. Maybe it will be enough to stun them--" he sounded doubtful.

I clapped him on the shoulder.

"Go," I said. "Hunt before the sun rises. We've done everything that we can do."

Bella and I spent the night on the field while Jacob warmed Renesmee. I knew that he slept only fretfully, waking at any noise and then falling quickly back to sleep. Like the immortals who had glutted themselves on blood, Jacob had been banking sleep. Many of the others in his pack had been spelling him more frequently than usual and he was letting them. He reasoned that he was going to need the extra rest come tonight and it turned out that he was correct.

Bella and I had been standing still as statues watching the snow begin to fall. It was déjà vu for me, watching the clearing in front of me shape itself into the vision Alice had shown me before she left. I saw the way the snow was piling itself on top of the boulders that Benjamin had loosely constructed. As the sun faintly touched the horizon, the snow began to sparkle. It was amazing how vividly this picture matched the one in my head. It was a beautiful scene; unfortunately, I was wholly unable to appreciate the beauty.

Our friends began arriving just after dawn. Esme, Rosalie, and Emmett were first. Esme came to Carlisle's side with a sigh of relief to see him safe. I tuned out their thoughts as they stared into each other's eyes. Emmett looked at me, an odd sparkle in his eye.

Ready, my brother? he asked silently.

His enthusiasm was infectious and I had to smile slightly at him. Rose rolled her eyes, guessing at the exchange. You two are ridiculous, she thought.

From the woods, I could hear the wolves beginning to assemble. I wasn't surprised to see Jacob emerge from the trees without Renesmee; I knew that she was still sleeping. Bella left my side to wait for Renesmee to wake and I met Jacob in the center of the field.

We're going to stay out of sight at first, he thought. I had seen this in the thoughts of both Jacob and Sam. They knew that our alliance with the wolves was our biggest surprise if not a biggest weapon. Holding out on the Volturi until the last minute might play to our favor.

"Be safe," I said, touching his shoulder.

He huffed and chortled the wolf equivalent of a laugh. They won't know what hit 'em.

He loped away into the trees and I heard the amazing intricacies of the dual pack mind begin to work as they hashed and rehashed their strategy. They were set on keeping their presence a secret from the Volturi, but I wondered how long that ruse would last given the pervading stink of wolf that saturated the trees around us. I shook my head slightly and tried to focus. The rest of our friends had arrived and it was time to get our battle lines drawn.

"Zafrina and Benjamin need to be just behind the front lines, as close to Bella as we can get them," Garrett was saying. I didn't even have time to wish for Jasper, but he was not far from Emmett's or Peter's minds as we drew up our plan of attack.

"Edward and I will flank Carlisle," Emmett said. Rosalie slid her hand into his in a silent pledge to take his flank. No one would challenge her.

"We fight by Carlisle's side," Tanya stated, eyes level with Carlisle's, giving her solemn pledge to keep him as safe as she could.

Eleazar turned to Carmen, taking her hands in his and bringing them to his lips. Their conversation was mostly silent; however, it was a beautiful testament to what everyone was both fighting for and potentially giving up here today.

"I must be on the front lines," he said. "You know that."

She nodded, knowing that his presence would both unsettle the Volturi and possibly give them pause.

"You are my life," he said simply.

"And you are mine," she replied. With no more than a slight brushing of lips, they turned from each other, taking their places in the ranks.

Garrett stood just behind Kate and Tanya, just to the side of the pairing of Zafrina and Senna. I watched Senna's eyes darting through the forest, as if expecting the Volturi to arrive at any second. And then I realized that she wasn't searching for the black, flowing cloaks of the Volturi. She was hoping for a glimpse of her missing sister before the battle begun.

I would have given anything to see Alice one more time, but I was more than grateful that she was not here for this. Aro would stop at nothing to obtain her; she must have seen that. Her only choice would have been death or enslavement. Alice was no one's slave. And it gave me hope to think of them somewhere, continuing to exist through all of this madness. I hadn't realized that I needed to do this, but I forgave Alice in that moment for leaving me. I had been resentful, although I had barely let myself admit it. But I didn't want resent or anger to taint these last thoughts of my sister. I was thankful she was alive and that Jasper was with her. They would go on and I would make sure that Demetri wouldn't walk away from this to hunt them down.


Alice's POV

We arrived at the water's edge knowing that the time was coming. The wolves were gone from the shore line, already gearing up for the battle in the woods. It was still dark, but we couldn't let our family see us now. I knew Aro well enough to know that only a show of greater pageantry than he could dream of would be enough to sway him from his goal. Now, my greatest trick would be to stay out of Edward's range until the last second. It would be difficult, not knowing the exact moment that we would be needed; but I found, now that we were closer, that I could focus more on the Volturi and block out the holes, seeing more of the battle play itself out.

Battle was a poor word for this; chess match would be more accurate. Carlisle and Edward would be playing chess with the Volturi. Each witness would be like a pawn. They couldn't know that I held the king until the Volturi were sure that they held the checkmate in their hand. We stayed roughly five miles away from the "chess board" and listened.


Edward's POV

Bella and Renesmee emerged from the trees after most of the lines had been filled. I had nearly forgotten about the gift that Aro had sent Bella so I was surprised to see it around her throat. I doubted it would buy us any points with the Volturi; but, like so many before had both thought and said about different strategies, it couldn't hurt.

I noticed Nessie' accessory next and cocked my eyebrow, wondering what could possibly be inside. No. I heard it clear and loud across the field as they walked toward me. Nessie was looking right at me, face calm but fearful. Daddy, Momma will protect us. Remember, she thought as they came to my side. I put my arms tight around the two greatest loves of my life and sighed as I let them go. I prayed that Nessie was right and that Bella would protect us. I looked at Bella and saw the same resolve set deep in her eyes that was there yesterday morning. Bella was ready.

To my right, the Irish coven was gathered tightly together around its orbit, Siobhan. She was rubbing her temples with her eyes closed and she was concentrating on one word: Peace. That was, perhaps, the best thing that she could have hoped for. Hoping that either side came out victorious could serve to spur on a war.

I heard his decision and the fight with his pack before I saw Jacob trotting out of the woods to stand at Bella and Nessie's side.

Are you carzy? It was Seth first, never afraid to stand up to his Alpha when he thought his feelings were leading him astray.

No, Jacob said calmly. I belong out there. With my family.

We're your family, too, Jake, I heard Sam say, the tone of the Alpha lording over his statement, although it was ineffectual on Jacob of course.

It's not the same, Sam, Jacob said to him. Imagine if it was Emily out there.

Go, Sam said. We'll have your back. You know that.

Of course, he said, already jogging over to us.

I could feel Nessie relax as she twined her fingers into the hair on Jacob's shoulder. This was the way it ought to be. If something were to go wrong, nothing would get between Jacob and a way out for Nessie. I felt myself relaxing as well, knowing that Jacob would get Nessie to safety.

I reached my hand back to where I knew Bella was, squeezing her fingers in my hand to let her know that I loved her and I would be by her side until the very end.

Suddenly, I heard them. Their thoughts were rolling toward us now. They would be here in under five minutes. I hissed involuntarily and the grouping around me froze, bracing itself.

Finally, I recognized Caius's thoughts first. He seemed . . . relieved and excited. I was surprised at first until I heard his other thoughts. Nearly five hundred years since the last time we left Voterra. He was excited to be on holiday. I gritted my teeth at the thought and hoped that I could do something to ruin his vacation.

Marcus was very simply bored. He had seen so much in his three thousand years that he couldn't fathom anything that would interest him here. In fact, he was anxious for these proceedings to be over so that he could return to Volterra so that he could at least continue to be bored someplace that he was familiar with.

Jane and Alec were more interesting than any of them. Their minds were so similar that it was difficult to tell them apart. They were looking forward to a chance to exercise their gifts. Jane and Alec knew that we were one of the largest mature coven in existence and they were looking forward to an opportunity to prove how useful they were to Aro. There was something close to hero worship in the tone their thoughts took on when they thought of Aro. I understood something of the fear of the immortal children first hand as I looked into Jane's and Alec's minds.

Although the other members of the guard and the Volturi themselves had no doubt that they would kill us, they mourned the death of other creatures like themselves. They were remorseful for having to carry out what they considered the needless extermination of other immortals. They hoped to be able to save those who were not directly involved. There was none of that remorse in the thoughts of Jane and Alec. They were excited about the thought of hurting us. They wanted to hurt and kill as many of us as they could in order to prove themselves worthy and powerful to their masters. I shuddered at the coldness in their thoughts and was suddenly grateful that they would not be the ones to determine our fate.

Aro's thoughts were clouded and difficult for me to read because of the varied emotions that were swimming through his mind. There was wariness there, along with excitement and disappointment. There was also regret. He calculated as they traveled, wondering which of the plans that he had concocted would work to allow him to achieve his goals. He was excited about the opportunities that the acquisitions he felt sure he would make today would provide him. I couldn't read names, but I could tell by the amount of excitement in his mind that there were several possibilities running through his mind. He was also disappointed and regretful at having to challenge Carlisle. Despite everything, Aro did consider Carlisle a friend, inasmuch as someone like Aro had friends. He was not excited about the prospect of doing away with another immortal that he felt to be as singular as Carlisle.

And yet the came. I could see the trees rolling past them as they flowed over the landscape toward us. They would break through the stand of tree opposite us in just under a minute. As I braced myself for the sight, I heard a small voice in my head. Remember was all that it said.

A/N: Sorry this took longer than usual. I read a quote once that said that Writer's Block was when your imaginary friends refused to talk to you. That's pretty accurate. Now, imagine if Edward is your imaginary friend. Yesterday was terribly depressing. Luckily, Edward and I are back on speaking terms. And, I have a new found understanding of why the lead up to the battle was just glossed over by SM. This was a hard chapter to write. Forgive me if it doen't live up to what you were expecting. I understand that it is somewhat scattered, but I thought that fit with the way the characters would have been feeling. I'm writing more today and hope to have the first part of the battle up either tonight or tomorrow. Of course, let me know what you're thinking. Hope you enjoy! ~Jen