Disclaimer: I do not own what was created by the lovely Stephenie.

Enjoy!

XxxxxxxxxxxxX

And anytime you feel the pain, hey Jude, refrain,
Don't carry the world upon your shoulders.
For well you know that it's a fool who plays it cool
By making his world a little colder.

It was official. This was the worst day of Bella's life…ever.

She was the equivalent of a drowned rat from the storm that was raging outside the palace walls but did anyone seem to care or at least let her get a change of clothes? Nope, never crossed their minds.

To add to her lovely day, she was getting a good tongue lashing from Amy and Jordon. All she had gotten from Esme, Francesca, and Ashley were hugs and "thank god your back", Ara and Alice had fussed about the state of her clothes while Toni just smirked at Bella as if to say that this was punishment enough.

Bella was feeling extremely guilty as she forced herself to listen to all of Amy and Jordon's speech on how irresponsible, stupid, and selfish she was. Bella kept glancing to the door of the entrance hall where she had been deposited after being found. The people she was most anxious and dreading to see had yet to appear.

She took a deep breath and plucked up the courage to ask about their whereabouts.

"Where's everyone else?" That stopped everyone in what they were doing in order to cast furtive glances to each other.

It was Toni who finally broke the awkward silence.

"I think Emmett is dragging Edward here with Jasper and Aubrey and Nicole are trying to convince Raven to come down here."

Bella felt as if a wrecking ball had hit her in her stomach. "That bad?" she gave a strangled laugh, trying to lighten the mood.

Suddenly the doors to the hall ricocheted off the walls, leaving large cracks in the walls they were pushed open so hard, making everyone jump. They turned to see that in the doorway stood a livid Nicole with chunks of stone from the wall falling around her.

"Where's our little martyr?" she growled.

Bella gulped as Nicole caught sight of her and made her way over, flames licking the floor as she went leaving black scorch marks. Everyone took large steps away from Bella so as not to get caught in the crossfire–literally.

"Isabella Marie Swan-Sparks. How are you? Not good I hope?"

Bella looked at her sister with fear in her eyes. "I'm dreadful?" She was desperately hoping this answer would lessen the impending doom.

"Not yet you're not." She walked right up to Bella, letting her feel the heat of the flames against her face and watch as the ends of her hair burned before, without warning, she brought her fist back and did an upwards jab right into Bella's stomach. With a huge gasp and cough she bent over to clutch her stomach only to have her head violently jerked back as Nicole's knee made contact with her chin at full force.

Bella fell to her knees, one arm wrapped around her stomach and the other hand clutching her jaw that was beginning to swell since the bone was definitely broken. Her face was kept blank but when Nicole reached her hand down Bella couldn't help but flinch. To everyone's surprise Nicole grabbed Bella under her shoulders and lifted her into a standing position and took out some bandages to wrap her injuries with as they waited for them to heal.

Nicole surveyed her damage with the pride of a new parent. "There, I think I've made my opinion known about your little stunt."

"You're not mad?" Bella dared to ask, wincing as Nicole pulled the wrappings even tighter.

"Mad? Of course I'm mad but I've taken my anger for your out on you so in my book I feel that you know what you did was wrong and you still have a week's worth of sucking-up to do before I'll fully forgive you . Besides, I'm not the one you should be worried about."

Bella gawked at her, shocked; Nicole's not the dangerous one?

Nicole grinned coldly at her, "Nope."

"I'm the one you need to worry about."

At the cold, emotionless voice Bella shuddered and looked to the speaker.

Raven stood, watching Nicole as she worked before looking straight into Bella's eyes and the cold fury in them was scarier than Nicole on a bad day and I mean really really really bad day.

"Done." Nicole tore off the last strip of bandages and patted any loose corners down. She glanced between Bella and Raven before stepping back to join Aubrey.

Too put it lightly Bella was terrified of Raven at this point in time. She could handle yelling and rampaging angry Raven, but the quiet and cold fury of this Raven was a completely foreign thing to have to deal with.

All this Raven did was stand there, fists clenched at her sides, and a completely blank face with eyes void of all emotion. The only way one knew how upset she was was by looking at the visible trembling of her fists.

Gracefully she took steps toward Bella and with every step the ground cracked and vines and full grown trees burst from the cracks to cover the marble. Raven's hair also began to change its color, length, and style going anywhere from hot pink to royal purple, pixie to rapunzel length.

"Rae? Raven? Talk to me, say something! Please! Show me that you're there!" Bella cried as Raven now stopped a foot from her, eyes meeting hers blankly.

Bella looked to Jordon for some advice as to what to do but all he did was look on in fear for his little sister. This was no doubt bringing back memories of the catatonic Raven he had returned to after he had been turned and their parents had left them to die. Bella had seen the memories from Amy and she swore never to have Raven go through that ever again and here she was as the reason for the catatonic Raven before her.

"Raven? Rae I'm so sorry." Bella made to take a step closer to Raven when a hand shot out to stop her. Bella gaped at her but her face was hidden in the curtain of her now long black hair.

"Sorry? You're sorry? Do you even know what sorry is?" hissed a voice full of venom.

Bella opened her mouth but closed it after looking at Raven's face as she threw her hair back behind her to reveal her face. Instead of the blank face from before, it was now twisted into a mask of pain.

"All people seem to tell me is sorry. 'Sorry Raven that we had to leave you and your brother because your father's gambling debts were too great.' 'Sorry Raven but I'm a bloodthirsty monster and even though you don't care I'm going to leave you anyway.'" Jordon winced at both as Amy hugged him as a way to say that it wasn't his fault.

Raven is like Bella in the way that they both internalize their problems as they don't wish to burden others with them. The only problem with this is that when they finally let it all out it comes out like a torrential downpour at the same time as a category 5 hurricane is going on. Raven has always felt weak since she couldn't prevent those she loved from leaving her: her parents, Jordon, and Bella, however briefly, causing her to react this way when anyone she cares even remotely about leaves.

"'Sorry Raven but I can't let you die so I'm going to go die instead even though we all know that that will do nothing but hurt everyone else.'"

By now Raven was almost shouting the end of the last sentence as Bella winced with every word spoken as if she were being ripped to shreds by them.

"I am sick and tired of being lied to! I can take care of myself! I don't need others telling me what they believe is for my own good but is really for their own selfishness! Well you know what? Screw you!" By now the vines were twining around Raven's legs and torso, her chest heaving from all her pent up anger.

Everyone in the hall was stunned. They all knew Nicole was going to blow up at Bella but Raven? She was the one who was always on Bella's side and willing to give her a rude awakening when necessary but she never yelled at her like she was doing right now.

Raven had finished her shouting and had crumpled into herself while she was crouched on the ground holding her head in her vine covered hands.

Bella fell to the ground in front of her and pulled her hands away from her face to smile softly at the visibly shaken vampiress.

"Rae? I am sorry though and I promise here and now that I will never leave you. I mean, wouldn't life just be dreadfully dull without the Terror Twins?" Bella felt her heart clench with relief as Raven managed a half smile back.

"Besides everyone knows I'm the better of the two." Bella gave a haughty smirk.

The old spark always present in Raven's eyes returned as she growled a "hell no" and tackled Bella and they wrestled and rolled around on the floor shrieking and giggling, Raven's appearance back to normal with her regular hair and no vines twisting around her limbs.

Jordon seemed to collapse onto Amy as she supported him with a one-armed hug. The relief was evident on his face that he had his little sister back, the only person in his family that he ever truly cared about.

He turned his head to face the now open doorway where two people were standing.

"Where's Edward?" he asked the bulkier of the two.

He jerked his head behind him. "He's busy sulking, but he'll be here in a couple minutes."

Jordon merely quirked an eyebrow before moving to help Jasper and Emmett clear the people from the room leaving only Bella in it.

XxxxxxxxxxxxX

Bella was all alone in the Great Hall. Without the others there to distract her, all the doubts and insecurities she had about seeing Edward came back full force.

Does he hate me? Will he even want to look at me anymore? He probably hates me since I left right after I promised him.

Bella began to chew on her nail as she thought.

Hurried footsteps could be heard coming up the hallway.

'Shit' Bella thought.

The battered doors cracked open just enough to let the man enter.

Bella stopped mid-pace to look at him apprehensively, still biting her nails, which she belatedly realized she shouldn't do since they don't grow back.

She could feel his assessing gaze all over her body, looking for injuries and to make sure that it's really her.

"Edward." It was barely a whisper, more like a sigh, but he still heard it and was at her side in a second.

"Bella, my Bella." Gratefully he wrapped his arms around her in an unyielding embrace as he pushed her as close to him as she could possibly be.

With his faced pressed into her hair she was able to wrap her arms around his waist and rest her head against his cool chest.

"Edward." She repeated. While she was there with Edward it finally hit her how stupid she was being. How could she even think let alone consider giving him up? The selfish part of her wanted to say screw everyone else and that she and Edward should just run away and start a new life somewhere else.

Without warning, all the emotions she had kept bottled away or that had been repressed by the adrenaline came back full force leaving her crying tearlessly on Edward's chest as he soothed her by rubbing soothing circles on her back and whispering calming words in her ear.

Realizing this, she pushed away from him and kept her head lowered so that he couldn't see her face.

"Why? Why are you comforting me? After I did that to you? Why?"

It was several long, agonizing minutes before he answered.

"Because I love you. As much as it irks me, I love that self-sacrificing side of you. I just wish you had consulted with me first." With every word he took a step closer until he was only a foot away from her. The weight of his words made her tremble with suppressed sobs.

Edward didn't move to embrace her again; instead he titled her head up so he could look her in the eyes and say,

"The sad thing is that I'm grateful to Victoria for talking some sense into you. My own selfishness was relieved that you could return to me and me alone." He placed a chaste kiss on her lips.

Bella couldn't take it anymore; she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. "I'm sorry, I promise never to do it again. I'm happy I'm here too Edward." She kissed him again. "I love you."

This next kiss lasted for a minute, several minutes, hours, days, years, they never knew. All they knew was that it held all their love for each other and relief that they're both still alive.

XxxxxxxxxxxxX

With their Queen returned to them, the soldiers began to fight and train harder than before, especially now that the threat was half a day's run from their home.

In comparison, they were weak against the new determination that had risen up in Bella.

For hours upon hours she would spar with anyone and everyone, sometimes twenty to one.

The only ones who could keep up with her were Jasper, Raven, and Regina, the others could maybe keep up with her speed but her combined speed and technique was too much for most of the recruits. Xaephyn could have probably beaten Bella, but the Dragon Elders didn't want their crown prince in the middle of a vampire war so they swamped him with the only legitimate way to keep him there: paper work. Raina had her fair share as well so the dragon siblings were stuck stamping their seals in adjacent desks.

Jasper's vast knowledge from being a Confederate soldier and serving in Maria's army/mob proved to be extremely beneficial and if anyone critiqued Jasper all they had to do was see all the scars that crisscrossed his face in order to see that he knew what he was talking about.

One of the most enjoyable parts of the day was when little Alice would spar with either Jasper or Regina. With Jasper it looked like a deadly dance they were so in sync on the other hand, with Regina it looked like an elaborate death match where the victor could not be predicted.

"Hya!" Bella completed her mid-air summersault and proceeded to kick the soldier in his face making it issue a large crack.

She used the momentum from the kick to do two back-flips and land in a battle-ready crouch.

"Sorry about your face but the medic faerie should have it fixed in no time." Bella walked over to help the soldier up and to dust him off.

"Don't worry about it Your Highness. Just the fact that I was able to get as close to hitting you as I did means that I improved, and that's good enough for me." He beamed at Bella's apologetic smile before bowing and taking his leave to the medic faerie, albeit with a small limp.

Ashley and Nicole were leaning against the wall of the palace as they watched Bella and Raven beat up the recruits, sipping on some blood through straws.

"Hey Niki, why are they beating them up so much? I don't think that they're holding back a lot." Ashley asked, taking a large sip from her glass.

"Because if we don't build up their tolerance for pain and at least have them familiar with the power of Bella and Raven, then they will be completely lost whenever we decide the fuckin' day we're going fight." Nicole said sagely, taking a sip as well.

"Hello my cute little sex kitten." Purred a voice in Nicole's ear making her spew her rather large sip into the air in front of her.

Ashley was giggling like crazy as she looked at Nicole's discomfort and embarrassment and the person who was source of this embarrassment was smirking to himself even though he was facing the full brunt of Nicole's glare.

"Do you have a death wish?" hissed Nicole in his face.

"Depends on how I die, for example I can think of several enjoyable ways I'd like to go." The smirk grew even larger with Nicole's anger.

Ashley had finally calmed down enough to tsk, "Aubrey, I know how much you love to piss off Niki but is innuendo really the way to do it?"

Aubrey replaced his smirk with a beaming grin. "Of course! It's the most fun and guaranteed to make her angry faster than anything else!"

To emphasize his point he pecked Nicole quickly on the lips before she could properly yell at him. If she could, Nicole would be blushing; instead steam began to rise from her head.

"I'll leave you two alone" Ashley said as she walked away, still giggling slightly, feeling that love is the only thing that could cheer a person up right now and that Aubrey is truly the one for Nicole.

"Aubrey! What the hell was that for?! I told you no PDA!" Nicole yelled at Aubrey who seemed to not understand a word she was saying which made her even angrier.

"You are just too cute" he purred in her ear making the steam that was rising become even denser.

"Am not." She muttered, looking away from his eyes and hoping he wouldn't notice the fact that she was pouting.

"Are too." He contradicted and proceeded to pull her against him in a hug.

"Fine." She gave up, there's no point arguing with Aubrey if only word from him could make her all flustered and embarrassed.

Aubrey chuckled and gave her a kiss on her forehead as he held her.

XxxxxxxxxxxxX

Victoria sighed for the hundredth time that day, the reason for this being that she was in a bit of a pickle. She was sitting in her favorite wing-backed chair in her tent as she pondered her dilemma.

How should she go about starting the war with the little impertinent queens? Should she give them a date and attack then or should she use the element of surprise to watch them all scatter and panic?

She let out another deep sigh.

"You know they say that by sighing part of your soul escapes." Came an amused voice behind her.

"But I don't have a soul Matthias." She replied tiredly, as if she had already explained this many times before.

"So you say, but who knows if we have a soul or not." He sat down, once again, in the chair across from the thinking red head.

She glared at him slightly. "As much fun as it is to discuss philosophy with you, I have more pressing matters to think about."

"Oh?" he queried, interested to hear what the "more pressing matters" were even though he already had a feeling he knew what they were.

"Yes and you already know what they are so just hurry up and tell me what you think."

Matthias smirked slightly; it was rare that Victoria showed the impatience she was showing now and how she seemed to let her guard down slightly. When choosing his reply he decided not to push her buttons as she already seemed agitated enough to kill him.

"I believe that while ambushing them would be immensely entertaining, it could also prove fatal: backing a wolf into a corner just makes him that much more desperate and hence–deadly. I think the best way would be to set the date since what you really want to do is try yourself against the queens, specifically Bella, to prove who the better one is and the most worthy to continue living, no?"

Victoria was silent as she considered his opinion, fingertips pressed together in front of her, lips pursed, hair falling into her face as she thought.

Matthias leaned back into his chair, smiling serenely at the ceiling of the tent. He knew Victoria would choose his way and what he didn't tell Victoria was that in order for her to win she would need the element of surprise on her side, but then again, if she knew it wouldn't be as much fun for the spectators, of which he was one.

After a few moments, Victoria's brain which was going a mile a minute, finally reached a satisfying conclusion. She stood up and went to the table covered in maps in the main area of the tent. She scribbled something quickly on a spare piece of parchment before waving her hand over it and had it vanish from sight.

Matthias watched her movements with curiosity written plainly on his face and when she met his eyes, she was not impressed with what she saw.

Still not answering his gaze she went about gathering her generals and briefing them on whatever was on the parchment but not to Matthias, which he found extremely irksome since he could not hear what she was saying.

"May I ask what that was all about?" he asked, trying to remove the impatience from his voice, once she had sat down again.

"Just some new information that needed to be passed on." She replied.

Matthias was thoroughly unsatisfied with that answer.

"Which is…" he prompted.

"What you will find out in due time." She said ambiguously, picking up a book that lay discarded on the table beside her, and began reading.

Matthias would deny it later, but right then he was pouting at being left in the dark.

XxxxxxxxxxxxX

At the palace Bella dropped her goblet only for a servant to quickly catch and place back on the table in front of the Queen.

Clutched in her hand was a piece of old parchment with a date written on it.

The people at the table stopped what they were doing to look at her.

She groaned after reading it making Edward try to pry the paper from her hands so that he could read it.

"What is it Bella dear?" he asked anxiously.

To all the questioning stares all Bella said was "I knew my birthday was the bringer of bad luck."

Hey Jude, don't make it bad.
Take a sad song and make it better.
Remember to let her into your heart,
Then you can start to make it better.

XxxxxxxxxxxxX

A/N: Alright! I decided to do one a/n this time! The song is (if you don't know) Hey Jude by the Beatles. I am sooo sorry for making you wait 2 months as several of you have informed me. Thanks for that, I was really procrastinating on working on this chapter. Man, school is making me so tired but anyway.

Do not the read the following paragraph if you have not read Breaking Dawn yet.

I read Breaking Dawn and I honestly loved it, I can understand the whole argument about it being like a fanfiction but just look at Harry Potter 7 and how everyone was saying that parts of it were from a fanfiction. I love Jacob even more now and he and Nessy are the cutest thing!! ((--SPOILER--)) When I found Bella was pregnant (before I even started the book) I seriously thought it was going to be a bad fanfiction since there have been so many about her getting knocked up, but I thought it worked, oddly. Loved the blonde jokes, made my day that much better and Jake's chapter titles. The Amazons and their powers were major kick ass. Ok, who else honest to God thought that Bella, Edward, and all of them were going to die and that the epilogue would be Alice and Jasper finding Jake and Nessy in Buenos Aires? or wherever it was. I did. I'm happy that didn't happen but maybe a bit more climatic ending was in order. Oh well, loved it regardless.

What did you guys think of Breaking Dawn?

Review please and I may just suffer through writing the big battle early! If you couldn't tell I've been procrastinating...''