A/N I don't own the characters, SM does. Well, I do own a certain werewolf. And I own the plot. But it doesn't pay well. I won't be quitting my day job any time soon, let me tell you.

I'd like to thank everybody for your amazing patience - not that you really have a choice, but you are very understanding. I must say, we are an amazingly mobile group of people. I was shocked at the number of people who told me they have either just moved, are in the process of moving, or will be moving in the near future. Really, really shocked. We need to all go out and get a beer when the dust is settled and the boxes are unpacked. That being said, my move is NOT done. But it is getting there.

I'd like to thank IdreamofEddy for helping me choose the lucky winner of the missing limb contest - I forgot to mention that back when it happened. You're right babe, he really was the best man for the job. And I'd like to thank Super Beta for what Rose and Esme end up doing here in a few paragraphs...

Chapter 50

Rose's head whipped around at Jasper's yell. Her expression said she had no idea what was causing Jasper's panic, but she sure as hell wasn't going to stop and ask. "Come on!" she yelled at Esme, who was shifting one of the fallen guard members. They both stood, and then ran for the door, grabbing random arms as they went. Jasper grabbed Bella and slung her over his shoulder as he ran. A few of the guard followed, and they all aimed for the open front door of the castle.

Behind them, the superheated fire that could only come from vampire venom exploded out of the hall. Screams from within the hall made Esme and Rose pause, but Jasper shoved them through the door. When they were safely outside, he set Bella down and they all turned to watch as flames shot out of the now broken windows in the hall, and more flames followed the trail of venom, which led out of the hall and outside. It took some fast thinking on Jasper's part to quickly wipe the venom trails away so that the wounded vampires who'd managed to escape didn't go up in flames from the trail of fire following them, and possibly taking the Cullens along with them.

After that was taken care of, though, there was nothing for them to do but watch in horror as the castle burned.

"My God," Esme whispered. "Is anybody left? Could anybody have survived that?"

Rose shrugged. "I don't know..." She looked at Jasper. "Stefan and Vladimir...?"

Jasper looked at the other wing of the castle, which was still untouched by the fire. "Their quarters are over there. They might make it in time, but they better get out of the building before it spreads. I'm sure as hell not going in after them."

Suddenly Alice and Emmett were there. Emmett grabbed Rose and pulled her into a one-armed embrace, and Esme hugged Alice.

"Where's Carlisle?" Esme whispered, fear in her voice.

"We couldn't catch up to him and Caius, and then we saw the fire... Carlisle will see it, too, and come back. He's alright," Alice said, and Esme sighed in relief.

Emmett stared at the fire, and then he looked over at Bella. "Remind me to never get on YOUR shit list. I can't believe you blew up the Volturi."

"I didn't blow them up," Bella said. "Marcus blew them up."

"A minor detail," Emmett said. "But what's NOT a minor detail is the fact that I am STILL missing an arm. But I'm ALSO sure that one of you is going to tell me that you have it, right?"

Jasper felt Bella's horror and remorse wash over her. "Oh, Emmett, I'm so sorry..." She turned and buried her head against Jasper again.

Esme made a strangled, coughing noise. "Oh, Emmett, we looked. Honestly, honey. There were just so many...parts. And all the venom made it impossible to follow a scent. But, um, Rose and I..." her eyes darted nervously to Rose, then over to a pile of scattered arms that were still writhing about on the stones of the courtyard, "well, we um, grabbed some on our way out, hoping maybe one of them might be yours..." she trailed off at the look of growing horror on Emmett's face.

"Oh, shit," was all he said before stepping over to the pile and frantically digging through it. He held up a small arm, clearly belonging to a female, and dangled the twitching limb in front of Rose. "Really, Rose? REALLY?"

"We didn't have a lot of time," Rose snapped, but she looked ready to cry if she could. "We just...grabbed what we saw on our way out. I'm so sorry, baby..."

With a roar of frustration, Emmett flung the arm across the courtyard into the fire and started pawing through the other limbs. Less than thirty seconds later it was obvious by his cursing that none of them were his. And if not the cursing, the fact that all of the arms had quickly followed the first one across the courtyard and into the fire was a sure sign they didn't belong to him.

Jasper could feel a wave of fear roll over them, and it was so intense that it overpowered Emmett's anger and frustration. Jasper spun around to look for the source, pulling Bella even closer to him in order to protect her. He relaxed slightly, though, when he recognized the tenor of the emotion as Carlisle's.

Sure enough, a moment later Carlisle was there, pulling Esme to him and burying his face in her hair. "Oh, God, I thought...I thought I'd lost you," he whispered, fear still filling his voice. Trapped between them, Alice squirmed around a bit until she was hugging Carlisle. The family stood silently for a moment before Esme spoke.

"Caius?"

"He got away." Carlisle shook his head. "I stopped following him when I saw the smoke". He looked over to where Bella stood, wrapped in Jasper's arms. She was shaking violently again, still upset by what had happened with Marcus, the fire, and now the loss of Emmett's arm. Jasper was whispering to her, the words so low that Carlisle could only make out a soft murmur.

As if sensing Carlisle's eyes on them, Jasper looked up and stared back at him. Carlisle cocked an eyebrow in question.

"Did she...?" Carlisle asked softly.

Jasper shook his head. "No." He looked down at Bella and stroked her head reassuringly. "She was going to, I think." Bella nodded in his arms. "But she changed her mind." She nodded more vigorously. "But she dropped the lighter..."

"He…Marcus..." Bella sobbed. "He wanted to die. That's all he wanted to do. That's all he talked about when he talked to me... He was trapped and he wanted to die, to follow his mate, and he wanted to kill those responsible. He never said their names, but now I know. Aro...Caius...he hated them all. They trapped him. He couldn't even kill himself, so he used me... He thought - he hoped - that I would come back to avenge Edward. He thought I would lead the wolves back to kill them, and him too, but I couldn't..."

"Shhh...shhh..." Jasper whispered, kissing the top of her head. He looked at Carlisle, and then at the castle that was burning quite well now. Carlisle walked over to them, bringing Esme and Alice with him.

"But you gave him the lighter," he said to Bella, his voice gentle and with no judgement in it.

"I did," she whispered. "I thought he should at least be able to choose for himself, now that he was free..."

Emmett and Rose joined them. Emmett looked at Bella, and then at the burning castle. "Well, he chose alright. You could have waited, though. We almost didn't make it out of there ourselves – and my arm DIDN'T." He both sounded and felt bitter. It was something Jasper hadn't seen in his brother before.

"Ah...yes, your arm." Carlisle looked at his son, his eyes flickering over him and resting briefly on his shoulder. "Don't panic quite yet, son. I don't think it was in there, Emmett…"

"What?" Emmett interrupted, hope flowing through him. "What do you mean...?"

"Caius was carrying something with him when he ran out of the room. I didn't get a good look at what it was because Demetri was on me as soon as I reached the hall. Dealing with him slowed me down enough to give Caius a pretty good head start. I never did catch up to him, but as I tracked him, I kept catching a hint of your scent, Emmett. And Caius was running in a direction we hadn't hunted in."

"Wait...what? You think…you think he took my ARM?"

Everybody looked at Carlisle in shock.

"The fucker took my ARM and you want me to NOT panic?" Emmett said, bordering on hysteria. If the situation and subject matter hadn't been so serious, Jasper would have started laughing. Emmett both sounded and felt like a teenage girl who'd just won a pair of front row tickets to see Justin Bieber - only not in a good way.

"It's better than it being burnt to ash," Rose said sharply.

"Rosalie is right, Emmett," Carlisle said. "As long as he has your arm, there's chance we'll be able to get it back. If it was left in there," he gestured to the burning castle, "it would all be over."

"Why would he take my arm?" Emmett asked, still in a state of panic. Jasper had to agree with the panic – he too almost thought it would be worse to have Caius in possession of a limb than have it burnt. Maybe.

"What if...what if he's DOING stuff with it?" Emmett continued in a horrified whisper.

"Jesus Christ, Emmett," Rose said in disgust. "Do you REALLY think Caius is jerking off with your arm?"

"He probably took it for insurance, Emmett," Jasper said, joining the conversation before it could spiral down any further. "He now has something we want. Presumably, we have something HE wants." He glanced down at Bella, who stiffened in his arms.

"Surely he doesn't think we'd trade Bella for an arm?" Esme asked, giving Emmett an apologetic look. "No offence, sweetheart."

"I'm not an idiot, Esme," Emmett said. "I'd never expect you to. You're right, Carlisle." Emmett started to calm down. "Okay, so now that we've successfully completed 'Operation Get Bella Back', we need to launch 'Get Emmett's Arm Back', right, guys?"

"I think it might be prudent to first launch 'Get Further Away From the Fire Before It Spreads', along with 'Mop Up After Ourselves'," Jasper told him with a pointed look at the other group of vampires across the courtyard.

"Jasper's right. Alice?" Carlisle asked. "Can you see anything?"

Alice was already looking, her eyes glazed over. Jasper kept part of his attention on the burning castle and part of it on the Volturi who were left. He'd never seen vampires in shock before, but the group of remaining guard members certainly appeared to be.

Alice shook her head, bringing Jasper's attention back to the Cullens.

"Nothing is certain. Stefan and Vladimir are alright and up in their rooms. I do see them leaving, with Vladimir carrying Stefan. Richard is out in the woods. I think he must have been chasing the last of the werewolves because he just suddenly appeared to me. I think...I think Marton and Edmond were in the keep. I'm pretty sure I saw them – parts of them, anyway- before Emmett and I left."

"And the Volturi?" Carlisle asked, glancing over at them.

"I don't see anything about the ones that Bella had said were left behind outside to run a perimeter guard. I'm guessing the wolves got them. I see Richard lighting a fire, and the rest…the rest were in there with us."

"Wow," Emmett whistled softly. "So that's it? They're...gone? Bella really blew them all up?"

"Not all of them, Emmett," Carlisle said. "There are more in the guard back in Volterra." He looked at Bella.

"I didn't..." Bella started to protest again. "Marcus..."

Jasper snorted. "Nobody saw that but us, Bella. You, me, and Marcus."

Carlisle nodded. "Yes." He looked over at the other small group, who now stood glaring at them. "I'm afraid that's right, Bella. Whatever story is told about today, it might be less that the truth."

"We need to take care of them. Now," Jasper said quietly.

"Never mind them," Bella said, her voice a little shrill. "What about…what about their MATES? Aro and Caius, they had wives. Edward said they did. Now they're going to hunt ME down! I didn't even blow them up. Or, at least, Aro's wife will come after me."

"Well, it does appear to be the thing to do," Rosalie said.

Carlisle sighed. "Possibly. This whole situation is less than ideal."

That was putting it mildly, Jasper thought. "We need to finish them off," he jerked his head toward the guardsmen, "and then go after Caius to get Emmett's arm back."

Carlisle nodded slowly. "Caius is halfway to Italy by now. It's going to be tricky. I think the best thing to do would be to go home, back to North America, and go underground for a while. We need to let the dust settle, but we have GOT to get Emmett's arm back first."

Emmett snorted. "Yes, please, Carlisle." He glanced at the remaining guards. "Jasper's right, though - we should deal with them first."

Carlisle turned to look them over again. The surviving Volturi members consisted of a nameless guard member, who was sporting several werewolf bites, and Afton, who was holding a motionless Chelsea in his arms.

"I thought you said you took care of Chelsea," Jasper said quietly to Alice.

"Well, obviously, he put her back together again!" Alice snapped.

"Hmmm…" Jasper studied the group, and then turned to Carlisle. "They are dangerous, especially the female, even if she is currently not a threat," he said emotionlessly.

"So many have been destroyed already," Carlisle replied. "Including their leaders - OUR leaders, even though they betrayed us. To destroy more, in cold blood, I don't know..." He sounded as emotionless as Jasper had, but Jasper knew his emotions were really in turmoil. ALL of their emotions were in turmoil - elation at having won, shock at the way it had ended, and confusion, no doubt, about what would come next. Their world had been cast into chaos in an instant with Marcus' decision, the impact of which Jasper didn't even want to begin considering yet. All he knew was that the three standing in front of them represented an immediate danger.

"I disagree. We will have enough problems without leaving these loose ends. Loose ends should always be tied up," Jasper looked at Bella and winked, "or they come back to bite you in the ass."

"Hmm…I wish this wasn't necessary," Carlisle said, his voice still not revealing what he might be thinking, although Jasper could feel him.

Jasper cocked an eyebrow at him. Was Carlisle trying to return to his peacemaker stance now, before the fight was officially over, or did he just want to be convinced that he was making the right decision? But Jasper could feel it - Carlisle had indeed made his decision. "Really? Would you like to go over there and shake hands on that? Maybe let Esme examine Chelsea's wounds? Make physical contact with her? Are you willing to take that chance, Carlisle? Why in the world would you have to trust any of them? Just because they had the good sense to run when I shouted 'run', it does NOT mean we have forged some sort of bond with them. We need to end this now. Marcus did us a favor in there, and don't pretend it's anything else. There are only three left, and we are more than capable of finishing them off. I would hardly consider it needless destruction."

Carlisle winced and looked over to the group. The roar of the fire might have been covering their words, but it was clear that the other group knew they were the topic of discussion. Afton had set Chelsea down on the ground, where she remained still and silent, and he and the other guard had dropped into defensive crouches. They obviously knew what was coming.

It was anticlimactic, the final killings. And silent, except for the roar of the fire and an odd sort of keening that came from Bella as she watched the final destruction. Even with only one arm, Emmett made short work of the heavily wounded, nameless guardsman. Jasper took down Afton, and Alice once again dismantled Chelsea. This time, though, there was a fire to dispose of the pieces.

"What was that for?" Jasper asked her when he returned to her side. "Why did you cry for them? You wanted nothing more than to cross a continent to destroy Edward's killers, and now you cry at their deaths?" He didn't sound angry, though. Merely curious.

"I don't know" Bella said, still visibly upset as she leaned into Jasper. He put his arms around her, but pulled back from her far enough that he could look down and see her face. "I just..." She trailed off and looked over at the fire before continueing. "I just...it's sad. Sad they had to die. They might have been happy together. They probably were happy together. They were mated."

"Yeah, well, and they got to die together. You should be happy for them. Not everybody is so lucky in this life" Jasper said, the words coming out a little more sharply than he intended. He refused to have any sympathy at all for the recently destroyed coven. And under the circumstance, he couldn't believe she did, either. He decided to write it off to more of her craziness.

Bella leaned in to him again. "Well, there is that. I guess I should hope that we'll be that lucky, if it ever comes to that."

"Um, yeah. I've got a better idea. Why don't we just plan on NOT getting ourselves in that sort of a situation. We'll go with the plan we talked about before we ever came to this shit hole. When this is over, we'll go back to North America, and just disappear."

"Disappear, huh? Forever?"

"For as long as it takes, Bella."

"Sounds good to me."

"But in the meantime, what do we do?" Bella asked, pulling away from Jasper and turning to watch flames die down, leaving a smoking, ruined mess of blackened stones behind.

"Once again, they have managed to burn our castle down," Stefan said, sighing.

Bella and Jasper turned to him in surprise, not having heard him approach. He stood watching the dying flames, Vladimir standing silently beside him.

"At least this time," he continued, "they appear to have taken themselves along with it, no? Or did you do this?" He looked at Bella suspiciously.

"I did NOT burn down your castle or the Volturi. Let's get that straight right now! MARCUS burned down your castle AND the Volturi."

"You gave him the lighter," Emmett muttered. "And my arm COULD have been in there still. Nobody stops to think about these things."

Stefan glanced at him, and then back to the castle before sighing again. "Well, we will just start over. Again. Did anybody else make it out?"

"Richard did, according to Alice," Jasper told him.

Stefan nodded. "It is enough. And a castle is a small price to pay for the end of our brother's tyranny. You have done us a great service. We owe you," he finished, smiling at Bella.

Jasper felt Bella shudder in his arms. He rather thought that that was one favor she would not be collecting on any time soon.

"What do you intend to do next?" Stefan asked Carlisle.

"We will go after Caius. We believe he may have something that belongs to us."

Stefan glanced at Emmett again and nodded. "And then?"

"Then we'll return to North America. I think it would be prudent to withdraw for a while until we know what the ramifications of today will be."

Stefan nodded again. "Very prudent, I'm sure. We'll be sure to keep in touch."

"I look forward to it," Carlisle said. Jasper could tell he did no such thing, but his polite facade had reappeared, if only briefly. "We'll let you know how things turn out with Caius."

"And now," Carlisle said, looking at all of them, "we hunt - first to feed, and then to find Caius."

***********R*****************R******************R****************

They ran through the mountains almost as free, Jasper thought, as they had been back in Siberia. There was no pull dictating where they went this time, though. Only familial obligation sent Jasper and Bella running after Carlisle and the rest of the Cullens as he tracked Caius' progress through the forests and wild areas of Eastern Europe, heading ever westward. Alice's visions were nearly useless in their endeavor – Caius was evidently more than a little maddened from pain and acting purely on instinct.

They had followed Caius's trail westward from the castle, soon passing the point where Carlisle had earlier abandoned his pursuit. Hunting in this direction – the direction from which the Volturi had arrived – was still easy. Within minutes of leaving the smoldering ruins of the castle, they'd come across a herd of deer. In their desperation to feed and restore their strength after the fight, and to assist in their healing, they'd made quick work of draining the entire herd. Thirst had caused tempers to flare more than a little, and several family members had learned quickly to avoid feeding anywhere near Bella, who had snapped and snarled like a newborn at anyone who came near her. When they were done, however, everyone politely pretended like it hadn't happened. Jasper could feel alternating waves of embarrassment and gratitude coming from her, which he answered with a hug.

It had been barely twenty-four hours since Marcus had set the castle on fire when they came to the smoking remains of another smaller fire.

"Aw, SHIT!" Emmett screamed, kicking at the sweet-smelling ashes. "GODDAMMIT!"

The rest of them stood around the pile, staring at it in shock. Carlisle crouched down to stir the ashes with his hand, bringing it to his nose to sniff.

"It's definitely Caius," he said, standing back up. "But..."

"WHY?" Emmett cut him off. "Why me? Why MY ARM?"

"But…" Carlisle said, glaring at Emmett so he would be quiet, "I do not catch any of your scent, Emmett. Your arms are fairly large, all things considered - more than enough to leave at least a trace of your scent in the ashes. I detect none."

"Then where the fuck is my arm? And who killed Caius?" Emmett said, calming down.

Jasper and Bella circled the fire, both of them sniffing the air. Jasper squatted down, much as Carlisle had, and ran his hands through the leaves and dirt of the little clearing.

"Mstislav," he said, looking up at Bella. "Recognize him?"

Bella shook her head. "I don't remember... But I smell werewolf. I definitely smell werewolf."

Jasper nodded and stood. "I smell werewolf. And the human Mstislav, I think he did this. I think he tore Caius apart, and then returned to burn the pieces when he transformed back to his human form."

"And he took my arm? You're telling me a friggin' werewolf has my arm now?" Emmett stared at Jasper in disbelief. "What the hell do we do now?"

"Look for Mstislav."