I don't own anything in the Twilight universe, only my OCs and drunk ideas. Please don't repost any of my works.

(Just to clarify, the timeline is returning to where Athy's POV in chapter 35 ended.) This one's a little violent, enjoy!

Athanasia POV

I had to find mum and dad as soon as possible. Dad would be in the throne room as per usual, but I couldn't find a fresh trail to mum at all. My heart sunk as I realised that she must have gone out to hunt, covering her scent using her gift so no one stopped her. I just hoped she'd not been unfortunate enough to encounter our unwelcome visitors.

As I was dragging Pandora and Theodotis behind me in a mad panic, I felt a rush and my vision began to spin for a brief moment. Ah, how could I forget?

"The fact there are a number of us here helps greatly, but you'll need to provide us with as many scents as possible to make it look realistic within these next couple of weeks. You'll all have to surround the town at equal intervals. Using Pandora's ability to manipulate the thoughts of others, she'll be able to make it look like there's more of you than there actually are, but she'll need to be familiar with a range of scents to pull it off convincingly.

"All being well, we can send the entire guard in different directions and lead them away from Volterra, especially the dangerous ones. Of course, there is risk here for you, but this is why it is so imperative we include those in our illusion who are more threatening to ensure they chase these imaginary impostors. If everything goes to plan, you will not need to engage them at all. As long as you stay off Volterra grounds, your safety can be almost completely guaranteed.

"While the guard is busy, we can do the dirty work."

"We need to get to Chelsea!" I shouted. "Theo, you go and pass on the message to as many more guards as you can, follow my scent after we've bought enough time, I'll need your help! Pandora, you keep up the good work, just stay focused and don't let down your guard, if they realise too soon that they're being messed with, they'll come straight back before we can make our move!"

The kids nodded and Theo zipped off in the opposite direction. I lifted Pandora into a piggy-back so I could conserve as much of her energy as possible. Because her gift only retrospectively changed the thoughts of others, there would be a natural lag, a lag which would become more prominent the further away the guard got from the town. Precisely the reason we'd decided to carry out the plan on the week that Demetri was away as he'd be able to tell straight away that we'd assembled an army of ghosts.

Gritting my teeth nervously, we continued on towards Chelsea and Afton's quarters. Bursting down the door, I found that my job had been made simpler. Not only were Chelsea and Afton there, but Corin too.

"Athanasia, what's all this ruckus about?" Chelsea demanded.

"No time to explain," I yelled, rushing over to them, grabbing Chelsea and her mate by the wrists. "You two have to get far away from here, the Romanians have staged an assault on the town, save yourse-"

"-What!? I must protect Sulpicia and Athenodora!" Corin shrieked, jumping to her feet and heading for the door.

"Oh no, you don't," I growled, grabbing her arms and yanking her back into the room.

"Athanasia, you have no idea what will happen to me if I get caught! If Aro finds out I've been slacking off guard duty and his wife dies because of that, I'll be killed faster than you can say 'mercy'!" she shouted back.

"As much as we want to leave, Athanasia, we have a duty to keep everyone here safe and loyal! We're content here!" Chelsea interrupted. But this time I could see the conflict on her face as she fought against Corin's gift which kept her happy with the life she had here.

Mum had told me about this not so long ago. If someone tried to fight against the effects of Corin too much, they'd apparently end up blacking out. Banking on this fact, I tentatively let go of Corin and took ahold of Chelsea and Afton's wrists once more. Corin ran from the room. At least she wouldn't interfere in the important stuff for now.

"If you two stay in Volterra, you're just going to end up being killed! Do you think I could bear to see that happen?" I pleaded, thinking of how I felt about my own family in an attempt to manipulate their emotions. "Run as far away as you can and don't look back!"

It was beginning to work. They could only weakly struggle to free their hands from my grip. The pain on their faces spoke for itself; they were losing their strength as their will to fight back became even stronger.

"Give up on your duties, let everyone choose for themselves whether they stay with us or not. Go and see the world, live freely."

"But… my life…" she mumbled. But she couldn't finish her sentence. She fell into a slumber, her mate Afton following shortly behind. Sneaky bitch better have had time to undo her brainwashing before passing out…

Either way, I had hopefully bought us enough of an opportunity to carry out the main part of our plan uninterrupted.

I didn't waste a minute more, hurrying on in Corin's wake. Theodotis returned to us as we were making our way towards the wives' tower. Pandora lay limper and limper on my back as she projected her abilities to their limits.

"That's everyone who's not in the throne room, we'll have to wait for Oktai to come through," he panted.

"Fantastic work, Theo. Are you sure you're ready for this?"

"Yes," he answered, furrowing his brows in determination.

"I can immobilise Chelsea temporarily, hopefully getting her to undo everyone's loyalties beforehand. But it'll be difficult to do it without killing her if it comes to a fight. We need her alive afterwards to liberate all of Aro's puppets before they can kill us. If she dies, our coup won't be successful."

"What of the wives? We wish to take revenge for Jusztina and Calinica too."

"It's complicated. I cannot allow you to kill Caius's true mate, but you can have Athenodora. She's the vermin responsible for getting us into this mess, I'm sure of it. Take it as Caius's gift to you."

"Thank goodness you're safe, il mio piccolo!" Sulpicia cried, throwing her arms around Theo as we entered the tower. Corin was already here, nervously and frantically trying to stop Athenodora from entering the fray.

I placed Pandora down gently on the chaise-longue and Theo bolted the door.

"Thank goodness," Corin breathed, "Aro sent you three here too, where's Nwaekerendu?"

"Not to worry, he's safe with Marcus," I smiled. This was not a lie. It was too risky to involve all of the children in the plan, especially one without any personal vendetta. For now he was the safest at the epicentre of the panic. At least he'd be guaranteed to survive this mess if everything went tits up for us.

"I see," Athenodora frowned.

"Corin, could you take a look at Pandora, she's not feeling too well and can't seem to stay awake. I don't know what's happened to her, I think she's gone into shock," I said, hoping my distraction would work.

"Of course," she said, rushing to her side as the child sat, lucid and rigid as ever in concentration, her mind stretched to its limit. But Corin didn't need to know that for now.

In the blink of an eye, Theo pushed himself free of Sulpicia's clutches, shoving her towards the fireplace.

"Theodotis, what was that for?" she snapped. He stared at her with hatred in his eyes as I watched on, ready to jump in should things get too bloody.

"Tell me the truth about my mum!"

"I don't know what you mean, Theodotis. I am your mother!"

"Yeah, and how did you come by that role? My birth mum didn't exactly willingly let you adopt me. Well… she would have done - if you hadn't murdered her first!" He was beyond anger to the point he couldn't even shout. I had to give it to Panda, she was a little shit through and through when she wanted to be. Not even I would have thought about recruiting Theo. It just so happened she was in possession of the right knowledge to do so.

Mum and I had been responsible for him discovering the truth in the first place. But he'd managed to somehow compartmentalise the memories he saw flowing between us, willingly forgetting that the woman who showed him so much affection could have done something so unforgivable in his eyes. In turn, the memories he was unable to forget haunted him every night, the face so similar to his turning pale surrounded by the screams of pain of mum and me as Aro forced us to do nothing to change Zala's fate.

Those gaps that Pandora had in the story, she had convinced me to fill in. Who was I to deny the boy his revenge?

"Sulpicia, tell me why," Theo ordered, for the first time the ghost of his father's dictatorial tone was audible in his voice.

"Theodotis, you have to understand, she was just a human-"

"-And so was Erendu's mum, but Marcus saved her!"

"Theodotis, please, you must see it from my point of view!" Sulpicia begged.

"Then you tried to go after Athy and Panda's mum. I was there, I heard what you said: 'make one move and I'll rip your head off'. If she hadn't been better at fighting than you, you'd have killed her too."

"Theodotis, stop being so insolent. We're in enough of a mess here as it is," Athenodora sighed.

"Can it, bimbo, let him get his answer," I hissed. Athenodora's eyes turned to face me, folding her arms.

"I beg your pardon?" she scoffed.

"Guys, please stop fighting, I'm trying to see what's wrong with Pandora!" Corin yelled over the scuffle.

"I know you're the one responsible for this shit show, Dora. If you'd just left the coven like my dad suggested, then mum wouldn't have been forced to have Pandora," I growled, stalking towards her, ready to kill if I had to.

"Theodotis, I love your father with all of my heart, but I can't stand to see my mate have other lovers, not when I couldn't bear betraying him like that," Sulpicia admitted.

"I wouldn't call them lovers."

"Theo, I was jealous, I hated thinking of my husband and a dirty human together. Wait- why- why are you looking at me like that? No-NOO-" Sulpicia's pleading and shrieks of pain were drowned out by the horrendous grating sound of vampire teeth against vampire skin as Theodotis lunged for her neck. Of course she wouldn't fight back. Not after all she'd sacrificed to get herself a child.

But Athenodora had other ideas, she dived for Theo as Corin watched on in horror, fixed to the spot thankfully in disbelief.

I had no choice but to intercept her. I leapt, grabbing her by the waist. But my human side let me down, I was too late. By the time I was able to pull her away, she'd already sunk her teeth into Theo's shoulder. As I yanked her off the boy, her teeth ripped out a huge chunk of his flesh.

Theo's blood spattered across my face from the gaping bloody wound in his arm. In that instant, I saw one of Athenodora's memories flash before my eyes:

"Athenodora, before you leave the coven, I must request one last thing of you," Aro asked me gently.

"Anything," I answered.

"Athenodora, filiá mou, I want you to get your revenge on the vampire responsible for your suffering. Luíseach's power is far beyond what I could have ever comprehended and I simply must take advantage of it. I am ordering you to convince her to carry my child."

"Aro, surely you know I don't seek revenge? I only wish to be free of this mess. Now she has returned, I wish nothing more than to get out of this chaos of a marriage. You know how her absence has affected him just as much as I. She is not the one who caused me suffering, it was him."

"What a pity, I could have offered you your freedom, but if you are unwilling to cooperate, then I'm afraid I'll have to ask Chelsea to keep you around a little longer," Aro sighed.

"Well I'm telling her the truth. She deserves to know what you're up to at the least. I refuse to stay married to that monster."

"You are free to do so, but I will find another way, I can assure you."

Ugh, was this meant to make me pity her? If a life of servitude was what she preferred over being married to my father, I would liberate her. Regardless, we couldn't afford to leave any loose ends.

Before she could turn around and get her mouth anywhere near me, I bit into her right tricep and pulled. The limb came off after a struggle and I lobbed it into the fireplace, to the chagrin of my opponent.

I had to be quick, if Corin decided to get involved in the fight, we wouldn't have another chance like this. I had to finish Athenodora off so Theo could be patched up. I doubted if his arm would survive this, she'd bitten right through to the bone. Plus, we were already running late for the final stage to the plan.

Making sure Athenodora was pinned to the floor with my entire strength, I lined up to bite her neck.

"I never wanted any of you to-" she began. But I couldn't afford to hesitate. Opening my jaws, I bit through the back of her neck, severing her spine. Once free of its main anchor to her body, I pushed her head away from me and it came off with a pop a second later.

Throwing the appendage too into the fire, I turned to restrain Corin who was luckily still frozen to the spot.

"If you want me to let you live, don't fight any of us. Don't use your power against us or I will kill you just like I did Athenodora," I hissed into her ear. "You're going to wait up here until I come and tell you that you can come out."

She nodded and sat still. I scooped up Pandora from the sofa as the room returned to quiet calmness, save for Theo's incoherent angered and pained yells.

He held up Sulpicia's head and looked at it in disgust.

"This is from Zala," he said, throwing it into the fire.

"Theo, your arm," I began, ripping the nearest cloth one-handed to try and wrap the wound.

"It's fine Athy, I can feel it healing already," he said, staring at the hole which had already started to clot over. It must have been the venom in his blood that allowed him to heal so easily - a lucky escape considering the fates of the two others here. He took the cloth from my hand and used it to clean the blood that had spattered onto my face.

"We've got no time, Panda looks completely done, we have to get moving," he said, his voice more self-assured than ever. Theo grabbed me by the hand and we flew out of the tower, leaving the two headless bodies of Sulpicia and Athenodora to stumble around blindly in search of their missing appendages.

"Theo, can you go and get her some blood, I'm worried she won't have the energy to-"

"On it, Athy," he said, running onwards to fetch a blood bag.

We had one more step left. As long as we could pull this off, we'd be free. Everything was riding on Pandora.

"Florin, you have a more critical role in this charade. You'll need to let Theodotis here transfer all of your memories to Pandora. That way, you can stay out of the battle completely."

Next chapter will be up as usual next weekend. But how do you think this battle will end? Will children be forced to stain their hands with blood once more?