First off, thanks a lot for your interest. I imagine that Seth x Jane isn't a popular pairing, but I just had to get this story off my chest. I've always felt sorry for Jane and Alec because of their tragic backstories, and Seth being such a ray of sunshine compared to the cold and cruel Jane sowed the seeds of an interesting ship in my head. I like the challenge of writing unlikely pairings. Hope you enjoy and keep reading.

Some notes to make:

-I aged up Jane and Alec to make them physically 15 instead of 12/13 like in the books, so closer to movie portrayals.

-No imprinting in this fic's universe because in all honesty, I hate the idea of imprinting.

-This is set during the COVID-19 pandemic. I know this doesn't align with canon timeline, but bear with me. I thought it'd be interesting to explore how the vampires and wolves of Twilight would deal with it. As someone training to enter the medical field, I'm having a field day with this setting.

Divine Comedy (1)

Jane

The ends of my cloak billowed around me in a dark whisper as I knelt before my masters.

Any sane vampire would quake and quail before the triumvirate of the Volturi, and rightfully so. Aro, Marcus, and Caius form the hand that keeps a tight, iron grip on the vampire world. As the highest-ranked member of the guard, and among their most faithful agents for the past millennium, I was one of the few who could afford to present myself before the triumvirate without fearing for my life. I owed them my life. Even a thousand years gone by didn't feel enough to satisfy the debt I owed to them, especially to Aro. Only eternity felt long enough to satisfy a debt to your savior.

Aro's voice, ever so light and courteous, floated down the steps to me. "Jane, my dear, we have a mission for you."

I dipped my head before meeting his filmy red gaze. "Name it and I will carry it out, Master."

"After much consideration, planning, and adding to our ranks, we are now certain that we have found a way to dismantle the Olympic coven. Our...ah, somewhat embarrassing retreat from Forks had not been completely in vain."

The dispute over the supposed immortal child was almost half a year ago. I was not surprised to hear that Aro and his co-rulers had not been idle, that they had been plotting something all the while. Well, in all honesty, I'm not very sure how involved Marcus was in such plans. Aro and Caius were usually the masterminds behind any clever scheming. Marcus, with the countenance of someone long decayed in a tomb, with the enthusiasm of a limp, wet towel, merely agreed with whatever the other two concocted.

Aro steepled his hands as he regarded me. "You, Jane, are a crucial part to bringing about the downfall of the Cullens."

I couldn't help cracking a smirk. How I had longed to see that piss-eyed rabble drop like flies. Ever since the newest addition to their coven resisted my power, I harbored fantasies to exact revenge on her. The shield will finally crack. I relished the thought.

Aro seemed to catch my smirk as he made one of his own. "Don't get too excited, my dear. Not all of the coven will go up in flames. We will eliminate the ones deemed unnecessary, and take in the ones who will be of great use to the Volturi."

I averted my narrowed eyes to the stone steps. I didn't need to be reminded of the ones Aro had so coveted. Alice the fortune-teller, Edward the mind-reader, and Bella the shield. I couldn't forget their names even if I wanted, since Aro had mentioned them so many times in voicing his wish to recruit them. Resentment bubbled within me like acid in a human's gut, but I forced it down out of loyalty to my masters.

"How will you have me bring them over to our side?" I asked. There was no mention of my fellow guards accompanying me on this mission. Not Felix, not Demetri. Not even my brother, Alec. That was unheard of. I couldn't hide my unrest as I frowned. "You mean to have me confront the Olympic coven alone?"

"Yes, you'll be going alone, but not without help. On that note, allow me to introduce our newest recruit." Aro looked up past me and beckoned with a curl of his fingers.

I turned to see an Asian woman approach us from the double doors Felix and Demetri had opened up for her. Her smooth, confident stride carried her across the chamber. She appeared to be in her late twenties, though true vampiric age was much harder to tell, of course. Dark, curled locks bounced against her shoulders with each step. She stopped just a few feet behind me and bowed before the Volturi rulers.

"Jane, meet Phuong," Aro went on. "She may be our newest recruit, but she is certainly not new to her craft. She had been working as a spy for the communist party of Vietnam since their civil war, infiltrating the opposing side before exposing and turning in her targets." He flashed the Vietnamese vampire a smile. "So generous of you to lend us your talents."

The corners of her thin lips perked. "They were starting to feel wasted with the Vietnamese government. It's an honor to be counted among the esteemed Volturi."

Aro returned his attention to me. "Phuong will be your aid in this mission. Her gift is to construct personas. You, my dear Jane, will make good use of that gift by pretending to come to the Cullens as a defector from the Volturi."

That made me regard Phuong with intrigue. "I suppose she can make me forget that I was given this mission in the first place. I will approach the Cullens under the guise of wanting to turn over a new leaf. In other words, her gift makes the perfect shield from Edward's mind-reading and Alice's visions."

Aro clapped his hands once in delight. "Clever girl. Precisely."

"How long will I be on this undercover mission?" And I couldn't help adding, "Not too long, I hope?"

"You have a year to convince the Cullens that you want to lead a new life outside the Volturi," Caius said. "When the time comes, and the Cullens let down their guard, we will strike."

Aro waved his hand. "The details of the counterstrike are not important to you, Jane. What matters to you is doing your part in deceiving the Cullens." He smirked. "Their kindness will prove to be their undoing. Carlisle in particular seems fond of taking in young, vulnerable vampires under his care. Against Bella, you are powerless, and without your formidable power, you'll be small and unthreatening. You'll lull them into a false sense of security."

I didn't like the thought of being rendered useless before the shield, but for the good of the mission, I had to swallow down my dislike.

"That is why you are the perfect candidate for this mission, Jane."

"Is she?" Caius cut in. "I'm starting to think otherwise."

"Whatever do you mean?" Marcus asked. "I thought we had all agreed on this." His tone evidently carried the weight of exasperation, along the lines "oh, dear, here we go again, stirring up the pot when everything inside had just settled in."

"Surely, Aro, you won't brush off the time when Jane brought part of the last feeding frenzy outside our gates."

At Caius's reply, I stiffened in my kneeling position. They knew? I dared to glance up at Aro, who made the slightest shrug.

"Jane broke no rules last week, Caius. She had taken away a baby, a little thing with no memory or knowledge of our existence. Hardly something to fuss over."

Caius scowled. "Still, letting human prey leave intact? It's unheard of. I expect that least of all from the likes of Jane."

If I still had human blood coursing through my veins, they would be surging under my cheeks and ears by now. "That will not happen again, Master," I said in a hardened voice. "Let me take on this mission to prove my loyalty to you."

"And I have no doubt that you will fulfill it," Aro said pleasantly. "You have never failed me before in all these years. If anything, that little incident can lend more credibility to your ruse, won't it, my dear?"

Caius fell silent at this, evidently interpreting Aro's reply as a defensive stance on my behalf. His face, however, was not without traces of skepticism aimed at me. I strived to keep my own face a mask of smooth stone. Centuries of servitude and discipline made that relatively effortless.

Aro settled back into his chair, his seat of power positioned between Marcus and Caius. "I have said enough. Phuong will lead you through the rest. Go now, my good and faithful servant."

At his dismissal, I rose to my feet and followed Phuong out of the chamber.

"How does your gift work exactly?" I asked her. "I've never heard of such a thing before."

"I wouldn't have been so successful with aiding the communist party if my secret was out." A playful light glittered in her red eyes. "I tell you what you ought to be, and you follow what I've laid out for you until the time comes for me to return you to your true self."

"What I ought to be...how much of that can you control? You can tell me to become anyone? Anything?"

"Well, within reason. I can't, for example, tell you that you will be a polka-dotted flying hippopotamus."

I couldn't resist rolling my eyes at that. "Clearly that would be impossible to pull off."

She chuckled. "Exactly. Constructing the nuances of a believable persona involves scrambling up your memory and implanting a few commands into your head. I can literally snap you in and out of the act at will."

"So it works somewhat like hypnosis."

"That's one way to put it. My gift isn't without its limits, though." She wiggled her fingers to imitate pulling the strings of a puppet. "I can't control every action and thought of yours in your persona, and the suggestive state I put you in is time-sensitive. Even if I wanted to keep someone in a persona forever, I can't. The effect lasts up to a year before I have to 'renew' the act, so to speak. My gift can last up to a few weeks or months on average. I went through training to extend my limit up to a year."

"This will be the longest I'll spend outside of Volterra," I murmured, "and this will be the longest you'll have to give out a persona..."

She flashed me a grin. "Looks like this mission will be a first for both of us."

I didn't return it. "Looks that way." I admitted. I disliked the perkiness of new recruits. They'd wise up as the years go on.

I knew the fortress well enough that Phuong was leading me to the private hanger, where the Volturi set out on missions abroad. Some of the lowest-ranking members acted as escorts to our destinations, by plane, car, or boat. Phuong and I stopped just after the threshold to the hanger.

"If you can introduce and remove the persona at will, I assume that you will meet up with me in a year to decide whether to prolong or end the act."

Phuong nodded. "You catch on quickly. I'll be the judge of whether your ruse was a success or not."

"How do I know to meet you?"

"You won't, but we will meet regardless. Just leave those arrangements to me."

I frowned. "All right."

I was informed on the ins and outs of every prior mission that needed my involvement. To be left in the dark wasn't a good feeling, but I had no choice but to trust in Aro, who must be trusting me a great deal to assign this important mission to me. I would not let him down. I never have.

"All right," Phuong repeated after me. "Let's get started. Look right into my eyes, Jane, and don't look away while I give you your objective."

I complied, though not without noting that I was short for my physical age, while she was tall for an Asian woman. Not including the immortal children, I was arguably the smallest vampire in existence. It was a nuisance at times, and an asset on better days. The moment I looked up and she stared down at me, she had all my focus and attention riveted at her intense red gaze. Her voice rang with authority.

"You are Jane, a longtime member of the Volturi dismissed by your master, Aro. You will leave Volterra to seek a new and better life. You will seek the Olympic coven for guidance and sanctuary. You will struggle to adjust, but above all you want to reform."

Phuong broke the arresting hold on me with a snap of her fingers. I blinked several times, though it was not necessary for a vampire like me to do such a thing. My mind felt like a room that someone had broke into and messed around in, so that I came back to find everything upended and out of place. It took me another moment to return my gaze to the woman standing before me, to remember what I was doing in this hanger in the first place.

"You...I guess you're here to take me to the Olympic coven, aren't you?"

She smiled down at me. "Yes, I am."

"Have we met before?"

"I'm Phuong. I'm new here. You're leaving while I'm coming in...how's that for uncanny timing?"

I raised an eyebrow at her, not amused. "Are you my replacement?"

She laughed. "Of course not. I can't ever match your talent. But I will say that I'm far from the only recruit joining the Volturi."

I looked back to the threshold of the hanger, to the ancient hallways winding down to the main chamber. Aro no longer wanting me in the Volturi, by his side, left a sting that made me turn my back to the hallways with a spin of my heel.

I followed Phuong up into a private jet, which set a course straight to Forks. I spent that quiet trip in the air mulling over what to say to the Olympic coven—no, the Cullen family—when I would meet them. They were less of a coven and more like a family, bound by mutual love and respect for each other, unlike the servitude and obedience that held the Volturi together.

Still, a family of vampires meant a formidable group of vampires. There came a certain vulnerability to approaching them alone without Felix's strength, or the potent assurance of Alec's gift in smothering the senses. I could only hope that the Cullens would hear me out without tearing me apart first. I wasn't on the best terms with them the last time we had crossed paths. Regardless, they were my best hope for showing me how to lead a life outside the one I had always known at Volterra.

The private jet touched down into a meadow without ceremony, and Phuong stopped at the jet's opening as I stepped down into the grass.

"Good luck, Jane," she said with a wink.

I watched the jet take off before I set off on my own way further into the wilderness. I didn't get to go far. Only a minute of walking passed by before I found myself surrounded by the Cullens. Of course the shield was there, holding her little hybrid child that had grown since I last saw her. If the Cullens were like those giant stinking wolves, their hackles would be raised and their teeth would be bared at me.

"What are you doing here, Jane?" Edward demanded.

"We've broken no rules," Carlisle assured me with the calmness I had never heard him break before. "We strive to uphold that standard."

I tucked my hands into the folds of my coat and assumed the least threatening stance as possible. "I didn't come on behalf of the Volturi," I replied, trying to match that calm. "I came out of my own free will."

"Liar," Emmett snapped. "It's a trap."

His mate Rosalie immediately chimed in. "You're not really alone. Other Volturi cronies must be hiding nearby, waiting to pounce on us."

"Don't be ridiculous," I said with a scoff. "Any vampire with a working nose can tell that I came here with no one else."

"She's right," the shield exclaimed. "She really came by herself."

"We should trust her newborn nose," Jasper said to Emmett and Rosalie.

"Did you really leave the Volturi, Jane?" Esme asked me. Like the others, she had her guarded wariness, though out of all of them, she sounded the most gentle and concerned.

"Yes, I left." Something tucked in the recesses of my mind sent a strange, tickling sensation down my palate, like words sliding up to the tip of my tongue. "I left Volterra and came here seeking a new and better life. I am interested in adopting your lifestyle."

"I call bullshit," Emmett said. "No one would believe that."

"I would," Alice said. Her wide golden-colored gaze swept over her fellow coven members before settling it on me. "She's telling the truth. I've seen her future. She will reform."

The other Cullens looked at her with naked disbelief. All except Edward.

"I agree with Alice," he said in a low voice. "Her thoughts are as true as what she's saying. She really is interested in learning to live like us."

"I won't be so bold to ask for a place among your coven, your family," I said. "I only want to learn enough from you so I can go off to live on my own terms."

The shield (who I will keep refusing to name) peered at me with distrust. "You've served the Volturi for so long. You're one of their most powerful weapons. What made you leave?"

I lowered my gaze to the forest floor. "I've been nothing to them but a weapon. Now I want to be something else."

Silence hung over us like a second canopy below the first canopy of treetops.

"That's a valid reason, Jane," Carlisle said.

I searched his face to find compassion in his eyes as well as his voice.

"Maybe you still remember that I myself had left the Volturi because I disagreed with their way of life. I left to live life the way I wanted to, and to start my own family. You have a chance to start over too. We can show you how." He glanced around at the others. "Only if we're all in agreement, of course."

A pause reigned over the Cullens as they stood there deciding my fate.

The shield was the first to speak up. "I trust Edward and Alice. If they say that Jane's telling the truth, then I have to believe that she is."

"I agree with Bella," Jasper said quietly.

"I'm sorry," Rosalie said with a shake of her head, "I'm still having a hard time trusting anything coming out of that little witch's mouth. But better to keep an eye on her than let her run loose."

"Bella's shield can keep her in check." Emmett gave his newest sister a nudge in the ribs. "I think we can all rest well—figuratively speaking—knowing that."

"I'm fine with letting Jane stay with us," Esme said.

Carlisle nodded in satisfaction. "Then it's settled. We'll take her home with us."

But not without keeping a close eye on me and a safe distance from me, of course. Jasper and Emmett, two of the physically strongest members of the clan, flanked me. The shield's intense gaze on me from behind never left during the whole way back to where the Cullens called home.

Seth

I've always been an easy target for teasing. Nowadays the guys in the rez like to say "You're such a sucker for those bloodsuckers, huh, Seth?"

And I'd shrug and say "Yeah, guess I am."

I had no shame in admitting that I like the Cullens. Like, a lot. To the point that I could get over my natural wolf instinct to launch at them with fangs bared, that I could get over how they're supposed to be my natural enemy. What I learned lately was that not all of them are my enemy. Some of them are actually pretty chill. Almost human.

Jake had come to learn that lesson too, I think. He'd taken a real shine to Renesmee since she came into the picture, and of course, he remained a good friend for Bella. He'd visit the Cullen place as much as me. On a chilly, dewy morning, he and I raced each other down the trail we knew well and always took to reach their house. Our shirts and pants were spotted with dew as we sprinted through the undergrowth.

"Beat you again," Jake burst out with a triumphant laugh.

I groaned in defeat between panting. "I'll beat you someday."

"Only in your dreams, little man." Jake hooked his arm around my neck and tussled my hair in a good ol' noogie.

I yelped and squirmed to get out of his grip and he just laughed. Leah was my sister, while Jake was the brother I never had. I had tried a bunch of times to convince Leah to come with us on our Cullen visits, but even after the whole Renesmee deal, she still hasn't warmed up to them yet. Too bad for her that I was as stubborn as she was. The Clearwater family was strong in the Force—er, stubbornness.

When Jake and I reached the Cullens' place, we were surprised to find it empty.

"Out for a hunt, maybe," I said.

Jake shook his head. "They don't usually hunt at this time of day."

"Where could they have gone, then?" Just as the question left my mouth, a new sickly sweet scent hit the roof of my mouth.

Jake must've had the same sensation as he mirrored my stiffening reaction.

"A vamp we don't know," I said.

"We better check it out." At the alpha's command, I followed him as we raced again through the woods, this time without trading jokes and insults like usual. We skidded to a halt as the Cullen family's familiar scent hit us like a comforting wave, mingling with the new scent. Then they came into sight, forming a sort of procession around a small teenage girl.

I realized a second later that the small teenage girl was a vampire. The new scent was hers. Her red eyes stood out in a sea of golden ones.

"Hello, boys," Esme said. She gave us the smallest smile of apology. "I'm sorry, but now may not be the best time for a visit."

A growl sounded from the base of Jake's throat as he glared at the newcomer. "Who the hell is that?"

"This is Jane," Carlisle said. "She used to be a member of the Volturi."

"Don't let looks fool you," Emmett warned. "She's the strongest among them."

"Was," the girl named Jane corrected with a wrinkle of her nose. "It seems that my master has replaced me with someone stronger."

Jasper glared down at her. "You said that the reason you left was to try out our lifestyle."

"I can have more than one reason, can't I?"

Her voice had the scathing dryness of paint that peeled off of old stuff and stuck to your hand if you touched it. Her smug manner put none of us at ease.

Jake drew closer to Bella and Renesmee, though I knew that Bella didn't really need protection when she provided the best kind of it. "You're taking her in or something?"

"Jane left the Volturi and wants to learn how she can live like us," Carlisle explained. "She'll be staying with us and we'll keep an eye on her at all times."

Jake narrowed his eyes. "I hope so, because if she ever sets foot in La Push, she'll be torn to pieces. Like a little doll."

"Not if I could take you down first," Jane quipped.

Half of the Cullens turned around to glare at her and she shrugged. "Can't you all take a joke?" she said, and a ghost of a smile flickered across her pale face. She reminded of the imps I had read in a mythology book: lots of trouble and chaos packed into a tiny body.

"Be careful around her," Rosalie warned us. "Thanks to Bella's shield, we're not all writhing in excruciating pain on the ground right now."

A prickle went up my spine. I couldn't put a name to it, but there was something off about Jane. At the same time I couldn't help being intrigued.

"While you're here, you should take the treaty we have with La Push seriously," Edward told Jane. "They have the right to protect their territory from us, their natural enemy."

The little vampire crossed her arms over her chest. "Don't worry, I wouldn't dream of setting foot in a place that reeks of wet dog."

"You don't smell so great yourself," Jake retorted.

Carlisle raised placating hands. "Let's all be civil, please."

Before he could go on, I stepped up to address the new girl. I even gave her a little wave of my hand. "Hi, Jane. I'm Seth Clearwater."

She said nothing, and only stared back at me with the kind of face you give to someone who barges into your room while you're in the middle of changing, and you're standing there almost buck-ass naked in your underwear.

Jake pulled me back by the arm and rolled his eyes. "He didn't mean making introductions, doofus. He means we should get the hell out of here and leave the Cullens to their business."

"Oh, right, duh," I muttered. I could be so dense sometimes.

Carlisle couldn't help chuckling at that, then he said, "We're going to get Jane situated into our home and work out accommodations. It's best that you two stay in La Push until then."

From an alpha to another alpha. Jake didn't object to Carlisle, but he glowered at Jane and took advantage of Bella's shield to stride right up and tower over her with his much greater height. "Listen, you may be under the Cullens' protection, but make one wrong move and do anything to hurt Nessie, and there's nowhere on Earth where you'd be able to hide from me."

Jane just brushed off the threat with a face that reminded me of those rock heads on Easter Island. "Perhaps you had your head buried in snow during the trial, so I suppose you need a reminder that I have no reason to hurt this child."

Jake had no smart comeback to this. He only held his glare for a second longer before turning away. "C'mon, Seth, let's get back."

I loped after him, but not before throwing one last glance back at the Cullen family and their new guest. That had to be the youngest, smallest vampire I'd ever seen. I was never the greatest at telling age, let alone vampire age, but I guessed she looked around fifteen. My age. Looks can be deceiving, though. Something about the way she glided across the forest floor, with that imperious upward tilt of her chin, and how she wore that coat of gold buttons and fur trim, told me that she was actually a lot older than she looked. I didn't miss the pendant swinging from her neck, the V at the end standing for Volturi. The Cullens were really on edge around her, even with Bella around, like she was a ticking time bomb set to explode. Jane must be real dangerous. But I couldn't deny that she seemed real interesting, too.

And then, the stupid, teenage boy part of me sprang up like a devil on my shoulder to whisper in my ear: she actually looked kind of cute. How she kept her hair back with a black ribbony bow was a nice touch. I almost groaned out loud. Come on, Seth, get it together. A wolf crushing on a vampire, of all things? The guys would never ever let me live it down.