BPOV

The first week being back in Romania was a bit chaotic, as all missions of this sort tended to be. Making sure that we were distracting the Romanian forces at our front lines while actively working around them seemed to be an easy enough task on paper, but in reality we had problem after problem popping up.

Our first and most obvious source of trouble seemed to be the Romanian wizard-on-call. His abilities were apparently getting stronger and that was most noticeable in the daily battles that we fought. It seemed he was able to completely hide the enemy forces under the dome-like forcefield that he had set up, so when the Romanian's attacked, we didn't realize it until they were practically on us. Our Alpha and Beta teams were constantly being barraged with newborns, but it seemed like that is all they were; angry, starving, half-mad newborns.

I was beginning to remember what being an angry and half-mad newborn was like over these past few days. The constant bombardment of my shield that I had placed over the camp was a means to wear me out and search for holes in our defenses. My mood was not a pleasant one as the days went by with no reprieve. Although it kept us safe from any physical repercussions, the constant magical bombing would eventually wear me out and I hoped I had another month of this left in me. I swore to myself that if Peter and Char didn't take down this magic nuisance, I certainly would.

After every shift for every division ended, I had required the Guard to file a report about their experience from that shift and the Sergeants were in charge of making sure that these reports found their way to me every few hours. I sat aside time in the evenings to read through all of these in the relative quiet of my own bunk. This way I could see every part of each battle without having to be everywhere at once. Things that I tended to look for were the number of opponents faced, mental capacity of those opponents, rough estimation of how long ago the opponents had been gifted this new life, whether they acted like they had been starved, descriptions of any survivors, whether the Guard was able to completely burn their opponents, whether that Guard member sustained any injuries and if so, what were the nature of those injuries, and things of that nature. I also knew that not every question could be answered, but I still wanted as many soldiers to be as thorough as possible without being too overbearing.

Looking through these reports, I noticed something interesting; The heavy-hitters didn't seem to be as involved with the day-to-day attacks as I would have thought. Any Romanian survivors that had escaped one of our battles had seemingly disappeared. This bit of information plus a lack of Peter and Charlotte on the battlefield made me very wary as to what Maria may have in store for us.

To say I was nervous for both of them would have been an understatement. I knew that Maria and Peter had a very tumultuous relationship when Peter left her army, but I had to trust that he could talk himself out of any precarious situation he may find himself in. As for Char, well, her and Maria had no previous relationship of any kind, so I had to hope that whatever lie Peter spun meant that they both were still breathing Romanian air.

Putting my personal feelings aside for the moment, I knew that what I had assumed with Maria holding the brute force of her army away from the actual battles was information that I needed to share with Jasper. I needed to get his advice on what she may be planning or when.

Both he and I had been offered the Officer's tent by Felix before he left and I wasn't sure how I felt about that, but I did know that Jasper hadn't stepped foot in this tent once since we'd been here. I was almost like he couldn't relax, or didn't want to. So, as our nightly routines went, I gathered the papers in my hand and headed out to find the Major.

It wasn't difficult to find him. He had made it a habit to be in the Command tent and he was constantly pouring over the latest maps. "Have we figured out if the mines are gonna be a good entry point?" Jasper asks sharply as soon as I enter the tent. His clothes were dirty and his pants were grass-stained from pacing, and his hair was a complete mess, almost as though he kept running his fingers through it, but I stopped just inside the tent for a split-second just to take him in. As stressed as he was, I still found him quite handsome to look at.

Coming back to myself after half a second, I responded "And hello to you, too." I knew that his tone wasn't meant to be offensive or rude, so I didn't take it that way. I did notice that since we got here, his tone had become more serious, professional and sometimes even downright unpleasant. He couldn't seem to get out of the Military Officer mindset and I knew it was entirely my fault. I knew it was a stress and anxiety response from his time in the Southern Wars, but I also knew that if he kept up this way for the entire month we were here, I may try to end him myself.

He needed to get that stick out of his ass and me gently coaxing him into acting more like himself - by acting like myself - would do him good. "We don't know yet. We should have an update by sundown, though."

A grunt is all the response I got before he turned sullen and silent again.

"I did notice a pattern when I was reading through the reports this evening. Something stuck out to me regarding the vamps that have either survived one of the attacks and returned to the castle, or the heavy-hitters like Peter, Char, Maria herself, or bringing Stefan and Vladimir out of retirement for some action. None of these vamps have been seen on the battlefield. Which makes me think that Maria is stocking her "specialty" vamps up for some sort of shock and awe campaign. What are your thoughts?"

"Have any of our number come across any gifted vamps on the Romanian side?" He lifted his head to meet my eyes and I could feel his curiosity wrapping around me like smoke.

"Not that I can tell from reading the reports, but you know better than I would about the likelihood that these vamps even know they have gifts. Sometimes it takes a while to show." He just sighed and looked over the maps again. "You had those maps memorized five minutes after you laid eyes on them. What's so interesting about them that you look like you're going to burn a hole through them with the sheer force of your gaze alone?"

He looked around the room to make sure that we were alone before standing up and looking me in the eyes. I could see the hurt and pain reflected there and I knew he wouldn't be showing this vulnerable side of himself with anyone but me. "Here" he bangs the knuckles of his right hand gently on the table, "it's just paper. Chess pieces moved over a chessboard. No real lastin' damage." He took a deep breath, looked back down at the pages and ran his hand through his honey-colored locks before continuing. "I can lose myself in believin' that decisions I make won't affect those around me. But out there" he gestures to the side of the tent and I understand perfectly.

"Out there, it's real." I finished for him. "Out there it's life and death. Out there, it's burning and pain and a million other horrible things that war brings. Out there, there's no guarantee that the people you send will come back." He nods and I can see his shoulders slump with the weight I've placed on his shoulders. I can't begin to understand the trauma that he went through the last time he was in this scenario, nor would I want to. I hate myself for bringing him back to this, but as much as I hate it, I would be the first to admit that we needed him.

"Why did you really decide to come here?" I wonder aloud. Why would anyone willingly put themselves back in such a place? How is he standing it?

"Responsibility." He replies so softly it's almost hard for my enhanced hearing to pick it up.

"Responsibility?" I repeat. "What do you have to be responsible for?"

Instead of answering me, he surprises me with "I'm changing the game plan."

"What?"

"I know the reason that you put up schedules for all of our troops, but I think at this point that all of us feel a little trenched."

"Trenched?" I couldn't figure out what on Earth he was trying to say, or where his thoughts were headed, so I waited and hoped he would explain.

"Trenched." He repeated. "Remember your history?"

My brain couldn't make sense of his question or the way his brain was seemingly jumping from topic to topic. I remembered a lot of history. I was taught by Marcus during my first few years in Volterra, who had actually seen quite a bit of the history he taught. "You're going to have to narrow that subject down to my history, our history, human history, world history. Give me something. Make sense."

He huffed out a breath through his nose and looked at me, his eyes almost begging me to understand. "In World War I what was the main type of warfare in France?"

"Uh" My brain shifted from History lessons with Marcus to Warfare lessons with Caius. Both subjects were ones that Char and I needed to learn as vampires and we couldn't have had better teachers. Luckily, lessons on the World Wars were taught in tandem by both, so it was easier to remember those classes. World War II had been more fascinating to me than the first war, but I still knew the answer to his question. "Trench Warfare."

"Explain it to me." He demanded, but it wasn't unkind.

Like I was still in school, I rattled off the quickest and easiest response to the demand. "Both sides build deep trenches as a defense against the other on each side of a field called No Man's Land. These trenches can stretch for many miles and make it-" This is when I understood where he was going with his thoughts. "-nearly impossible for one side to advance." I looked at him in realization and couldn't help but ask. "So what's the plan to get us out of the trenches?"

"I've spent days thinkin' it over, but with the lack of movement by either side, somethin' has to give and I'd rather it be their side than ours. The information you just brought me about a potential shock-and-awe campaign was the last piece of the puzzle."

"Which means?" I ask curiously.

"You and I will have to enter the fight." I could see him brace himself for my reaction to this plan. Body going a bit too still, breathing slowing almost to a stop, watching me for a reaction of some sort, and feeling my emotions at the revelation.

It was like he was waiting for an explosion, and then I realized that was exactly what he was doing; bracing for the inevitable fallout for mentioning anything so dangerous as fighting on the front lines. Had we been in any other situation, I would have laughed. The idea that I wouldn't be sitting here reading reports anymore appealed to me in a way I hadn't known the promise of battle would, but he didn't know that because he had never been in a fight like this with me. "Ok." I stated, only letting him feel a little of the excitement and relief I felt. I didn't want to overwhelm or worry him with my reaction. "How do you wanna play it?"

He thawed out a bit at my question, but if there was any surprise that I was taking his suggestion so well, he didn't show it. "Well, at the end of this shift, I want to have a camp-wide meetin' that will explain the change of plan, so can you get that set up?"

"Sure." I replied. "Want it anywhere in particular?"

"Actually, yes. That old minin' town would be perfect."

I started heading out the door to let our soldiers know to start making their way over there, and noticed that our scout had finally returned from the mines. I grinned over my shoulder at him as the scout headed for the Command Tent and said, with perhaps a bit too much enthusiasm, "Consider it done!"

It didn't take me long to locate all of our troops and get them to slowly and inconspicuously head the direction of the town. I didn't want them all to head over together, but instead, I wanted them to take their time getting there. Moving as a group would just be an unnecessary flurry of movement, which would be about the most idiotic way to show the Romanians what our plans were and where we were headed. There was no doubt they had eyes on us with their own spies and scouts and I didn't want to give them any reason to be suspicious. So, inconspicuous it needed to be. I had some groups go around the other side of the mountain, some go through the forest, and others I wanted to be seen in their positions before following.

I was curious about what Jasper had in mind with this new plan, but this was exactly the reason that I had requested help. We clearly were encountering our own version of warfare that I had never dealt with and I was unprepared to handle it. A part of me could have kicked myself for not seeing it sooner, while another part of me was thrilled that we may be able to make some actual headway.

Making my way to the small town after my troops, I idly wondered how Jasper's plan would affect the final outcome that we needed. Would we even need the full month before we had Maria, Stefan, and Vladimir in custody? Would we finally be able to stop this soon and have peace through the vampire world? Would we finally be able to go home and enjoy our immortal lives without the threat of being overthrown? Would we have needed to send Peter and Char into the enemy camp in the first place?

That question alone brought another glaringly obvious question to light. Would adding Jasper to the front lines put the mission that Peter and Char were on in jeopardy? Maria knew that Jasper and Peter had a close relationship and it wasn't likely that they would be on opposing sides of any conflict. Considering I didn't know what lies Peter had woven to grant him access to the Romanian camp, I couldn't be sure that having Jasper out there fighting wouldn't destroy any chance that Peter and Char could complete that mission. I just had to hope that Jasper had thought about all of these answers before putting this plan into motion. Of course, this was Jasper, and if I knew him at all, I knew he would have thought about every possible outcome or problem before changing anything. All I needed to do was trust that he knew what he was doing.

As I made my way through the edge of the woods and into the town, I finally got my first look at what had once been a thriving community. On the outskirts, there wasn't much left of the homes and buildings that had once stood here. A few foundations, a stubborn wall that refused to be knocked down, the occasional brick or stone fireplace attached to a chimney. This place had truly been retaken by the elements.

The closer I got to the center of the city, the more humanity still seemed to have a chokehold. There were surprisingly still standing buildings and streets visible, but most had been reclaimed by nature. Buildings I passed that now had broken windows and caved-in ceilings. Homes that had once been lived in, now had trees growing through them with branches sticking through the windows. Schools that had, at one point, been full with children learning were now littered with debris from the doors that flung open with the wind and allowed the wild animals in this area to find shelter. Streetlights that had gone cold and dark with lack of electricity flowing through them. It almost looked post-apocalyptic and reminded me of the once-flourishing community at Chernobyl.

Following the scent trails that had been laid by my troops, we met in the exact center of the city. I could see everyone milling about, waiting on either myself or Jasper to tell them what to do. Luckily they weren't being overly loud while they waited. Just small and quiet conversations here and there about what they had seen or experienced in the past few days. We still didn't want to have any reason for the Romanian forces to potentially find us here, so silence was ideal. If they didn't know this place existed, we weren't going to enlighten them. I joined the throng and waited for Jasper to show.

I wasn't sure how long after I had left to go round everyone up, he had waited until leaving the camp himself. So I found a brick seat on what seemed to have once been a fountain and settled in for an unknown wait. Surprisingly, it didn't take him long after I arrived to show up, but when he did, he looked resigned. I didn't have the slightest clue what that expression could possibly mean, but I would still back whatever play he came to the table with.

He stopped walking when he saw everyone and began looking for somewhere to stand so he could speak without raising his voice. I stood from my spot on the crumbling fountain and made my way up to him to at least show my Guard that I had his back for whatever he was about to say. I had learned fairly early on that body language meant just as much as spoken words, and that if I wanted to show a united front, I had to be physically close to Jasper as he said whatever was on his mind.

Finding some sort of raised concrete slab, he chose that to begin his speech from. As he stepped up onto it and turned to face everyone, I mimicked him standing just below the slab to give him the spotlight. He took a deep breath, ran his hand through his hair, and spoke. "Warfare, in its most basic form, is an extremely violent, aggression-driven, destruction-heavy means to gain control. Control over who or what is up to the ones engagin' in such matters, but it's somethin' that both humans and vampires have glorified over the millenia without realizin' or understandin' that there's nothin' to glorify. Wagin' war is horrific, crude, and in most cases inhumane. All of that bein' said, I want this over with as quickly as possible - with as few casualties as possible - and I know all y'all do too. Hopefully, by layin' out this new strategy, we'll be a few steps closer to achievin' that goal."

Surprisingly, there were a few murmurs of assent from the soldiers before they quickly quieted down and Jasper could continue. "For those of you who haven't studied warfare, or haven't retained the knowledge, let me explain why you haven't made progress. What we are experiencin' is a bastard child of siege warfare and trench warfare just…without the actual trenches. We're currently losin' this war on both counts."

I sighed heavily, but quietly, knowing that it was my fault we were failing. I wasn't a novice at this by any means, but having never run across a situation like this, I hadn't had the faintest clue how to handle it. So, I used what I did know, but that obviously hadn't seemed to work. I shook my head to get rid of the intruding thoughts and once again paid attention to what Jasper was saying. "The goal of siege warfare is to starve the enemy out, or tear down the defenses so thoroughly they have nowhere to hide. In the past seven months y'all have been here, you haven't managed to deteriorate the Romanian defenses like you would have hoped. In fact, you haven't managed to get close enough to their battlements to make an impression at all."

As right as he was, it hurt to hear that we hadn't made any tangible progress. I knew we hadn't. It would have been obvious to a blind man that we hadn't, but my pride was still a little wounded to hear it directly from his mouth. "The goal of trench warfare is to hold your ground and prevent the enemy from advancin' further into your territory. Again, since y'all have been here, you haven't managed to gain any ground. You haven't lost it, which is a good sign, but you haven't exactly made progress either."

I could hear a few discontented grumbles through the group and knew that I had waited far too long before asking for help. The shame rolled through me and I was suddenly glad I couldn't blush anymore because I was sure I'd be as red as a tomato. Putting my Guard in this position had been a very hard lesson to learn, but now that I had learned it, I wasn't ever going to forget it.

I knew that I had done a fairly decent job in keeping my Guard safe in previous years and throughout previous interactions and disagreements with other covens. Hell, I had done my best to keep their morale high through every conflict. We were Volturi for fucks sake, but with this conflict opening my eyes and slapping me with reality, I was beginning to doubt that I had the necessary skill set that it took to really lead them. Has every conflict I've won until now been luck? Skill that I hadn't started to doubt until now? Just the threat of what the Volturi were and could be capable of? I wasn't sure of the answers to any of those questions.

Then again, I wasn't sure that doubting myself and the fifty years I had already led the Guard was beneficial at all. I may just be overthinking everything and spiraling because I was at a loss with the current impasse. Maybe I was actually a decent leader who did know what I was doing and resented Jasper for making me sound incompetent.

Or, it could be that what Jasper had said actually made sense and I was beginning to realize that I had glorified this position within the Guard, the Guard itself, and even the human Army I served with to a point where I felt I could do no wrong. The realization that even after all of my experience, I could very easily fall apart was sobering and more than a little humiliating.

Jasper continued to speak, unaware of my mental self-flagellation. "The good news is that we can fix this. Right now, this army has seven different options that could get us the upper hand; bombardment, trenches, tunnelin', starvation, disease, assault, and negotiation. However, due to our current inhuman status, some of these are not ideal solutions. Obviously disease and germ warfare is off the table, bombardment of any sort isn't feasible with the surrounding mountains, the trenches aren't gonna be helpful unless we plan to be here long term, and assault seems useless because y'all have been doin' that for months. However, that leaves us tunnelin', starvation, and negotiation."

I was following his thought process so far and, although it sounded like he was reading out of a textbook, I knew from the way he spoke that he had put these into practice himself. Jasper continued breaking everything down as I listened. "Tunnelin' is a simple way to make sure that the offensive army bypasses all defenses by comin' at the defenders from underneath. In this case, there isn't much that we would have to do to make this work for us. There are already mineshafts relatively close by that lead directly under the mountain the Romainan's call home. We can use those to get under their defenses and get inside their fortress without causing a ruckus."

That seemed like a solid plan, but I had more questions about how we would manage to pull it off. I was sure that Maria had set up scouts and guards throughout the entirety of their fortress to keep an eye out for moves like this. I was hesitant to say that this was the appropriate route to go because we didn't have any insider information on where the mineshafts could lead. We could end up in Sefan's bedroom for all we knew and I wanted to prevent that kind of surprise if at all possible. In order to do that though, we still needed Peter and Char to get that kind of information for us so we could make our next move. I would also have preferred to wait until the others arrived in a few weeks before agreeing to this plan because it gave us the time we needed to gather that information. The addition of the Volturi Kings at that point would provide just the right amount of distraction so we could get forces in through the mines without Maria and the Romanians knowing.

"Another option that we've considered" Jasper continues "is starvation."

"Yeah, but we don't know where they're getting their victims from." Shouts a voice in the audience that sounds suspiciously like Sebastian.

A chorus of agreement follows the statement and Jasper has to hold his hands up for everyone to settle back down before he could go on. "I understand that." He says trying to ease the tension. "And I have a plan. In order to get a better understandin' of how the Romanians are keepin' their army fed, I have special assignments that I will be handin' out after this meeting is done."

I had a feeling that I knew what those assignments would be. I would just have to recommend Raymond's squad handle it. They would certainly be the best choice.

"The last option is negotiation. Which-" Jasper waits for the cacophony of jeering to subside at this revelation. "-we will never do." A chorus of cheers goes up in response and Jasper quickly raises his hands for silence.

"Now, as for what we're doin' here in this lovely little town," Jasper says with a hint of a smirk, "is familiarizin' ourselves with it. This town will now be the base of operations for the remainder of this conflict."

"But what about all of our stuff back at camp?" asks Alexander from somewhere in the middle of the group.

"It stays." Jasper says simply. "Other than the duffels that you came with, everythin' stays just like it is. You'll be released to go and grab any personal effects after this meeting is done, but you are to come back here once you've gotten the things you need. We need to give the Romanians the illusion that we haven't moved base camp, but we also need to stay under the radar. We can do both here. Since the Captain wasn't aware that this place existed, I'm goin' to assume that Maria and her cohorts don't know that either."

Way to throw me under the bus, Major. Thanks.

"We'll be bunkin' down in the dilapidated school buildin' about two blocks from here. Make sure that the things you need are here by nightfall. Go in through the rear of the buildin', closest to the woods so you don't leave an easy scent trail to follow. Delta Division, I need to see y'all up front, everyone else is dismissed."

"Can I ask what moving our camp is gonna do?" I ask a little shortly as Jasper turns and steps off the slab. I may have been a bit angry at all of his insinuations during that meeting, but I could at least pretend to be civil.

"I'll explain it later." He says simply as Delta forms up in front of us. "Delta, I have new assignments for each of you."

Jasper proceeds to divvy up Delta's next set of instructions and they were exactly what I thought they would be. He's sending all of Delta to the neighboring towns and cities past the mountain side of the Romanian Castle so they can report back if any are empty of humans, full and thriving, or if any are unfortunately taken. What I didn't realize was that Jasper was looking for where the humans were being carted off to. So he was hoping that he would find a city that the newborns were hunting in and have a Delta team follow them to see where they go. Not a bad plan and one that I probably should have thought of, but didn't because it required humans to be taken and I was trying to prevent that.

What was that human saying again? Win some, lose some? I guess I was going to have to be prepared to lose some if I wanted to win this war, but nothing about it sat well with me.