They arrived in the woods outside Sibiu after running in silence for about fourteen hours. It was just Jane, Demetri, and Marcus. Caius had argued that sending more of the guard, even Felix, would make this seem like a priority to anyone watching, which could inspire future hostage attempts. If Carlisle valued his children, then he wouldn't argue.

Carlisle, notably, hadn't said a word. And so, it was just the three of them.

Jane had to commend Demetri his professionalism, he'd taken the news that Marcus was accompanying them to rescue Carlisle's errant progeny from the Romanians, and killing the Romanians, with a straight face.

As they ran, Jane could only muse with some disappointment that so far, this was turning out to be exactly what she'd expected from a mission with Marcus.

Aro would always make small talk and think of small games for the guard to play, or he'd ramble about how the dilapidated building they had just run past was one he'd seen before in someone's memory some three centuries earlier, and how that someone had actually had a rather interesting job working there.

Caius, well, when he came he demanded they attempt to kill werewolves or vampires or whoever the old fashioned way for at least ten minutes. Then Jane and Alec would go to work so that they could slaughter the rest.

Marcus was silent, to the point, and uninterested in anything beyond concluding the mission effectively.

He didn't even look at the scenery or the night sky or the modern architecture, he just ran. Even though Jane knew he hadn't left Volterra in seven centuries.

Jane just knew it was eating at Demetri, he had to be just about dying to ask. For whatever reason though, it seemed like Marcus intimidated him too much. Or maybe there was just something about the idea of talking directly to Marcus that was–taboo.

Jane, certainly, didn't know what to say to him.

And her and Demetri couldn't very well make small talk between themselves without including Marcus.

"No guards," Demetri confirmed, likely just before they would enter the Romanian's hearing range, "Just the pair of them and Edward."

"His limbs?" Marcus asked in turn.

"... Harder to track but–they seem to be close to the rest of him. Almost close enough to piece together, they're not attached yet." Demetri said after a moment's reflection.

Which, of course, meant they weren't going to get any help from Edward. They wouldn't need it, of course, that was what Jane was here for (and she was very good at her job) but it still might have been nice.

Marcus said nothing to that, his vacant eyes as opaque as they always were.

Stefan and Vladimir came into view a minute later.

They were in the middle of an acre, with Edward before their feet, in three pieces - his head, his torso, his legs. By the grass stains on him, Jane would guess they had picked him up and placed him on display as soon as they heard the Volturi approaching.

The place didn't look particularly lived in, in fact, it looked staged for a hostage exchange. Well, it would have if it weren't for the collection of lazy boy chairs, flat screen televisions, and steel drums with fires burning inside.

It seemed they'd been hanging out here with Edward's body, rather than bothering to relocate it for whenever they'd meant to have their prisoner exchange.

"Ah, I see Aro sends his greetings," Vlad said, offering Jane a crooked smile. Unfortunately for Vlad, the smile fell flat. Jane bet that Vlad was remembering all about the time he, Stefan, and Vlad's wife raised an army a hundred strong only to be killed to a man in ten minutes by Jane and Alec.

Vlad's wife hadn't made it.

Marcus gave his signal.

Jane wasted no time.

She sped up, racing past Demetri and Marcus, and put Vladimir in the ground with her gift. As Stefan turned to look at him in surprise, she turned her gift on him, and in the very next second she made impact, burying her teeth in his neck.

His head came off easily, and she turned around just in time to zap Vladimir a second time as well. She took his head with the same ease, and deposited it in the fire the Romanians had prepared in a steel drum.

It took less than two seconds.

By the time Marcus and Demetri caught up with her, Stefan and Vladimir's limbs were in the drum as well.

"What a way to go," Demetri said with a whistle as he looked at where Vlad and Stefan's remains were now cooking. Jane was willing to guess that the fire had been meant for Edward, either as an explicit threat or so that when they got bored of him they could just toss him in right away.

She wasn't sure how she felt, that they had gone and made their own pyres out of trash cans.

"And that's the last of the Romanians too," Demetri said, more to himself than Jane or Marcus, "Feels like it should be a new world out there, or like it's the very last of the wild west. The times have changed…"

Jane and Marcus said nothing.

Behind them, they heard the indescribable sound of rock piecing itself back together, as Edward's hands grabbed his head, pulling it down on his neck and then, before he was even fully conscious, reaching down with the mechanical movements of a dismembered vampires to connect his hips to his waist.

"Edward," Demetri said to him, "It's your lucky day. Against all precedent, we the Volturi now stage hostage rescue operations."

Edward blearily looked at Demetri, blinking as he tried to make out just who he was talking to and where he was.

Jane had never had her head ripped off, but according to Demetri (who had talked to people here and there), it was a bewildering experience. It always took you a few seconds to even remember who you were at all, rather than just some head attached to a body.

Edward's gaze found Marcus, and it seemed to come back to him.

"You," he snarled, with such hatred in his voice that Jane was taken aback.

Jasper, he-

He hadn't been kidding.

"You were kidnapped by the Romanians," Demetri awkwardly tried to explain, though Edward didn't seem to be listening, his attention solely on Marcus. "From what we heard, you petitioned them and they–ah–found a better use for you. So, now we're here. You're welcome."

Edward got up, and stepped closer to Marcus. "You think I don't see what this is?" he hissed.

"It's a rescue operation," Demetri continued, his smile now painfully stretched, "I know–it's weird for us too. I don't argue with the decisions though. I'm just the messenger."

"Yes," Edward said, finally acknowledging Demetri with a cold smile, "I can see that."

Demetri didn't seem to know how to take that. Neither, for that matter, did Jane. She supposed she hadn't thought about what would happen after they rescued Edward but–she assumed he'd just nod his head and agree to come back to Volterra with them.

His whole family was there, seemed like the obvious place to be.

Edward gave her a disdainful look. "Does Aro molest her as well?" he asked.

Jane–

She had heard people whisper about it before, of course, people who held only hatred and distrust for Aro and who couldn't imagine a better use for a child as pretty as herself than that.

People tended to get sexual with their insults for her, period, their hatred for her and all that she represented such that they would say anything, anything at all. Some seemed to believe it, too.

She had gotten used to it, awful as that sounded, she'd gotten used to it and now she would only offer a taste of her gift to those who dared.

But she could generally tell when to expect it.

Hearing it from Carlisle's progeny, someone she had come to rescue, was something very different. She might not know the man himself very well, but–even caught in the act, he'd treated her and Alec like people. He always did, and that was more than could be said for even some of the guard.

"Whoa there," Demetri said, eyes wide and smile gone, "That is–yowza, I think is the modern colloquialism for this moment. Edward, that was–an accusation. I am processing that accusation. I am actually just going to answer you and say that no, Master Aro does not molest Jane as well."

He then glanced at Jane, "Who else is he molesting?"

"Carlisle and Esme," she replied stiffly. "Though they don't seem to mind. Not Carlisle, at least," she noted, remembering the scene she'd walked in on.

Edward's growl cut through the air, and Jane turned to him, gearing up to use her gift in case it became necessary. Which was looking increasingly likely.

"Oh, well that's–" Demetri then looked confused, "Wait, everyone knows that. Carlisle, I mean, Esme is–how did I not know about this? You know what, it doesn't matter, we are getting very off track. Edward, I think it'd be in your best interests to come back with us to Volterra. Or you can scamper off into the night like a hissing raccoon, that is always an option and well within your rights. Stupid, of course, but you can do it."

"If you had to give your last words," Marcus voice cut in, "What would they be?"

Jane turned to look at Marcus in surprise. What a bizarre question.

Jane knew what hers would be, of course, it would be "My secret other gift is to regenerate from a pile of ashes!", she'd discussed it with Alec who had dibs on "Joke's on you, I'm the secret ungifted third twin!"

He was staring directly at Edward. Edward stiffened, his eyes went wide, and it looked like he was listening to a melody that no one else could hear. He opened his mouth, closed it, and it looked like he wanted to blurt something out but only just held himself back.

"Do your worst," Edward said, voice shaking, clenching and unclenching his hands, "One day–one day the world will know exactly what you and your brothers are. And they will give you everything you deserve."

"Very well," Marcus replied, and then, faster than Jane had ever seen him move, he shot forwards, grabbed Edward's shoulder and pulled his back towards him, pushing his head aside so he could rip into his neck.

Edward's head was ripped off with a loud, metallic, whine, and then dropped into the fire where Vladimir and Stefan were burning.

The purple fires, which had darkened as they worked past the skin and started melting away at Stefan and Vladimir's innards, flashed with bright lilac upon making contact with Edward.

Then his limbs followed, one by one, the fire flashing each time.

For a moment, Marcus just stood there in front of the open fire, watching as Edward, Vladimir, and Stefan burned. He turned back slowly to look at Demetri and Jane, his dark eyes looked as if they were glowing from the inside, lit by the flames as they were.

"You tell no one," he said.

Demetri opened his mouth, closed it, and put a hand on Jane's shoulder. After too long a pause he said, "I take it to the grave, on my mother's honor–well, she had none, she was a whore. My aunt's honor, who was most decidedly not a whore and had the very legitimate job as the town seamstress."

Jane felt herself take a step back into Demetri.

She–she had seen death, she was death, she had been the death of hundreds of vampires for over a thousand years. To most vampires, she and Alec were the greatest things they ever had to fear in this world.

Right now, she was afraid of Marcus.

She could kill him easily (of course she never would, never possibly could, because the man was the Volturi in a way even Alec and Jane weren't) but staring at him she suddenly felt like she couldn't. Like if she tried he'd still be standing there, utterly unmoved and expressionless, with purple hellfire behind him.

"But you voted–" Jane felt herself saying.

"My choices were not whether Edward would live or he would die. They were to do nothing or do something," Marcus said after a pause, "Had I chosen to do nothing, then Edward would have either escaped or been let go. The proximity of his limbs speak for themselves."

Jane…

She tried to process that, tried to put the fire, the smell, and Marcus standing there outside of her mind–

He wasn't–wrong. Jane had been here before, she'd seen limbs piece themselves back together. She'd been here, and what he was saying wasn't not true but she wasn't sure that even mattered.

Because when he'd voted yes, when he'd ripped Edward apart, it'd been with the same expression.

"Aro was never going to kill him," Marcus continued. "The fact that he even agreed to this mission speaks for itself. Aro would have kept making excuses, kept refusing to harm Edward, no matter what happened, because he loves Carlisle Cullen. Aro wasn't going to do what needed to be done, so I did."

"You sure did," Demetri said after a very long pause. He squeezed Jane's shoulder, "Well, this has all been very productive… Let's go home."

Marcus seemed to accept that, because he turned away from the fire and started the long walk back to Italy.

Demetri stood for a moment, still staring after him, he then shouted at Marcus' back, "I'm assuming Vlad and Stefan got bored? That's the story?"

Marcus didn't answer.

Jane moved her foot forwards, ready to start running, when she realized–

She couldn't tell Alec.

Marcus had made that very clear and she did not dare to disobey him. Through his gift, Marcus would see the change in his relationship with Alec should she break his order.

And–

She didn't want Alec to know this.

Carlisle was going to be staying in Volterra, for god knows how many years, perhaps forever, along with his wife and Edward's brother, who had come just to plead for him. They would become a part of Jane and Alec's lives.

And every second Jane would be lying to them.

She couldn't do that to Alec as well.

Alec was the other half of her self, they knew each other as well as Aro knew them, or had been until now. They told each other everything, every single thing. When they were apart, they would always make sure to catch each other up on every little thing, no matter how insignificant that had happened.

Jane would tell him that the Romanians got to Edward first, that they arrived too late. And Alec wouldn't even question it, not because it could have happened, but because it was Jane.