Trials of Gravity
"Leadership is a privilege to better the lives of others. It is not an opportunity to satisfy personal greed"
— MWAI KIBAKI
The Battlefield.
Previously, an unexpected informant came forward.
Caius continued without pause "Is that the immortal you saw?"
"I'm not sure." Irina hesitated to speak; afraid the wrong response would kill not only her, but her coven as well.
"Jane."
"I promise. I don't know who she is."
"Then your previous allegations of the atrocities performed by Carlisle's coven were false."
Astonished, Maggie revealed to their side, "He's lying. She doesn't know about any of this or us."
"We see the rest of your coven is involved as well."
"I take full responsibility for my mistake. The Cullens and my coven are innocent." She mouthed to her sisters, 'I love you.'
"IRINA!" A guard lit a torch while Demetri and Felix separated her arms and legs from her torso. Caius burned the body.
Kate and Tanya ran to their fallen sister. But the efforts of their friends stopped them. With Garrett getting the painful brunt on Kate's power.
"Blind them," Edward commanded Zafrina.
"Give me my sight back."
"Tanya, this is what they want. If you attack now, we'll all die." As the sisters calmed, Zafrina lifted her spell on them.
The Volturi positioned themselves for conflict, stepping forward. Edward walked back to his husband and daughter.
Jane took the opportunity to inflict her gift on him. At the sight of her father on the ground, Edie covered him with one of her shields. Jacob telekinetically tripped the overconfident vampire.
As Jane rebalanced herself, she sighted Jacob's proud wink and made to retaliate only to be held back by Aro.
"Edward, as the woman in question gazes to you with such affection, I assume you are involved."
Edward only took a few steps until he was stopped. His feet were immobile. Jacob stared at his daughter's extended hand. Edie hugged her mother fiercely. Curious, Aro ordered his coven to stand down.
Her rugged breaths slowing. She traced his cheekbones. Edie kissed Jacob's paling russet cheek and took his hand and put it over her heart, "I know."
She left him to stand in front of her unmoving father. "I did this because I wanted to meet you more than anything else. And now that I have, I don't want to let go." Edward was powerless to do anything but look at his old eyes staring back at him holding back his daughter's tears. She planted her lips on his marble cheek.
"If I go with you, will you spare them?" Edward wanted so much to scream at her. Why wasn't Jacob or anyone else doing anything? Were they frozen as well?
"My child we are not monsters. Our only purpose here is to serve the greater good of our kind. To do so, we must assess current, and sometimes future, anomalies and threats to our kind." Aro's words were gospel and his fingers were the fine tuning they needed.
"I am only a threat to people I'm not loyal to."
"Pretty words," Caius' sneer irritated his ears. "Why would we want an aberration such as yourself?"
"You want Edward Cullen, don't you? That's what started this whole thing."
"What does one have to do with the other?"
"Because I am Edward Cullen." A silent roar filled the unfillable space. "My name is Edward Cullen Black. Daughter of the Supplanter, sired by the Wealthy Guardian." More pointed stares went to her direction. "You know exactly what that makes me. So…If you take me, then I'll never oppose you. If you spare them, you can use me as you wish."
'Idiot. Idiot. Stop talking. Wait. Don't be rash. She's willing herself into their web. Trust her. No, she'll die! Il mio Coniuge.' Whose thoughts were these? They were so loud.
"Promising. We will consider this, granted that you are truly as innocent as you claim."
Edie released Edward from his frozen state. She wasted no time getting there. A few feet from where she needed to be, she heard but ignored her mother's plea.
"Baby please!" Being held back by his Imprint, Jacob cried.
"Gravity," was Edie's only explanation.
As she held her hand to the Volturi leader, another stone hand intercepted her. "I see you." This baritone voice tickled her skin. "I see what you are to those you've put under your care."
"Trust me, Lord Marcus. I'm doing what needs to be done."
He wasn't much like how Jacob thought he would look like. He was like opposite of one of those statues in his world history books. The guy was cut with a bunch of straight edges and intense eyes and a strong chin. His youthful face was still handsome but withered. He wore robes like the rest of his coven, but his hair was tied back. Knotted back, like he knew he was going to do something messy and he didn't want to have it in the way.
The other Volturi were clean and if the black of their clothes was replaced with white, they would look almost holy. They were statues. Self-important, arrogant, and frozen from a time where their influence might have been the greatest.
But Lord Marcus, eternally nineteen years old, was in the beginning stages of petrification. "The opposite, actually."
His hand then twisted her arm to her back and pushed her to the wet ground. Choking her. A familiar face on top of her.
"Brother stop this. This is not how justice is done." The familiar sound of a burning body distracted Aro.
One month previous… Volterra, Italy
"You know what Aro plans for her. Why have you not done something?"
"I have. Your only job is to kill Chelsea."
"Yes, and that will be so easy with the entire coven around me."
"It will. We only need to play into their fear of you." A pause. "You must be able to slay her while inside your smoke."
"You have lost your mind, my lord."
"Yes, I have. This woman has made me thus. Will you allow her to die?"
On a particularly grueling day, he let out his smoke. Though he was sure there wasn't any left from the extended practices, he still let it out. He began to think of Renata. He contemplated on why she was Aro's shield out all the guard. Why not his sister? And Chelsea? Why was she the treasured one?
When the onyx fumes let out of his hands, it became stupendously clear. It was their abilities to influence others. So. So. SO SIMPLE! Thus, the conclusion would be: if the smoke is an extension of myself, then I can wield it into whatever way I want.
There was no time for complexities, but…
Now…
Alec surrounded himself and Chelsea in his smoke. All those weeks ago, all that training, and his fear wasn't gone. He still couldn't walk through the smoke like Lord Marcus had told him to, but for now, he could bend it.
When the body was in pieces, he lit the torch and burned it. He used his smoke to navigate himself closest to the opposite side of the field. Outside of his smoke path, his former coven mates jumped back from where the fumes spread.
When he stopped, he was face to face with his former masters. Afton's cries for his mate momentarily distracted them. Alec was defiant in his stance.
"You attack your coven? Your sister."
"She is not my sister and I no longer serve you."
Alec's smoke gave Benjamin enough cover to do his part. When Amun got the signal from Alistair, he instructed Benjamin to make is his move on the witnesses. From the ground, not even a foot behind Heidi, entire lava walls rose twenty feet high. Zafrina dropped her illusion of the field. What was previously a plain, muddy field was now a land-made bowl with strategically placed three-foot-high mounds of dirt. During the confusion, Aro ordered his best procurement team (Demetri and Felix) to grab Alice and Edward.
Edward and Jacob ran to pull off Marcus from Edie, but Jacob was thrown off by Felix. Edward responded by jumping on top of Felix and tried to rip his head off. Jacob, still human-like, got up to help.
Jane had gone straight for her brother. "Traitor."
"Sister," he groaned. Barely able to move, he saw Jane grab a torch and he closed his eyes. Then, the pain stopped.
Seth saw the goth-pire a.k.a. Alec struggling on the floor, and his she-devil twin doing it to him. Well, he clamped his razor jaws over her head, he did. But, as soon he could get the foul taste of evil out of his mouth, another one of the enemy-pires came at him.
Years later, Seth wouldn't remember how he did this, but in an instant, he changed to his human form and somehow kicked the guard's torso open. Said guard then got Seth by the leg and threw him on top of Alec.
"Damn. I really thought you got through to him."
"Ha-ha," he groaned, "yeah, me too."
Rosalie came to their rescue and ripped the rest of the guard in half. Destroyed bodies were set ablaze. "Come on, puppy. We've got more work to do."
"Got it, Rose." Seth saw Alec watching Jane's remains. "Sorry about your sister."
"Thank you for saving me."
"You're my goddaughter's best friend. Of course, I'd save ya."
"Right," Alec drank in the sight of the naked Quileute, "as nice as this picture is, we have more to do, don't we?"
"Oh! Uh, yeah." The shift back was easy.
"Not necessarily an improvement. But it will do." They joined teams Hulk and Thor on the rampage.
Yes, rampage was definitely the word for it. Emmett was leading the charge and the others were having their fun; especially Vladimir and Stefan. Rosalie, Maggie, and Tia were helping the Medics cover blaze duty. Really, it just means that they helped set fires. It gave them a deep satisfaction.
Tia was mostly with Benjamin, keeping him calm and focused on the lava walls. Meanwhile, Rosalie and Maggie have most of the field covered with the Medics.
Sam and Quil, however, were not having as much of an easy time with Renata. Every time one of them got close to her, she would suddenly slip away.
'What the hell aren't we doing?'
'There's gotta be something.' A lightbulb turned on in Quil's head. 'Maybe we need to–'
'Go in at the same time instead of in stages?'
'Yeah! Cool. If we're even a second off, this won't work.'
'Ready?'
'Yeah. Set, go!'
Smug, Renata only deflected them at twenty-five percent of her power. To make it more entertaining, she says to herself. Fatal mistake. Literally. The moment she anticipated Quil and Sam was too late. Sam had clamped his jaws on her upper body while Quil went for the legs. They dropped the pieces in the burning pile the Hulk and Thor teams had made.
Edward took special pleasure in killing Felix. Time-travel makes technical rightness sound odd. Though this Felix may not be the one that did it, one did kill him, his husband, and his mother; therefore, Edward was within his total right to enjoy tearing the Volturi limb from limb. Vice-versa so was Jacob.
Jacob's claws ripped Felix across his chest and tiny pieces of vampire flesh scattered. Felix grabbed onto Jacob's shoulders and began to tear his shoulders from their sockets. Edward, however, grabbed onto Felix's head just as Jacob began to telekinetically push him (Felix) away.
Jacob breathed heavily and grabbed on to himself. 'You okay, Junior.' Do, do-do. 'Mama's got you, baby.'
"Love?"
"We're alright, Hon. Let's finish this." The couple tore the Volturi strong arm's body apart. They put each piece in the fire until only his head was left. Jacob shifted his head into its werewolf version. "We want you to know it was us that killed you, you piece of shit."
Edward broke the head bilaterally and tossed it in the fire.
Marcus held his hands in place, visibly choking Edie out. Then a slight movement near his upper thigh and then the middle of his chest caused him to let go.
She rasps, "I know you're confused." Her palms up.
"No, young miss. That is the only thing I'm not." He tore away his robes, revealing the military jacket underneath. He ran headfirst to her. As he leaped at her, Edie pushed the heels of her hands on his abdomen and pushed him away.
When Marcus made his way back to his opponent, he found himself detained by the bare arms of another hybrid. Said arms then threw him against a tree. The affected tree knocked over the next five behind it in succession.
"Stop, Nahuel."
When she tried to approach Marcus, Nahuel grasped her forearm. "He was knocking you down and out. Sorry to say, but he doesn't seem at all reasonable."
"This has nothing to do with you! And everything to do with me and him! Do what you want but leave us alone." She jogged to a returning Marcus. He seemed unharmed. She held out her hand. "Take it. Please, trust me."
Her hand fit perfectly in his. No sooner did he fling her by the arm towards the rest of the carnage. She anchored her body with her fingers.
Jasper and Alice joined the fray shortly before. While the bodies of the fallen burned, Demetri followed his instincts to Alice. To which, Jasper subdued him and quickly nearly took his head off. Nearly.
"My Girl. Are you okay?"
"I'm fine Grandma. You and Grandpa, I mean just don't let Aro escape." She clicked on her communicator. "Alistair, do you have a visual on the Big Three?"
"Aro's shield has been disposed of, but the guard around them and the wives still holds. They're standing there, doing nothing. They still think they've won."
"Where are Tanya and Kate?"
"They're with Eleazar and Carmen. They tried breaking the defenses but were unsuccessful."
"Got it. Grandpa, Grandma, recruit others to bring down Aro and Caius' inner wall." They went. "And the other?"
"I see him," Siobhan responded. "He is at the walls with Benjamin."
Marcus had waded through to the lava walls where Benjamin was struggling to keep a portion of the earth's magma from spreading to other areas. Tia had been trying to keep the other members of the guard away from him so he could concentrate. For the most part, there was no trouble because the Hulk and Thor teams had kept those guys away.
Heidi, being the one that baited the witnesses and part of the Volturi, wanted to escape but feared. If Aro won, which he often did, he would punish her severely for her cowardice. Still, she took her chances. That is, until she was stopped by Vladimir.
"Such a shame. To kill an exquisite immortal such as you. In another life…" An uppercut to his squared chin stopped his sentence.
"Four hundred years and still helpless."
"I'm allowed to be when I have you to save me, my lord." Her gloved hand slithered up his chest.
"Are you trying to get killed?" Alec, witness to what happened, exclaimed this toward them. Though no one was sure why to whom he referred. "She'll destroy you!"
"Who," Seth, who had been at his side since Jane, asked. A sliver of the magma fractured from the wall. It burned through the point of touch between Heidi and Marcus. They broke apart while the sliver zoomed into the palm of one Edward Cullen Black. The piece of liquified fire danced around her fingers and burned in her eyes.
Nothing else needed to be done for those in her way to retreat. The sliver turned to rope, and it swirled around Heidi's body. It moved dangerously close to her neck, chest, wrists, and ankles. "No interlopers."
The fluid fire grazed her chest, ankles, and neck; but it cut off her hands. Her screams were like a cat singing Metallica. And then, she had no voice. Her fear of Edie's malicious aura took it. Right before Edie could make her smart retort, Marcus pulled and spun her away. Her ass landed on his hands.
"Ugh." Alec stopped anyone else from taking another step towards them. "I wouldn't."
"Why the hell not," Riley demanded.
"Foreplay."
Maybe it was because it felt familiar. Or she was in shock. Either way or no way, Edie didn't immediately pull away. Then she remembered all too clearly where she was and got out of his reach. Edie gulped, "Lord Marcus."
Marcus' smirk was serene and all-knowing. "Why do you insist on wearing underwear when you have no use for it?"
Everything went still. Not frozen. Just still. It was that feeling of being on stage with the spotlight drenching your entire body. The music is playing but the chords keep stalling. Two leaps and a solid leg sweep later, she had him by the neck while he knelt on the muddy slush.
Marcus then grabbed the russet hand, the one that had her rings, and held it to his pale cheek. He transferred important memories to her mind. "It is true."
"What is?"
"Ti ho trovato il mio coniuge."
"What's he saying?"
Edward begrudgingly answered Jacob, "It means, literally, 'I found you, my spouse'."
"Mi hai catturato, l'altra mia metà."
Edward, stilted, translated, "You captured me, my other half."
"He's her Imprint," Jacob concluded. Of all the ways he thought he would meet his daughter's other half; this was not one on the top part of his list.
"What is that?"
"It's the way we choose our mates." There was a wince in the way the words came out. Jacob knew that Nahuel liked his daughter and he was a cool dude. But we don't choose our Imprints.
"Alec?" Edie asked a silent question to Marcus.
His burgundy eyes drooped slightly. His mouth was downturned. "He gave your husband enough time to get away; at the cost of his life."
"How long?" Edie's hand was still solidly around Marcus' neck.
"Three years. But he appeared before me nearly a century before. He meant to prepare me for you. For when we met."
"Crazy, stupid–" Her lips attached themselves onto his. It was like years' worth of kisses into one. Almost to the end of the kiss, Edie raised Marcus to his feet where he stood three inches above her eye level. Harsh air expelled from her nose. "I can't deal with this right now."
"Ms. Black, is it?" Aro's soft and unsettling voice cut through the crowd around the couple. "I believe now is the perfect time to explain how you corrupted not one, but two members of my coven. One of them being my dear departed sister's widowed husband. Don't you know? Her name was Didyme. She was the love of his immortal life." His words were a fish gutting blade that twisted in her stomach.
"Aro–"
"Aro? Not 'brother'? I suppose that I am only Caius to you now."
"Honestly, husband. You are being melodramatic."
"Athenodora? Sulpicia. You are–"
"Not under Corin's influence," Aro's wife finished for him. "Athenodora and I have decided that is simply a bore."
"Naturally, we couldn't humbly say no. Not with Corin's gift," Athenodora's voice was small and endearing. "So, we killed her." Her words ruined that illusion. "And one of the personal guards. One of Carlisle's children was kind enough to incapacitate the rest."
"Jasper?" Edie looked only a bit further from the Volturi wives. He nodded to Alice who winked back at their niece.
"How unfortunate," the telepathic lord speaks as if to a child. "My mate, a traitor."
"Believe what you wish."
Aro's nostrils flared while Caius' pursed face went sourer. "Are we to believe that this was your doing," the blond directed to Edie.
She held her chin at level, her emerald eyes bore to him as she was about to speak. Until her Imprint decided otherwise. "I decided to involve Athenodora and Sulpicia."
"Ah! You seek not only to covet this girl but your brothers' wives as well. How greedy."
"Aro, we want peace. It is what we have wanted since the beginning."
"And in the beginning, it was agreed that the peace we want comes at a price."
"We know that, Aro." Edie let her grip on Marcus soften, but her hand still hovered over his. "I was willing to pay that price. I still am."
The blond lord addressed the remaining crowd. "She whose friends have killed our kind and allied themselves with werewolves. Our mortal enemies."
"Lord Caius, do you see a full moon? Do you see impatient beasts ready to kill without question?" A silence. "I have, but they are not the wolves behind me. The wolves I have allied myself with are not Children of the Moon. They are shifters. My family."
"Are you then implying a relation to the shifters behind you?" Aro's hand twitched eagerly to be presented but held back for the sake of not playing their full attack.
"I am proclaiming sir," Edie's smooth and steady voice traveled from her firm stance through her hard stomach and out her relaxed lungs. "That the wolves, like me, are not a fear for those who follow our laws. Laws upheld by the Alpha."
"An Alpha? Laws?"
With her spread hand on her chest, "Yes. From one ruler to another, let us find a solution. I propose an era of an expanded understanding."
Sneering, Caius was eager to disagree. But, Aro was always better at responding to that sort of thing.
"I see," the elder lord breathed. "My kindred," he enunciated. "This young woman seeks to destroy thousands of years of tradition, of harmony with her bastardized version. Have we not been safe all these years since the Volturi's reign? What can this meddler offer that we have not?"
"Who exactly are you preaching to?"
Aro's smug soft smile dropped. Satisfied, Edie continued, "Look around my lord."
Since the Volturi stepped into the field, Siobhan has been using her influence to will the witnesses to leave. Once the last one was compelled to leave, Benjamin dropped his walls and cooled the magma. As Aro's scoured the battle-torn field, Edie's entire battalion enforced itself behind her. Except for two. Plus, Alistair but then again, he was never one for confrontation.
"Ah, Alice!"
Demetri was hurled by the tiny vampire at Aro's feet. "I don't like being chased." She and Jasper gathered close to the rest of their coven.
"The way I see it, Aro, your options are limited to complying or dying," Edie's body was hard and ready. "Your choice?"
The marbled jaw of the Volturi leader flinched. His chapped upper lip snarled. His sharp and elongated nails reached for Edie's exposed chest, nearly touching it.
As of it were planned, the warriors on Edie's side sprang into action. Esme, Siobhan, and Carmen aligned themselves to protect Sulpicia and Athenodora. Riley and Bree went after Afton.
If there was anything they learned from Edie, it was to tie up loose ends. Afton presented a future and an unnecessary dilemma. And with his gift of invisibility, he presented a challenge that Riley very much welcomed. Bree was at his six. They were sprinting through the trees trying to find the widower.
Oh, Chelsea! His wonderous Chelsea. Taken from him by the witch boy. And now the coven he and his wife had sworn themselves to is being demolished by a rag-tag group of usurpers and mongrels. Hide. Hide is what he must do until he can avenge his mate. He hops and dashes for the day when his revenge is complete.
It was that aspiration that led Bree straight to him. A wish and hope can be the same thing, as in this case. When Bree and Riley set out to get Afton, they had to sift through a ton of fear, though. Fear caused by their terror-inducing teacher.
The battle goes on. Somehow, while fighting with Aro, Edie is separated from Marcus and her parents. While they enjoy their throws, Santiago, one of the Volturi's trackers manages to get a hold on Alistair. Luckily for the nomad, Eleazar was near and both of them managed to dissect Santiago and burn him with the rest of his coven mates.
At some point in their fight, Aro comes into contact with Edie's skin. He now knows everything. "The future! The future," he says. He hits her in her stomach. It affects her more than she would have liked it. "Don't you worry my dear queen, your precious family will be cared for. I believe I'll take extra care of your police chief, first."
She spits blood on his face. Edie punches Aro's chest, only able to push him twenty feet. "Already losing your strength?"
The hybrid charges him head-on. Her swift kick to his neck is blocked by his withered marble hand as she is tossed over to the remaining fighters. Mid-flight Edie rights herself and lands feet first on the slushed and disturbed earth.
Her breathing is labored. The strength has nearly gone from her legs. She drops but pushes herself back onto the soles of her feet. Do it. Do it. Her queen self tempts. Release me!
She puts her fists up like a boxer waiting for her opponent to strike. The hits Edie manages to land don't trouble Aro as much his hits distress her. Edie has been knocked down again. She has put so many in this position and having it done to her wasn't enlightening. It just really pissed her off.
Even as Aro grabs her by the throat she thinks, 'Seriously? I never realized how much of a cliché I've been. This whole throat grabbing thing is so boring.'
"Amusing what passes through one's mind when their death is imminent."
'Even if it is, you still have my mom to worry about.'
"Your mother will not be a challenge."
'Don't you remember what a supplanter is? You were one before you assumed your throne. And my dad! Mom has Dad protecting him. Even if I die. They will never stop.'
"I look forward to expressing to your parents just the type of child they will have. How much of a monster you truly are. So much death. So much blood. Thousands, practically millions of victims."
For the first time since their fight began, Edie opened her mouth.
"God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"It means that I may have been a piece of shit, I may still be one…But! But, my past doesn't stop me from trying. It will not stop me from kicking your ass! And I'm wise enough to know you will lose."
As Jasper and Emmett lead their parties into demolishing the rest of the opposition, Esme, Siobhan, and Carmen had decided to protect the wives. It was like…it was like watching three MILFs duke it out with the teenage jock next door. Well, jocks.
The great thing about living a long time is that one learns to let go of petty grudges. Time makes people wiser. Not all people, but people all the same. So, when faced with the decision to protect the wives of the most corruptive men they've ever known or letting them fend for themselves, they (meaning Esme, Siobhan, and Carmen) decided to be nice.
What happened before with Corin as a stroke of luck combined with eagerness. Neither Athenodora nor Sulspicia knew how to fight anymore. They haven't needed to for centuries and had stayed complacent in as much time.
But, back to our MILFs and their graceful whooping. Oh, how glorious it was to stretch out their inner beasts. Like most of the battle, nothing was seen so much as heard. The whips in the air, stone cracking, and flames fanning in the air. The symphony of combat.
Combat that extended to the outskirts of Forks. Riley and Bree briefly debated whether or not to let Afton cross out of Edie's dome. He wouldn't be able to remember anything, but he would still feel it. The loss of his mate and the hatred for the Olympic Coven. It would not take him long to connect those two, so at the very least he would be a pest for the family. At worst, Afton could murder everyone while trying to find the answers.
'Annoying,' Riley thought. No, it's better to get rid of him now. "Where," to Bree.
"At 2." Riley released his tungsten blade. It sliced through the trees like cotton candy. And through Afton like butter. The un-visible vampire's body had been separated through his chest. Although he didn't need to breathe, the primal knowledge that he shouldn't be able to breathe crawled back into his scabbed nerves, his still lungs, and frozen heart.
Riley ignored the suffering man in favor or his katana blade. Bree stilled Afton, letting his hope fester. An odd sequence of words, but very appropriate especially for a kind girl like Bree. Riley lit the fire. There was no scream.
"Really?"
"The guy lost his wife, Riley. He should at least feel happy about joining her."
Riley rolled his eyes. He and Bree went back to the clearing in time to see Alistair and Eleazar kill Santiago, one of the trackers in the Volturi.
The trio of coven warrior wives managed to catch and keep Caius from escaping their grasp. The battle had been all but over with remnants of the Volturi coven surrendering to them. The last one would be Aro.
The lord and the Queen kept going in circles. Both were exhausted and feeling more mortal than they ever had. They were both thrown by the other's attack. When Edie got up, she was stopped by a muscled russet arm.
"Aro," Edward began. "Concede."
"Never."
"What choice do you have?"
The scent of his coven's ashes almost left the air. Around him were the scowls of his subjects. His clothes were soaked with what he hoped was water and venom, though not his. Caius had been dropped to his left and the former lords search in futility
"Do as you wish." Caius scowled to the slushed floor while Aro sighed.
"It's not up to us. Ladies?"
"My dear Caius. I believe we should divorce. As part of our divorce settlement, you must make amends. Not to me, you'll never make up for those years you allowed for Aro to imprison me. But I believe the Denali coven feels otherwise."
Caius was held down by two hands surging painful lightning-like bolts of electricity throughout his body. His mouth being ripped open by Tanya's bare hands. Eleazar and Carmen were satisfied by igniting the fire that would end him completely.
Sulpicia didn't make a sound as she rounded her mate. "Gods Above, help me. I still love you. But not as much as you love power. Aro." She scrunched her eyes. "I grant you the right to punish him as you see fit. Only, if you would indulge me, would you kill him swiftly?"
"No." Edie's response didn't surprise Sulpicia. Edie placed her venom-covered fingers on Aro's forehead. A lavender orb of light formed at her palm. "Do you want it?"
"What," the lady breathed.
"Do you want his power? In time it will develop as it had at the peak of its strength. For now, you will only hear the current thoughts of people when you touch them. If you work on it or if you live long enough, you will have the same strength Aro did."
"How is it possible to do this?"
"Memory has a lot of power. They have a power we haven't even begun to imagine. Theoretically, everything we are is in our memories and how we remember them." With the grace she could muster, Edie stepped up to Sulpicia.
When Sulpicia took the sphere in her hands, the world was blinded. When everyone's vision came back, Caius' ashes, Sulpicia, Athenodora, and Aro were gone.
"Where did they go?" Amun directed to Edie.
"I sent them to Volterra. As far as they know, nothing has changed. Caius died in a tragic accident, Aro went mad to the point of being mute and must stay locked up. Sulpicia and Athenodora have ruled over Volterra for the last millennium and a half."
"How?"
"I wanted it to happen. It was the only thing I could do to keep the peace. Aro needed to be stopped, but any 'compromise' would have a confrontation. One after the other."
"And Marcus?"
"He left when Didyme died. He occasionally goes to visit when he's needed."
"What about the rest of the coven," Demetri, who had been left out of the slaughter for reasons only Alice knows, spoke up.
"Sulpicia and Athenodora will draw their conclusions."
"That's it? It will all work out. A bit lazy, isn't it, Your Majesty?"
No bitterness, or harsh emotion. "It's final." She limped to her imprint.
"Is it over?" Marcus' chest rumbled.
"For now. Now is good."
"Now is perfect." His arms surrounded her.
"Yeah, yeah. Now is perfect," Jacob agreed.
"But later, Lord Marcus," Edward's voice lowered an octave. "We will discuss your intentions with my daughter."
"Dad! He's a gentleman."
"That is for your mother and me to decide."
"What?"
"Come on guys," Jacob interjected. "We have a long time to talk about that stuff."
"Not long enough," Edward responded under his breath.
"I have nothing but the purest intentions to court your daughter, Mr. Cullen, Alpha Black."
"Call me Jake."
"How are you calm about this?"
Jacob places his hands on both sides of Edward's face and pressed his hot lips to his cold ones. "Because I know, you know, and most importantly, he knows that if he does anything before she's 16," Jacob's eyes glow a bloody red. "Alpha me will have some words with him," his voice rumbled.
Even as a vampire, Marcus gulped.
Jacob smirked his wolfy smirk. Edie, although still attached to Marcus, held his hand as they went to the Cullen home. Seth and Alec followed right after. Riley and Bree stay behind to observe the conversations they left behind.
"Is it true, Carlisle?"
"As unbelievable as it seems, yes Amun."
"Such power. Legends that predate our rule," Stefan comments. He and Vladimir share a look and leave. Demetri left too. Once he got out of Forks, he was compelled to return, but as he will discover soon after, he will have the freedom to leave. And he does. But he occasionally returns to Volterra to visit the widowed Athenodora.
Cullen Residence
The others arrived at the Cullen home. They stayed for a minute before they left as well. The Amazonians left with Huilen and Nahuel. Nahuel spared one last glance at Edie.
Benjamin and Tia tried to stay. "I want you to stay too," Edie insisted. "But my being here is bad enough. Amun will wonder why you're not with him. I promise we'll meet again." As the couple left with Amun and Kebi, Edie gifted them with a wisp of a memory of their time together. When the years pass, Benjamin will be compelled to visit the Olympic Coven. Of course, Tia will join him.
He would teach Edie how to master her powers and Tia would nurture her compassion. They would both be welcomed babysitters whenever they're over and Edward and Jacob need a date night.
It wasn't as hard to say goodbye to the Irish Coven. Truthfully, if Siobhan wanted, she would have stayed. However, the prospect of staying in a place where they could not feed on humans was not as appealing as home.
Alistair had left as soon as the battle was over. In the following years, he would grow an affinity to electronic technology.
The Denali Coven plus Garrett stayed behind for a bit. They parted amicably. Before they left, Kate asked, "Will we remember Irina?"
"Of course, she's your sister." Edie heard what wasn't asked, "You'll remember she died. You'll know the Volturi had something to do with it, but that you avenged her. You'll be confident no one will come after you." With that, the Denali Coven, with their newest member, left.
"Is that all of them?" Edie appeared to be talking to the wind.
The wind responded, "Yes."
"Good. Come back." Edie would not complete her last sentence as her breath left her. It wasn't like before with the human blood where she was forced to the forest floor. Back then, the attack on her body was constant.
In this case, there was no more strength. It was an allowance, a peaceful passing. If only the rest of her loved ones could see it, feel it. Her mom kept shaking her. The smell of blood is in the air. Sweet and savory blood that took away the vampires' hunger, oddly.
There was yelling, "Why isn't she healing?"
"Carlisle, do something!" Edward's assertion went across to Marcus. "She's your mate, why aren't you helping her."
Marcus' breath was staccato. "Amore mio, why aren't you healing?"
"Because this body doesn't belong here anymore. It's why the other Marcus, my Marcus, merged with you, I guess. He knew that in the best possible outcome, if we succeeded, we would still have to leave in one way or another."
"And you didn't tell us," Edward grimly concluded.
"Riley and Bree found out on their own. I told Angela, in a way."
"It doesn't matter, Ed. We're going to save you baby. We are going to save you. And then we're grounding you for a thousand years." Tears rolled upon Jacob's cheeks and they weren't stopping. She gave him a small smile. "Don't look at me like that! Don't be condescending–"
"I'm not Mom. I just don't want to fight anymore."
"Well, you have to. You're my daughter, I'm not letting you give up. I'm… I'm not… I'm not losing–"
"You won't it's just my body." She spoke into his chest, "Marcus, please."
The lord held her tighter still but honored her silent request and pushed her to Edward.
"What are you doing? Don't move her! We can still–"
It was a roaring whisper, "Please Daddy."
He holds her tightly. "Why?"
"There is a balance. And I messed it up. It's correcting itself." Her eyelids slid down like it was the easiest thing to do. So relaxed in her father's stone limbs and frozen chest. She called out to Jacob who had since gotten close to her opposite his husband.
"Yeah, baby." His words grated in his throat, trying to get out.
"What you said," Edie put her palm on his abdomen. "What you said before the fight. You said in my ear…"
"'We are always yours. Always.' Yeah." It comes out wetly, not drenched yet, but close.
"Ditto, Mama."
From Marcus' chest, orange flakes emerged. Like flower petals. They came out of him and went above Edie. Edie no longer felt her legs. Her hands felt weightless against her parents. Her lips barely moved enough to say, "..."
Futile as it was, Jacob tried to reach out to the pieces of his daughter floating away. He even tried chasing them. He tripped. On his knees, he didn't transform. None of the shifters did. "Edward," Jacob choked. "Edward? …Sunshine?"
His vision tunneled then closed.
Bogachiel State Park
Comfortable with his arms around Sue, Charlie was unable to sleep. As much as he wanted to stay with her inside the tent, his uneasiness took him into the open air. At first, he thought it was a trick of the light, but the campfire was a smolder from what it was earlier that afternoon.
These flakes didn't look like they came from the fire. They were pretty and they flowed around him circularly from his knees to his stomach to his neck. They landed on his cheek and whispered in his ear. "Charlie."
He needed to get home.