I DO NOT OWN THE TWILIGHT SAGA

"Alice and Jasper sent you?" Carlisle asks me as he pulls me in for a hug. I squeeze him tightly and pull back.

"Yeah, her and Jasper tracked me down a few days ago and told me that you guys needed my help. They mentioned the Volturi," I say. I look around at everyone and see them staring at me. I spot a few people I had missed before: Kate, Tanya, Carmen, and Eleazar. Where's Irina? I've never seen them separated before. They've been together since the day they were changed.

"It's a lot to explain," Edward chimes in. He turns to everyone who has gathered around us. "Everyone, this is Maxine Krzywonos. We met her back in 1943, when she was just four months old to this life."

"Why are her eyes like that? She's a vampire?" questions a tall woman with brown skin. She's the freakiest vampire I have ever seen, and I honestly don't want—I cut that thought off before I even think it. I know that Edward can hear my thoughts and I don't want to go there right now.

"The woman who turned me, her gift is the ability to change the appearance of herself and others. In order to help me blend in more with humans, she added a little color to my skin, and made it so that my eyes are the same color they were when I was human," I tell them. I hear footsteps headed my way, and before I can even turn my head, I'm swept up off my feet in a bear-like hug. I see strands of curly black hair and the scent of Axe body spray and smirk.

"How's my favorite European vampire?" I snort as Emmett sets me on my feet again.

"You don't even know which part of Europe I'm from." Emmett smiles, causing his dimples to show.

"You're still my favorite." I roll my eyes as I turn and hug Esme tightly.

"It's good to see you, sweetheart," she whispers in my ear. I pull back and give her a warm smile.

"You, too." I turn to the others, needing some answers. "So now that introductions have been made, can someone please tell me why Alice and Jasper practically begged me to come here?" Carlisle sighs and for a second I think he's about to start talking, but then he turns towards Edward. So, it's Edward who's cause all of this? What did he do that is causing the Volturi to step in?

"Nothing," Edward says, answering my thoughts. "Well…I guess that depends on how you look on it." He looks towards the brunette. "Max, I'd like for you to meet my wife, Bella. She was changed back in September." My eyebrows raise.

"Wow. That recently?" I shake my head. I've known Edward for a long time, and though I don't know him well, I do know that he'd never get married on a whim. He'd never marry someone just mere months after meeting them. And knowing him, he didn't fall in love with Bella the second he laid his eyes on her. The last time I saw him, he was too caught up in his moody bullshit that he didn't even pay Tanya the time of day she so clearly wanted.

"We met and married when she was still human," Edward clarifies. "Now, before we proceed, I need you to promise that you'll hear us out before you react." I furrow my eyebrows, confused. This is starting to worry me.

"I promise, Edward. I owe you guys that much. Just please tell me what's going on." He lets out a breath, and nods.

"Jacob can you bring Renesmee out, please?" he calls. What's a Renesmee? I look over to the back door of the house, which is made of glass, to see a tall indigenous man approaching. He smells like the wolves that had tried to chase us earlier, and he's holding hands with a little girl. At first, I think that she's some sort of immortal child, but then I catch her scent. A familiar scent.

She's small, even though she looks to be around three, I know that she can't be older than a few months. Her skin is pale, with a flush of red in her cheeks. Her hair is a curtain of bronze curls around her shoulders, and her brown eyes are wide and intelligent. I know exactly what she is. A hybrid, half-human and half-vampire. I—

"Mom!" Judith's voice rings out and sends a shiver down my spine. Everyone's attention is drawn from the little girl and I'm about to run into the woods when Judith breaks through the trees. She slams into me with the wolves hot on her heels. The pack comes to a halt when they see all the other vampires, but I don't care that they're not chasing her anymore. My mama bear instincts kick in and I snarl at them, my whole body tensed to fight.

"Max, stop!" Edward calls to me. But I don't pay him any attention. They're still a threat to Judith. "They're helping us with the Volturi. I'm sure this is all a misunderstanding."

"Tell that to them," I spit out. "They seem to be hunting my kid." Edward leaves Bella's side and comes to stand at my side.

"Look, they didn't know you were with us." He shoots the wolves a look. "They'll back off now." The wolves huff, and their offensive postures disappear. "They're werewolves. They protect this area from vampires, so they've agreed to help us stand against the Volturi."

"If they know what's good for them, they'll get out of my sight," I growl. I don't want them anywhere near Judith. I look over at them, and do something that I'm not proud of, but don't regret. "Leave." I lace my words with a little bit of compulsion. Not enough to totally control their minds, but enough to get them to leave without complaint. And as soon as the last of them leave, I drop my defensive position, and pull back to look at Judith.

"Are you okay? They didn't hurt you, did they?" She shakes her head. I sigh with relief as everyone around us seem to disappear, not literally, of course, but in my head. "What happened?"

"I didn't see them around, so I thought it was safe on the ground again. I was messing around with some rocks when they jumped out at me outta nowhere. I thought about…ya know. But I remember you said that I shouldn't use it as a weapon unless I needed to. And, if I'm being honest, I just froze up, ya know? I just thought that if I could get to you, then I'd be safe." She runs her fingers through her hair and then puts her hands on her hips.

"I just wanna go home already."

"I know, Jude. But they need our help. We'll go home as soon as we can," I promise.

"If I may cut in," Kate interrupts, "but who's this?" She gestures towards Judith and I sigh.

"Her scent is similar to Nessie's," Jacob cuts in. A few more people chime in with their thoughts before it goes silent and they all turn to me.

"Max," Carlisle begins, "is she…?" He trails off, but I know what he's asking. I guess it's now or never.

"About four years ago, I was visiting my home country when a young woman came up to me. She was beautiful with long brown hair and a face that was almost child-like. She told me that she knew what I was. That she met a man who was like me, and they had become intimate. I hadn't believed her, of course. I hadn't thought it was possible for a vampire to be able to resist the temptation of human blood long enough to have sexual relations, and when she told me that she was pregnant, I believed it even less. But I felt compelled to help her. Her overly religious parents had kicked her out for having premarital sex and she had nowhere to go. So, I put her up in a motel for a while. But I soon realized that she was telling the truth. Her pregnancy progressed at an alarming rate. And with each day that passed by, the fetus was unknowingly sucking her dry of her blood and nutrition. She could barely eat anything without getting sick. When things got worse, I took her to a friend of mine to finish the pregnancy. I didn't know what else to do. I had gone out hunting one day, and when I came back, the woman was lying in a pool of her own blood. Her stomach torn open. She was dead, of course. And sitting right beside her was a little baby." I look down at Judith, and she looks back at me. To this day she feels guilty for taking her mother's life. I can't lie to her and say that it wasn't her fault, but it was, even if she didn't know any better. Sometimes I want to suppress her memories so she doesn't remember it, but I could never invade her mind like that.

"My friend tried to kill Judith, however. Because of all the blood…it just set her off. And no matter what I can do, I can't get rid of bloodlust. It's just ingrained into our DNA, I guess. So, I had to kill my friend before she could kill Judith. After that, I quickly learned what Judith would need. She prefers blood, but there's some human food that she likes. I'm sure you guys know. I was deeply concerned about the rate at which she was growing at first. She was aging at an extremely fast rate, and I was afraid that she would grow old and die within fifteen years or so. But within the last year or so her growth has slowed down considerably. I think for every year that goes by she's aging about two years. I'm hoping that it'll stop or at least slow down to a normal human rate within the next few years, but all I can do right now is just wait."

"Why didn't you come to us for help?" Rosalie questions, looking hurt. "Why didn't you tell us?" I raise my eyebrows at her.

"Can you honestly tell me that, if you guys didn't already have Renesmee, that you'd be understanding and willing to listen to me before you reacted?" I'm met with silence. "And can you also tell me, that if it weren't for the Volturi knowing about Renesmee, which I assume they do because why else would you guys have brought every vampire you know here, that you would have told anybody, let alone me, about her?"

"Okay, good point," Emmett mutters. I sigh and put my hands on my hips.

"There's one more reason why I've been keeping her a secret." I take a deep breath and look at Judith. Then I look around and spot a small boulder a few yards away. "Jude." I give her a look and nod my head in the direction of the boulder. She seems to get my meaning, and nods. She looks nervous, and takes a few deep breaths, shaking her hands, as if to shake off the nervousness.

Then she focuses on the boulder, with everyone watching her. The whole back yard is silent, so silent that I can practically hear the gears inside of Judith's head working as she concentrates. It takes her a minute, because she's still working on moving heavy things, but soon, the boulder starts to shift. I can hear the dirt moving as the boulder is lifted. It hovers a few inches above the ground for a few seconds, and I hear a bunch of gasps and whispers of those around us, but I don't pay attention to what's being said. And then the boulder is lifted higher and higher, soon being suspended thirty feet in the air. I can hear Judith struggling, as she hasn't lifted something so heavy before. I put my hand on her shoulder.

"Okay, Jude. It's okay, you can put it down now," I tell her. The rock slowly sinks to the ground, and as soon as it's settled, I hear Judith sigh with relief. And then we both turn to look at the others. "So," I break the silence, "as you can see, we're not exactly looking to draw attention to ourselves." Carlisle steps forward, his face full of wonder.

"If Aro were to find out that the both of you exist, and what you can do—"

"We'd both have big red targets drawn on our chests."


A/N: What did you guys think? So, I was thinking about starting a Twitter for this account. I've grown tired of having to post a chapter on a story if I need to explain something, and thought that a Twitter account would be easier. If I were to start one, would you guys follow? I'd post upload schedules, if a story won't be uploaded for a while, as well as other stuff, and you guys could use it to communicate with me about what you like/don't like. There's a poll on my profile, so go and vote. Please review!

~Gina