Marcus watched as the frail human girl named Bella collapsed to the ground, Aro himself electing to be the one to catch her before she managed to injure herself. Oh, any member of the guard could have gotten to her before she was in danger of concussion or anything. But there was an unspoken rule about potential members of the guard: Aro always had first dibs. He so loved fostering relationships with his new toys, the immortal men and women who were dedicated to his service.
Marcus stared at Bella, pondering that it had finally happened. This was what he'd waited 18 years, 4 months, and 5 days for.
He wasn't sure how he felt. But then, the fact he felt anything at all was a change from the norm. Until the potential relationship had appeared between him and this woman, he'd been floating in a haze of numbness and boredom that bordered on the Zen of enlightenment in an empty, meaningless way.
He'd, quite frankly, imploded when Didyme was killed. She had been his happiness, his heart, the basis of all things positive and of substance in his life. With her ripped away, an immortal existence had gone from a blissful eternity to an unending torment. He'd enrobed himself in apathy for the sake of his sanity, and so he could continue to fulfill his duty in stopping the world from collapsing into chaos.
In darker moments over the centuries, Marcus tried to bring himself to hate Aro, the child of his making who had become his goodbrother. But he couldn't. With his gift, while he might never understand another's motivations and fundamental workings like Aro could, he could see exactly how they stood in the world. Knew exactly how they felt about every person in their life. And Marcus knew his grief at Didyme's murder was second only to Aro's self-loathing in being the murderer.
Oh, Marcus hadn't clued on at first. For a few weeks, he'd honestly believed it had been a surprise attack by the Romanians, like Aro had so convincingly staged. But then Marcus had taken a second to really look at Aro, and he'd seen the sheer overwhelming guilt that colored his half of his severed bond with Didyme. The truth had been so obvious then. Didyme had gone to her brother, to tell him of her and Marcus' plans to leave the coven, go out into the world on their own. She'd wanted his blessing, the older brother who had blessed her with immortal life, led her to her mate, and always been there for her.
Marcus sometimes wondered who'd been more surprised when Aro had actually ripped off Didyme's head and set her body on fire, the sister or the brother. But in a split-second, as Didyme had revealed her and Marcus' plans to leave the Volturi, Aro had a choice: lose them both, or only lose one. He'd made the choice, one that haunted him to this day, for the greater good. Because the Volturi needed Marcus, and the world needed the Volturi. The world was more important than any one life, even Didyme.
Only, in the end, Aro had lost both of them anyway. Oh, sure, Marcus had stayed. He'd seriously debated seeking vengeance, but the chains of duty bound him too tightly to ever truly go through with such a course of action. Without the Volturi, vampires would run rampant. Feed without concern, turn any lover or potentially gifted that caught their eye, and a Malthusian collapse would be inevitable. The law was so simple and vague, many didn't realize its true purpose. Aro, back when he was just another newborn on a Greecian island, realized that the only true way for vampires to survive in the world was if they didn't rule it directly, if they allowed humanity to grow and develop until they were numerous beyond number. Any other avenue would lead to their extinction, victims of their own insatiable appetites. And gods only knew that even that one law was hard enough for some of their kind to follow.
Marcus, fresh in his grief, had realized that he could not kill Aro. For if he did, then Didyme's sacrifice would mean nothing. So he'd touched Aro's hand, let him know that he knew the truth, and stayed all the same. But he was no longer Marcus. He was the ghost of the man who Aro had so admired and taught him all he needed to know to conquer the globe. Forbidden from suicide and joining Didyme in Hades, Marcus had settled on the only course of action that would spare him from going insane from the pain: nothing. Complete and utter nothing. Every iota of Marcus' considerable brainpower, from the moment he'd settled on this course of action, had been on not thinking of the past or contemplating the future, merely getting through the present one agonizing second at a time.
Petrifying had been almost easy. It didn't truly affect their strength or speed, it was merely a cosmetic effect, popular with the Ancients when the Volturi were first coming into power. Only those utterly secure in their reign could sit still long enough to begin to calcify. And Marcus had been more than… not 'happy'. He'd never be happy again. But it had brought him some vague contentment to literally go months without so much as blinking, servants bringing blood to him in chalices from freshly killed humans to pour into his open mouth and keep him strong in the event of an emergency. Even once the process was complete, Marcus saw little point in pursuing dozens of intellectual pursuits with his leisure time like Aro or fucking off to the tower to doze in Corin's heady embrace like Caius or the wives. He'd grown fond of the gardens, just watching nature and the progress of each day, still as any inanimate statue placed there for aesthetic value.
Aro, of course, regretted the necessity. But he knew, and Marcus knew, and Aro knew Marcus knew, that given the choice, between Didyme and the world, Aro would make the same choice every time. And that choice had kept Marcus as a wielder of his gift and authority figure in the immortal world, but lost him as a person of any substance or semblance of life. Didyme had been his soul, and with her gone, Marcus considered it a great accomplishment that he hadn't set the whole world alight just so others could feel some small fraction of the pain that consumed him if he dwelled too long on it outside his comforting haze.
And then, on a day like any other in the drifting current of time, Marcus had seen it. A new potential relationship. Oh, his gift was more suited to sensing active relationships. And even now, after millennia of practice, Marcus couldn't see the potential for his relationships with all the billions of people out there. But when a certain someone was born, who had potential to have a strong relationship with him if ever they met, Marcus would be able to pick up on that unforged relationship, the unpainted canvas on which he and that other person would paint their own unique masterpiece, in whatever beautiful or ugly shades would naturally result from their interactions.
He wasn't sure exactly what the nature of his relationship with this mysterious person would be. But it had… 'good bones' was the phrase to come to mind. Given the proper impetus and support, this relationship had the chance to be as strong as the ones he shared with Aro or Caius or possibly even the one he'd shared with Didyme.
So, for 18 years 4 months and 5 days, Marcus had devoted a fraction of his focus on keeping track of that relationship, waiting for the moment he might meet this person. Oh, the possibility that they would never naturally meet had occurred to him, that he or she would be born, live, and die without ever coming to Volturi Castle. But he'd been patient, and perhaps still had a small amount of faith that the gods had more wisdom than any creature of the Earth, even an immortal vampire like himself.
And now, here she was. Bella, who had been… not seduced, but certainly wooed and dazzled and then discarded by some immortal youth Marcus was in no great hurry to meet. Aro would be curious to read his mind and see what a telepath who could hear from a distance saw when he looked at the world. Plus the potential for blackmail or secrets could not be denied or forgotten. But Marcus had a feeling that if Edward Cullen's other relationships were half as convoluted and unhealthy as the one he shared with Bella… well, it would not be a pretty sight to him with his gift.
Aro stood, Bella's unconscious body in a princess carry in his arms. "I shall take her to one of the guest rooms. Felix, you are not to let her out of your sight. If you ever have reason to doubt your self-control, call me and I'll arrange a temporary change of guard so you can take a break and fortify yourself. But until she's in a shape worth transforming and cementing for all time, you're going to be almost always in the same room as what I'm sure we can all agree is a very tasty morsel." Aro sniffed deep. "Ah, freesias. Sweet, with a touch of innocence, and simply mouth-watering. Ah, I'll need to be careful when I turn her, lest I be tempted and all this be for naught!"
Marcus spared a sliver of his vast mind to internally groan at Aro's theatrics. He knew it was a mix of his genuine childish wonder at the world, hyperactive mind and part of his penance for Didyme's murder. With her gift, Didyme could light up a room without even trying, make everyone feel brighter and lighter for merely being in her presence. In killing her, Aro had robbed the world of one of the brightest stars to ever shine in the darkness. So he went out of his way to act over-the-top for the sake of provoking laughs and chortles from the guard. His own little way of remembering Didyme. Sweet, loving, happy Didyme… who had dared to imagine a world outside Volturi Castle.
Marcus saw Aro and Felix walk towards the exit, and decided he was going to keep an eye on this woman who had the potential to become as good as family to him. Oh, he didn't pretend to know how or why. But his gift had never lied or failed him. If he got a sense from Bella that they could become central parts of each other's worlds, then that was fact. Though for the life of him, Marcus couldn't imagine what form that relationship would take. Immortal father and daughter? Would she, for whatever reason, gravitate to him the way Jane and Alec had to Aro? Would she be the little sister he'd never had, perhaps? Teacher and student, could he somehow find in her another willing pupil who could coax out of him all the lessons he'd painstakingly imparted to Aro so long ago?
For a brief second, Marcus even entertained the idea they could be lovers, but that was impossible. Oh, not that he was physically incapable of taking Bella to bed once she was an immortal. He just had not felt that urge once in the 2000 years since Didyme had died. Vampires were such permanent, constant things; the grief of her loss had not waned or weakened one tiny bit in all that time. To touch another the way he'd touched Didyme would feel like a betrayal of the love they shared. Oh, on some level Marcus knew Didyme would have only wanted him to be happy and, if she could communicate from wherever she'd gone, give her blessing to the union if Bella was willing. The problem was, Marcus never would be. He just could not envision any world where this Bella had such a strong effect on him that he'd feel lust for the first time since losing his mate.
Shaking such thoughts out of his head, Marcus shadowed Aro and Felix as Aro took the unconscious Bella to one of the half dozen rooms reserved for visitors in their sweeping, sprawling castle. Aro really had gone overboard while designing the damn thing. Well, him and Athenodora. Caius' wife had loved building things, before she'd become a trophy hidden from the world who indulged in Corin to the point of addiction. Caius hadn't seen through the lie, truly still believed that Stefan and Vladmir had killed Didyme. He'd correlated her death with Marcus' utter loss of vitality, and had decreed his wife never leave the safety of the tower unless vitally important, and even then only with 4 guards. And Aro, for all he was a kinslayer and a sentimental fool at times, still loved Sulpicia as fiercely as any immortal man ever loved his wife and feared his own implosion in the event of her death. So she was locked up as well.
Marcus idly wondered if it had been Athenodora or Sulpicia who'd been killed and Caius or Aro who lost their reason for living, if he'd have gone ahead with locking Didyme up for her and his safety. But no, that would never have happened. Didyme's gift was to bring happiness to others; more than just her gift, it had been her passion. To hide her away where she'd never know the company of any but professional bodyguards would have been to condemn her to a life of wretched misery. And Marcus had loved Didyme more than he'd ever loved himself. Maybe that was one of the things that distinguished him from Aro and Caius. Even as king of the world, he didn't necessarily see himself as number one in the game of life. Caius, most definitely, worshiped himself, he was basically a functioning narcissist. And Aro had his mission, his self-assigned duty to keep the plates all spinning and not crashing to the floor.
Marcus refocused on the present moment as Aro set Bella down on the bed. He deftly, never awakening her, searched her pockets. He procured a handful of crumpled Euro bills, a wallet, and a passport. Aro looked at both the passport and the driver's license in the wallet. "Well, it seems Bella is one Isabella Marie Swan. Born September 13, 1987, in Forks, Washington. Arizona driver's license, though, odd that. It is so strange, not simply having all the answers soon after meeting her. "
"Perhaps it will be good for you, to be reminded of how the rest of us must get to know a person, Aro," Marcus said dryly. Well, his voice was always dry, but that last comment had practically sucked water vapor out of the air.
"Ah, but I'm not above cheating! Felix, keep an eye on her. When she wakes, help her to shower and get some food in her quickly. Heaven knows she could do with putting on some pounds," Aro said with…not concern. Aro only showed true concern to those he treasured, who he would be pained to lose. At the moment, Bella was simply the shiny new toy, and Aro wanted her in perfect working condition so he could play with her as soon as possible.
At least, Marcus reflected, Aro took good care of his 'toys'. He'd surprised Jane and Alec with a trip to Disneyland Paris simply because he thought they needed some childish fun. As if Aro hadn't been just as excited to ride the rollercoasters or see the fireworks as they had been.
Aro flitted off to his study, no doubt to do some hacking and get Bella's life story based on her accessible records. Nevermind that computers were so recent and the Internet even younger an invention; Aro prized himself on mastering any pursuit he set his mind to. He'd had a headache and a half, but also somehow the time of his afterlife, in his ongoing project of converting their library and histories into digital archives. The server room in Volturi Castle, to this day, bothered Marcus for reasons he couldn't easily define. To see futuristic machines of metal and plastic resting in the ancient stone room from quarries long emptied, the juxtaposition of the future and the past, set his teeth on edge.
Felix settled into the corner, where he'd have a good view of the whole room, and got ready to wait. He looked curiously at Marcus. "Master? You intend to stay as well?" he asked. With respect, of course, but Felix had been their muscle almost since the beginning. And familiarity bred… if not contempt, at least a comfortable camaraderie.
Marcus tilted his head, and wondered if he cared enough to waste the breath explaining himself to Felix. He decided he did. "I was not lying, when I said I saw potential. Her bonds are few in number, but oh so strong. Her bond to that Edward, however mangled and toxic, was so strong that its loss has robbed her of the will to live. And what she felt for his family… it would have been kinder to just kill her. She loves as fiercely as any human I've ever seen, her bonds are comparable even to those of our kind, and you know how our emotions are intensified after the change."
Felix raised a brow and turned an assessing eye on the rather pathetic young woman. Really, she looked homeless, in her clothes that she seemed in danger of falling out of. He'd seen more meat on a chicken bone than on Bella Swan. "What does that mean for us?" Felix asked, his first thought always of the guard, of the coven.
Marcus thought about it, contemplating his answer. He focused, and saw Bella's potential relationships to the rest of the Volturi. "She is immune to Chelsea's gift. If she stays, it will be because she genuinely wants to. We will become her family. And… she will be our heart," Marcus said, surprised at his own words. But his gift did not lie. "She will bring out the best in us, temper our worst traits. And we will help her to grow into the woman she was always meant to become. Mark this day, Felix. Bella will be our most important member, not for her psychic gift, but for the gift of her love."
Felix tilted his head. "Master? You sound… well, like I've never heard you sound before. Just what about this little human girl is affecting you so?"
Marcus tilted his head, wondering at that himself. "I've been waiting for her. For… a very long time." It was possible he'd been waiting for this since Didyme's death, not just since he'd detected their potential relationship the day she was born. "She will… mean something to me. Just what, I'm still not sure about. But… she just might give me a reason to live again." That's what his intuition told him, the mix of his gift and his own gut feeling about Bella after one conversation.
Felix blinked. "Really? And will that be when she's human or when she's immortal?"
Marcus hummed. "I have the sense that both periods will be significant, in their own ways. This brief transition, the last few months of her human life, and then the centuries to come."
"Well… congratulations, Master," Felix said honestly.
They lapsed in silence. Marcus found himself keeping track of the time by Bella's heartbeat and her sleeping breaths as opposed to the ticking of the mantel clock on the dresser.
Precisely 2047 breaths since he and Felix stopped talking, Bella's heartbeat quickened. Her eyes stayed closed though, her lids trembling with the motions of REM sleep. She began to whimper, then sob, then outright start to scream, wailing in pain the likes of which Marcus had rarely heard outside a turning. In a flash, Marcus was at Bella's side, placing his petrified hand on her shoulder and shaking with the lightest of pressure he could manage. "Bella," he said, as loudly as he could. No vampire needed exercise, but it had been so long since he'd invested any real energy into being loud. He was out of practice, as it were.
Bella continued to scream, likely not even hearing him.
Marcus firmed his grip on that delicate shoulder and shook harder. "Bella!" he called again.
Bella's eyes snapped open. Oddly light for such a dark color as the brown they were. Marcus noted the aesthetic, thinking that maybe he'd dust off his painting supplies. Photographs were so impersonal, perhaps he'd paint a portrait of Bella while she was still human, so she could always remember what she used to look like. The impulse was strange, he hadn't felt like painting in centuries, but for Bella he found the urge. Curious, the effect she already had on him when they hadn't even had a proper conversation yet. They hadn't even directly spoken to each other at present, he'd merely spoken to Aro about her and then Aro had relayed his thoughts during the meeting.
Bella stared up at him, her eyes blank with incomprehension for a second. Then it morphed to wonder before she seemed to remember where she was. "Oh. Thought it was just a dream, a prelude to the nightmare," she said to herself. "I'm really in Volterra?"
"Indeed you are," Marcus nodded. He realized he was still holding her shoulder and let go. Their skin was an uncomfortable temperature for humans, after all.
"You're Marcus," Bella said, as if trying to assert that fact in her brain.
"Yes," Marcus confirmed.
Bella's eyes went around the room. They widened considerably. "Wow. Um, whose room am I stealing?"
"This is a guest room, and will be yours for so long as you remain human," Marcus informed her.
"This is how you treat your guests?" Bella asked in awe. "I'm almost afraid to see your own rooms. Holy smokes, is that an original Pollock?!" Bella gaped at the large painting on the wall.
Was that the name of the artist? Marcus hadn't really paid attention to art since the Impressionist movement, the modern stuff just hurt his head to look at. "I don't know the name of the painter, but it's definitely an original. Aro only collects the best." And Santiago, for whatever reason, really enjoyed the energy of the auction houses Aro sent him to in order to find and acquire his pieces.
Bella noticed Felix in the corner. "Oh, hi. Felix, right?" she asked politely.
"Yes," Felix nodded, eyeing her curiously. Marcus must have left an impression on the large man in regards to the mysterious power this mere slip of a girl seemed to hold and would exert on the Volturi.
"So, Aro literally called you my babysitter. Sorry you have to be my shadow to protect me from thirsty vampires and random accidents and everything. If it's any consolation, I'm apparently very entertaining to vampires. Emmett thought I was a riot," Bella smiled weakly at the man closer to 7 feet than 6 and over 250 lb of solid muscle even before he'd been turned.
"Looking forward to seeing for myself," Felix grinned back.
Marcus reminded himself that, by her own admission, Bella could not remember the last time she ate. "Felix, fetch something light from the kitchens. Soup and crackers, perhaps. She needs to eat, but her stomach can't handle much at present."
"At once, Master," Felix nodded before blurring out the door, shutting it behind him.
Bella looked up at Marcus, blinking before she blushed a truly impressively deep red. "Oh, right, my stomach gurgled during the meeting. Sorry about that."
"Why apologize for your body's natural urges and signals?" Marcus asked, bewildered. Or as bewildered as he could be, in his mostly numb state.
Bella bit her lip. "I guess… I always felt embarrassed to be so… not-a-vampire around vampires. We're literally different races, and I'm your natural food source. I can only imagine that all the weird noises I make and 'human moments' I need are akin to a dog dragging his butt across the carpet in front of you. Possibly amusing, but also kind of rude and pathetic."
Marcus, not for the first time, wished his power extended to seeing people's relationships with themselves. But no, that was Aro's domain. But he felt no hesitation in saying his next words. "You have low self-esteem."
"And that's on a good day," Bella nodded, not bothering to deny it. "I'm not pretty, I'm not a great conversationalist, I utterly suck at anything physical. I'm smarter than the average human, if my test scores are anything to go by, but I'm so awkward and shy and bad at reading social cues that my middle school actually asked my mom to have me tested for autism. That was humiliating. And just look at my biggest example of idiocy, falling for Edward. Or whatever you want to call my process of making him the bedrock of my whole world."
"Is that what your nightmare was about?" Marcus asked.
Bella looked away. "It's the same, every night since he dumped me. He left me in the woods, and like an idiot I went stumbling after him when he ran away. In the dream, I'm lost and searching. And at some point, every time, I realize I'm searching for nothing. I'm never going to find him, and he's never coming back. That's usually when I wake up with a scratchy throat from all the screaming."
"Have you considered therapy? Sleeping medication?" Marcus asked, concerned for her health. If she was exhausted and emotionally ravaged from this chronic nightmare, then she would not be able to do… whatever she was meant to do with the Volturi.
"As I understand the process, therapy requires total honesty. What human could I talk to without them tossing me in a loony bin and throwing away the key? Sleeping pills would be nice, but part of me always worried they'd just trap me in the dream. I'd have it anyway, but the drugs wouldn't let me wake up. That would be even worse," Bella shrugged. "It's no big deal. I'm really the 'suffer in silence' type. When I'm turned, I'll try to keep my mouth shut so I don't bother you all with my screaming."
The funny thing was, Marcus thought Bella actually meant what she was saying.
"Well, you'd be the first. But no one would judge you for screaming until your vocal chords tear. It truly is the worst feeling in the world. I had Jane use her gift on me, and it's certainly excruciating, but there's something about the venom that just hits deeper, to me at least," Marcus told her.
"Well, I live to defy expectations," Bella chuckled. "I'm seriously going to try this now. I'm not going to make a peep when I'm turned. I'll even bet on it."
"A wager? With whom, exactly?" Marcus asked.
"Myself, really. If I make one scream when I'm turned, I'll have to eat a rat. Emmett told me they taste the absolute worst out of all the animals he's tried, and from my understanding animal blood already tastes kinda disgusting compared to human blood," Bella shrugged.
"And what will be your reward if you indeed stay silent?" Marcus asked.
"Hmm, hadn't thought of that yet. I guess… go skydiving. Part of me always wanted to, but I'm way too chicken to ever do it. Maybe once I'm a vampire and pretty much invulnerable, I'll take a whack at it," Bella decided.
"Sky-diving?" Marcus asked. What in the world was that?
Bella stared at him. "Wait, you've never heard of sky-diving?"
Marcus raised a brow. "As you might imagine, I don't get out much."
Bella burst into breathless giggles. "Oh! Oh! Oh, my ribs! That was perfect! You've got a better deadpan than Ben Stein!"
"I'll accept that as a compliment, but I also have no idea who that man is," Marcus told her.
Bella covered her mouth to muffle her laughter. "Sorry, sorry. Laughing with you, not at you, I promise. Anyway, sky-diving is when you jump out of an airplane and use a parachute to land without, you know, splattering into a big red stain on the ground."
Marcus tilted his head. "Humans jump out of airplanes?" Who in their right mind would ever do such a thing?
"Yeah. I mean, the mortality rate for any activity is never zero, you have to sign a waiver so your family can't sue and everything if something goes wrong and you die. But, yeah, supposedly it's really fun. Bit expensive, though," Bella told him.
"Humans pay money to fly into the sky, strap a parachute to their back, and then jump out into empty air?" Marcus asked, just to confirm that was indeed what she meant.
"Yeah," Bella nodded.
Marcus blinked. "... I just might join you. I have the feeling I won't properly accept a reality where such a recreational activity exists until I experience it for myself."
Bella burst into laughter again. It wasn't a musical sound, full of involuntary snorts and a tad grating on the ear. But the sheer joy of the sound was adorable, and deep in Marcus' dead heart, something softened.
"Sure thing. You and me, going skydiving," Bella grinned up at him.
"Looking forward," Marcus said, and he actually meant it.
The Audacity of Bella Swan
Edward was in Austin, Texas. He'd been tracking Victoria, but he'd lost her trail. She was a slippery one. He'd checked in with the local vampires, gleaned their thoughts when he mentioned her name, and none of them had any idea what direction she had headed off into after her brief sojourn in the South.
Edward was standing still as a statue in the cheap motel room he was renting, reflecting on his failures. It was an activity he was well practiced at. When his cell phone rang, it took him a second to process that he should even take it out and see who was calling. When he saw it was Alice, he felt a spark in his cold breast. Alice was his favorite of his siblings. Also, she might have had a vision. She was worth answering.
"Alice. What is it?" Edward asked, bringing the phone to his ear.
She was silent, the only indication this wasn't a butt dial her slow breathing audible to his ears through the speaker.
Edward got a sinking feeling. "Alice?" he asked again.
"... I'm so sorry, Edward," Alice finally said.
If his heart still beat, it would have stopped. "Alice? What do you mean? Is it Bella?" Oh please, let it not be Bella. But of course it was Bella. Poor girl was a danger magnet. She must be in the hospital, victim of another accident. Or was it worse? Could she be… Edward couldn't even think of it. The world needed Bella in it.
"Yes, it's Bella," Alice said. She sounded like she'd been crying.
"How bad is it?" Edward asked, already planning his trip back to Forks. He wouldn't visit her, he wasn't quite that crass, and he'd made a promise it'd be like he'd never existed. But he could check on her from afar, see her through the minds of her doctors."
"She's not in Forks. She's in Italy," Alice said. Her voice was so sad, so resigned.
Edward frowned. "Italy? But it's January, school is in session. Did her mother take her on vacation or something?"
"Oh, Edward," Alice sighed. "You're going to make me say it, aren't you? You really are that thick you don't understand."
"Understand what? Alice, what happened to Bella?" Edward demanded.
Edward heard Alice take a shuddering breath. "Bella went to the Volturi," she said.
Edward froze. "No, that… that's impossible. She would never…" Edward wondered idly if vampires could go into shock. He'd never experienced it, but an odd numbness in his limbs certainly matched the descriptions he'd read in medical textbooks.
"She's already in the Castle. Has been for a week. The kings have voted, she'll be turned," Alice said, her voice dull and hopeless.
Edward almost crushed the phone in his grip. "Why the fuck didn't any of you stop her?!" he demanded.
"Don't yell at me!" Alice snapped. "You know how my gift works better than anyone! Bella decided to run away on the spur of the moment. I was in Mississippi, Jazz, Carlisle, and Esme were in Ithaca, and Rosalie and Emmett were off in Iceland for a honeymoon. None of us could reach her in time. No flight would have gotten us to Rome before her, there was not a single future where we intercepted her before she was in an audience with Aro, Caius and Marcus. Her fate is sealed, Edward. She'll be part of the guard in less than a year."
"Where are you?" Edward asked harshly. He was angry, so unbelievably angry, but he reminded himself not to take it out on Alice. No, he'd save it for Bella. Bella, who he'd only asked one thing: stay safe. Stay out of his world. And what had she done? Run into the arms of the most dangerous vampires on the planet.
"Ithaca. We're all here. I already bought your ticket," Alice said.
8 hours later, Edward ran up to the house his family had made for themselves in Ithaca, New York. Carlisle opened the door. "Welcome home, son," he grinned, his thoughts filled with affection for him, his firstborn whom he'd dearly missed.
Edward barely acknowledged Carlisle. He'd had nothing but time to stew on how he felt about this clusterfuck, and he just didn't care whether he upset his father at that moment. He walked right past Carlisle and up to where Alice was sitting on the couch. "Show me," he barked.
Jasper growled warningly under his breath. No one talked to his darling wife like that. But Alice just laid her hand on Jasper's to calm him down and looked Edward in the eye.
And then her thoughts turned to what she'd seen of Bella. Bella, looking sick and malnourished, getting on a plane in Seattle. Bella, in the throne room, one guard after another trying and failing to use their powers against her. Bella eating soup in bed under the eye of a huge man and a vampire Edward recognized as Marcus himself. These were visions that had been realized, already reality. Alice's mind turned to visions of the future, less certain, only the current course Bella was on. Open to change, but only if she changed her mind or someone actively interfered in her fate. Bella exercising in a surprisingly modern gym under the eye of the huge man, apparently her bodyguard. Bella speaking with Aro in a massive library, as he was teaching her the histories of the Volturi. Bella, of all things, painting her nails and watching movies in a home theater with a gaggle of female vampires. And then, the worst vision of all, no matter how strange the subject matter. Bella in a flight suit, her eyes ruby red, grinning at Marcus as a door opened in the plane they were flying in and they both jumped out.
Edward closed his eyes and grabbed his hair. He was very tempted to tear out large chunks, never mind that it'd never grow back. "What the fuck was she thinking?!" he roared, not specifically at any member of his family. Maybe he was asking the universe.
"Bella-bear's always been unpredictable," Emmett shrugged. His ordinary good cheer seemed to be in short supply. He was standing in the corner, next to Rosalie.
"What's the big deal?" Rosalie rolled her eyes. "She made her choice. An utterly foolish, reckless choice, but still hers. And what's done is done. If anything, I see this as a good thing. We now have an in with the Volturi."
"Good thing?! She's going to become a monster!" Edward screamed at his sister.
"Oh, spare me the projected self-loathing. I hate what we are as much as you, Edward, but at least I've accepted it. Resent it, wish it wasn't so, but I know what I am and I've made what peace I can with it. Sure, I believe Bella is choosing the completely wrong path, but it's out of our hands. She's going to become a vampire, full stop. I'll always think less of her for choosing this unlife over humanity, but maybe we can actually get along now that we'll be the same species."
"We have to save her!" Edward said, because that was obvious, wasn't it?
"Save her from what, exactly?" Rosalie said, raising one supremely unimpressed brow.
"Becoming a vampire! Worse than a vampire, a Volturi!" Edward shouted loud enough to make Esme look uncomfortable at his volume.
"How, exactly?" Rosalie pressed. "Jasper, Carlisle, you explain it to him. He seems to have forgotten, or he's just in denial."
"Edward, it pains me that Bella made this choice as much as it does you. But there's no taking it back. Volturi Castle is a fortress, constantly guarded. Hundreds of insurgents have tried to break in, and their ashes are scattered to the wind. More to the point, Bella is not some helpless maiden kidnapped by the dragon waiting for her white knight to spirit her away on his stallion. She went to the Volturi and asked them to kill her or turn her, as Alice explained it. They decided to turn her. And that's all there is to it," Carlisle said to Edward.
"They're not gods. They're not omnipotent. Just because they're determined to turn her," Edward began, building a head of steam.
"You're right. They're not gods. They've killed gods. They're worse. And while not omnipotent, they're the next best thing," Jasper cut Edward off. "Edward, pull your head out your ass and realize that one, you are very young for a vampire and two, you have never known a life outside this family. Even when you had your little 'rebellion' period, you lived alone, you didn't interact with our society. You have no idea the power the Volturi truly hold. They enforce the law. Hell, they are the law. What the Volturi say goes. Aro, Marcus, and Caius unanimously voted to make Bella a vampire. Short of a true divine miracle, nothing will stop her from becoming part of the guard."
"It sucks, but it's true. Let it go, Eddie," Emmett sighed.
Edward ignored them. He wouldn't give up so easily. Maybe Volturi Castle was impenetrable, but what if Bella left? Say, an accident happened with Charlie or Renee. Surely they'd let her leave, albeit with bodyguards, to check on her only living family…
"Edward, just stop!" Alice begged, as visions of one terrible plan after another went through her head. "How can you even think of hurting her parents like that?!"
"What?" Carlisle asked in shock.
"If I can't get to her, I can make her come to me," Edward said, because didn't anyone see that Bella becoming a vampire would be the most horrible thing in the world? This could not be. He would not allow it to be.
"Edward, how could you?" Esme gasped, her hand covering her mouth in horror.
"It'd be worth it to save her," Edward said, unrepentant.
"SHE DOESN'T WANT TO BE SAVED!" Alice roared, so loud that they all went still in shock at her sheer volume. "Edward, take two seconds and really listen to me, and I don't fucking care how hard it is for you to accept this because of how much it clashes with your own worldview! She wasn't kidnapped! She was not lured or tricked! She knowingly abandoned her whole human life and went to the Volturi with eyes wide open. She didn't know whether they'd make her lunch or make her a vampire, and she didn't really care either way. And don't you dare think I'm not going to dig into what the fuck you did to her after we left when you said goodbye to reduce her to that. But even if, by some miracle, you could spirit her out of Volturi Castle, what are you going to do? Keep her prisoner? Hold Charlie, Renee, the lives of innocents hostage? Try to outrun Demitri and the full might of the guard until Bella dies of old age?"
Well, yes, that actually was exactly the plan that had been forming in Edward's head. Because Bella had to stay human. She just had to. But Alice was still talking. "She CHOSE this. And on the slim chance you got her away from them, she'd try to go back. It's over. Bella's human life is done." And that was the future Alice saw, all but set in stone.
But her visions would change if someone changed their mind. "I'm going to talk to her," Edward decided. If this horrible future was built on Bella's will, then it could crumble like a house of cards. She'd never been able to deny him anything. Had offered him her very soul as if it were nothing. He'd denied her, as he must, because he would never damn her like that, but if he asked her to stay human, she would. To hell with the Volturi, Chelsea's gift didn't work on Bella, turning her against her will would just make it even harder to keep her prisoner. They'd have no choice but to let her leave if they wanted to keep their image of obeying their own laws.
Alice's eyes went glassy. Edward tuned into her thoughts. The visions were hazy, too much would depend on the decisions of others in the moment. But there was a finality to that path. "If you go to Volterra, Edward, you'll never come back," Alice said, her voice heavy with the weight of prophecy.
Edward felt a mild surge of fear, of self-preservation. He wasn't doomed to die if he went. Alice couldn't see exactly why he wouldn't come back. But it was what every tenuous offshoot of that particular future led to: his lack of return. Maybe he'd die, maybe he'd be suckered in by Chelsea and her power, maybe Bella would somehow turn the tables and convince him to stay with her. But there was no future if he committed to this choice where he'd come back to the family.
Edward firmed his resolve, though. "I have to try," he told Alice. Because Bella's life, her very fragile but oh so beautiful human life, was worth more than Edward's.
Alice closed her eyes. 'I'll miss you.' That was all she thought. Then she turned and walked at human speed to the staircase. Jasper went to go with her.
Carlisle came forward, to try and talk sense into his son. Rosalie scoffed and dragged Emmett off into the woods to have sex. Esme fretted over the fate of her family, and the fate of Bella. But there was no changing Edward's mind.
The intervening hours of plane flights and car rides were inconsequential to Edward. He only turned over all the potential arguments he'd use to convince Bella to stay human. When he reached Volterra, he parked in a garage and used his power to track down the nearest vampire. He made sure not to sneak up on him, give the man plenty of opportunity to realize another vampire was present.
"What do you want?" asked the robed Volturi, one of the lower-ranked guards.
"I want to see Bella," Edward said, sure the man would know exactly who he was talking about.
The man frowned. He took out a cell phone and called someone, made a report that a stranger with yellow eyes wanted to see the human guest. There was silence. "Is it a redhead?" asked the woman on the other end.
"Si," the guard in front of Edward confirmed.
"... Full meeting in the throne room. Bring him," ordered the woman.
Edward was led to a manhole cover, how charming. The guard led him through the sewers to a heavy steel door, which opened to a hall with electric lighting. How odd, the thought that Volturi Castle had wiring. That must have been a hassle to accomplish. He was led through hallways to another door. This led into a room that was lit by torches instead.
Edward walked up to the kings, and for once he felt young. Despite over a century of life, in one form or another, he felt like a mere youth, a kitten before an old but still very deadly group of tigers. Aro looked at him with curiosity. Marcus had his head tilted, a slight frown of disdain or disgust on his thin lips. Caius sneered at him outright.
"Ah. Edward Cullen, I presume?" Aro spoke, breaking the eerie silence of the room since Edward had come in.
"Yes," Edward said, keeping his tone curt but respectful. There was every chance he could be executed if he managed to offend someone. But he was doing this for Bella. Bella, who was too stupid to value her own life or humanity.
"I've been looking forward to making your acquaintance!" Aro grinned. "Well, let's get the formalities out of the way." Aro stood, Renata as always two feet behind him, and he walked up to Edward. He held out his white hand. Edward hesitated, but he reached out and took it with his own.
It was curious to listen to Aro's mind as he read Edward's. Like watching a favorite movie with the director's commentary. Edward's every memory, even from his human life, parsed through and analyzed, Aro making observations and determinations of Edward's character based on what he learned.
Aro's conclusion, by the time he reached the memory of Edward walking into the throne room, was that he was even more insane than Carlisle. And not in a charming way like Edward's father managed. Filled with a dual inferiority-superiority complex, at once lower than the meanest worm for the crime of being a blood drinking monster but better than any sad, pathetic human with their sad, pathetic, awfully repetitive thoughts. Not in the gray like Marcus with his ennui, but hiding in the shadows, actively preferring his pessimism and self-loathing to any joy. Bella had been his salvation and his damnation, the best thing in his life and the harbinger of the end. Edward had always planned to die soon after her, and of course her death must be natural because the world would just not be fair if Bella, sweet and innocent Bella, became a monster like Edward. And Edward had knowingly come here despite Alice's warnings to try and preserve Bella's precious humanity.
"Oh, you fool boy," Aro sighed with a kind of fond weariness.
"Just let me talk to her," Edward said, and he was not above begging this king who knew him now, perhaps better than Edward knew himself or was willing to accept about himself.
"Oh, I will, but not for your sake. For hers. She needs the closure." Aro let go of Edward's hand. "Someone fetch Felix and Bella. They should be in her room at this hour."
A guard went out the door, and they all just waited. The walls were thick stone, but even through them Edward detected a familiar heartbeat approaching. The door opened, and Bella walked in, bringing that scent that brought out the monster. It was harder to hold it back than usual, months apart had not helped with Edward's desensitization to her scent. But it wasn't just her life in danger now. Edward knew, bone deep, that if he lunged, Jane would put him down long enough for Felix to rip him to pieces the way he'd break a twig.
Bella looked… well, very un-Bella. She was in a dress, for one thing. Bella hated dresses. This one was cut in Greecian style and ended around mid-shin, with plenty of room to make her big, uncoordinated steps. She was in ballet flats, and her hair looked like she had recently had a trip to a salon. She looked better than Alice's vision when she first arrived in Volterra. She'd lost some of the gauntness to her cheek, put on health in the best way possible. She looked weaker than when he'd left her in the woods, but something in her eyes struck him with a new strength.
Bella walked past Edward as if he weren't there, taking position at Marcus' side the way Renata was at Aro's. Felix went to the other side, close enough that no one could get to Bella or Marcus without entering the effective killbox that was Felix's reach. It was a practiced maneuver, done fluidly and with familiarity as if this were a habit of years and not something that could only have been happening for a week at most. As if Bella were already a vampire, a member of the Volturi's guard, and this was her assigned station.
Edward felt a chill go down his spine. "Bella?" he called, thinking that maybe she somehow hadn't seen him. She had yet to acknowledge his presence.
Bella's brown eyes focused on Edward. He didn't know what he expected. Her face to light up, to smile at him the way she only did at him and him alone. Hatred, vitriol spewing from her mouth as she cursed him out and screamed at him for his awful betrayal of her. At the very least her usual kind, polite attention. Instead, he got a look like he was about as important to her as lint. "Oh. You." She shrugged, and went back to focusing on a point on the wall behind Edward.
What had they done to her? Could she be drugged? He didn't smell anything in her system. Was this some new power, one that could pierce her shield? It couldn't be Chelsea, Alice had seen Chelsea's gift didn't work on Bella, so the gifted vampire couldn't have broken the bond between them. What had they done to his Bella to turn her into this… what was she?
"Bella, I came to talk to you," Edward tried again.
"So talk," Bella said, sounding completely uninterested in anything he had to say.
"I was hoping it could be in private," Edward said, he wasn't comfortable bearing his heart and whatever passed for his soul in front of these… these blank-faced red-eyed monsters who could end his life with no effort.
"There is no privacy in this castle. Aro knows everyone's secrets, and Demetri gossips like an old maid. Anything you tell me would circulate to everyone anyway, Edward. Just say whatever you came here to say." She actually yawned. Wait, what time was it? Was it late at night? Should she be asleep? It had been a while since Edward had to worry about human things like that.
Edward grit his teeth and went forward. "Bella, what were you thinking, coming to this place?"
"I was thinking I wanted to be killed by a vampire or turned by a vampire. I didn't know where you or the Cullens were and you'd refuse on both counts anyway. Your cousins in Alaska would probably have refused me too. I wasn't going to just wander through a busy city at night hoping a supernatural predator would happen upon me before a human one did. So, I went to the only other coven I knew about: the Volturi." Bella could have been discussing the weather, not her suicide. And it was sucide, in either case.
"Bella, how could you do this? To your parents, to yourself, to my family?" Edward tried, certain mentioning her loved ones would put a crack in this bored facade.
"I can do it because I choose to. I am 18, by the laws of the country in which I was born, I am an adult responsible for my own life and decisions. My mom is happy with Phil, Charlie was already ready to give me up so me running away won't hit as hard as you think, and your family showed they didn't really care about me when they left."
Edward stared at her incredulously. "Bella, we left for you. I left for you."
Bella looked at him then. She still looked bored, but something was building in her eyes. "You said it was because people were asking questions about Carlisle's age."
"Bella, I lied. I had to lie. And you believed me so easily, it was scary how simply you swallowed what I told you that day," Edward said, his perfect recall going back to when he broke her heart and she'd just accepted it like it had always been inevitable.
"Why did you lie?" Bella asked, an intensity to her words.
"To save you. Bella, don't you see? If you stayed with me, with my family, you would have died! Either there'd be another accident like your birthday with worse results, or you'd be turned. And then you'd lose your soul. I couldn't let that happen. I convinced everyone to leave, and I said what I said to you so you'd forget about me and live the human life you're meant to have without us in it," Edward explained, hoping to heaven that his words would get through whatever daze she was in, what strange power was affecting her behavior.
"Is he for real?" Edward heard one woman scoff.
Bella closed her eyes. "So, just to reiterate, you ripped my heart out with a lie for my own good."
Edward supposed that was an accurate statement, though perhaps a touch dramatic. "Yes," he nodded.
Bella opened her eyes. And Edward did not recognize the person looking back at him. His Bella would never have had such a look of hatred aimed at anyone, let alone him. "Jane, be a dear. Make him scream," Bella said, her voice not wavering at all as she ordered his torture.
Edward stared at the only human in the room with shock until he heard Jane say "Pain."
And then the world vanished and there was only agony.