"Are you ok Rosalie?" Alice asked her sister. They were in a clearing in the forest between the La Push reservation and the Cullen's home training with the wolves for the upcoming battle with the newborn army. Victoria, the mate of a vampire the Cullens had killed had decided to seek revenge and created a newborn army to eliminate the entire coven including Edward's human mate Jessica. Everyone was on edge and anxious about the upcoming event so it was of no surprise that Rosalie had been more serious than usual. It was however strange for her to be so withdrawn. Many times when Alice went looking for her sister she had found her off by herself.

"Yes I'm fine." Rosalie automatically replied. It was the same line she said to everyone lately.

Not wanting to let it go Alice tried a different tactic. "Are you worried about the fight?"

"Not really, why have you had any visions?" Rosalie asked.

"No still nothing. I want to blame it on the wolves but it's like someone is blocking me on purpose." Alice's frustration of not being able to see anything that happened during the fight and after was well known to all. What the others didn't know was Alice had a feeling that something bigger than a newborn army was at play here. She didn't want to worry her family and the others but she fully expected that the newborn army was going to be the least of their worries when they showed up to fight.

"I thought you said that was impossible." Rosalie wasn't a hundred percent sure how Alice's gift worked but thought that Alice couldn't be blocked.

"I had thought so to but when we went to Voltair to save Edward something happened. Something I didn't tell you guys about." Alice had lowered her voice so that only Rosalie could hear her.

"Was it something bad?" Rosalie asked beyond concerned because Alice never kept anything from the family.

"I wouldn't exactly say bad just weird." Alice said. "I told you I had a vision of Edward exposing himself to humans during the festival. What I didn't tell you was when we got there I couldn't get a vision of what was going to happen in the throne room. I didn't even know that Edward had gone to the Volturi. He told us how they denied to kill him but I didn't see any of that happen."

Rosalie tried to figure out what this could mean. "Have you had any visions of the queens?"

"I never have before because I have never interacted with them. Since coming home I have tried but I get nothing." Alice had given herself blinding headaches pushing her gift as far as it could go.

"Do you think the queens have some way to hide from your visions?" Rosalie knew the queens had many gifted vampires in the guard but nobody other than the royals could keep track of what each gift was. There were just to many.

"I don't know if they do but Edward did mention that he couldn't hear the thoughts of anyone in the throne room. The other time he had met them he could but this time he couldn't at all." Alice had been shocked when Edward had told her about it.

"Maybe they had a new guard member. Did you see anyone you didn't recognize?" A shiver of fear went through Rosalie at the thought of the queens having a member of the guard that was able to not only block Alice's gift but Edward's as well. It was unheard of someone being able to even block one mind let alone an entire room of people. A vampire with that gift must be extremely powerful.

Alice shook her head. "No I knew every face I saw in the castle. One thing of interest though was Renata and Jane weren't there."

"They didn't have their shield with them?" Rosalie asked.

"No nor did they have their greatest weapon." It was almost unheard of for Jane to be far from the queens because her gift worked quickly and could disable vampires within seconds where as other vampire's gift like Jane's own brother Alec's took longer to become effective.

"Something isn't right." Rosalie was convinced that the queens were hiding something.

"I think so too." Alice agreed.

"What I don't understand though is the queens like to brag about their guard members. Especially their gifted ones. Why would they hide someone powerful enough to block not only their minds but that could take the place of Renata and Jane." Rosalie may not have known about all the older guard members but had thought she knew about all the new guard members because it seemed as soon as someone joined the Volturi the queens put out a press release. "Do you think Eleazar knows anything about it?"

"We have talked to him many times and he has never mentioned anything about it. He would have to because we both know how much he loves to talk about coming across new gifts."Alice knew a vampire having a gift that powerful would be something of great interest to Eleazar.

"The Volturi would have definitely called him to evaluate someone with such a strong gift." Rosalie said. It was common knowledge that although Eleazar had left the guard he often times still helped the queens when they came across a gifted vampire.

"Do you think we should call and ask him?"Alice asked.

"And say what? Hello Eleazar we are calling to ask if the Volturi have a guard member with a gift strong enough to block not only Edward's gift but yours as well. Why do we want to know you ask? Oh it's nothing we are just dealing with a vengeful vampire that created a newborn army to kill us that we have not informed anyone about but also a group of shifters we have known about for almost a century and once again have not informed anyone about." Rosalie scoffed at the idea. "Yeah I bet that would go over well."

Alice sighed. "I know you are right but it would be nice to know what we are dealing with. I mean wouldn't you want to know if the Volturi are going to be involved?"

"I would want nothing more than to know if the Volturi are involved but I don't want to tip our hand before we get confirmation."Rosalie replied.

"I just hate not knowing." Alice wasn't use to the feeling of not knowing what the future held and she had decided right away that she didn't like it.

"One way or another it will work out." Rosalie just hoped it was going to work out in their favor.

"So beside our impending doom what is going on with you?" Alice asked getting back to the reason she had sought out her sister.

"Honestly, I don't know Alice." Rosalie didn't really feel like talking about it but she knew she needed to and Alice was always the one she went to with her problems. "I just feel lost lately."

"Does this have to do with not having a mate?" Alice knew the one thing Rosalie wanted most in life was to find her mate. The fact that she was the only unmated vampire in their family probably didn't help Rosalie's feelings of loneliness.

"No." Thinking about it Rosalie corrected herself. "Yes, it does. I think when this whole fiasco is over I will take some time to travel."

"Maybe Jasper and I can come with you." Alice offered. She knew her husband was getting tired of being a high school student and would probably like the chance to get away from hormone riddled teenagers.

"We'll see." Rosalie said not sure if she would really like her brother and sister to come with her.

"Alice it's your turn." Jasper called out.

Alice got up and put her hand on Rosalie's shoulder. "Just think about it. I hate the thought of you out in the world all by yourself."

Rosalie nodded in reply. As she looked around the gathered group filled with four mated couples she could feel the loneliness sinking further into her bones. Rosalie knew some vampires waited centuries to find their mate as was the case with Simone and Emmett but didn't know if she would be able to wait that long before doing something drastic. She didn't think that fate would be so cruel as to keep her from having such happiness but as the circumstance of her turning came to her mind she knew that putting your faith in fate was a fool's errand.