AN: Happy New Year!

So the '1674, January' bunch of chapters were quite naval gazy, but I think we learnt a lot about our vampiric friends and we all needed some calm and explanation after the Lucius drama's. That said, I think we are ready for new drama's now, right? We've jumped forward four years to the second Tribune Ball for the allied covens and its gonna kick off big time in this bunch!

It's a drama party and we're all invited :D

1678, MARCH - THE SECOND TRIBUNE BALL

Aro was hit with a bombardment of questions when he opened the door to his chambers. After a full day with Marcus going through all the data they held on the Romanian coven, only taking a break to put five aged vampires to death (at their request), Aro felt done in. All he wanted to do was curl up with his mate and enjoy some seriously needed downtime.

One look to his young brood told him that wasn't going to happen any time soon.

"Could we discuss the tribune ball … please?" Felix asked, sounding sickly sweet but ever so desperate.

Kiss ass! Aro thought. "That would depend how good you are at handling disappointment, son," he replied, hanging up his cloak and kissing his mate deeply.

She pulled away far sooner than Aro would have liked, but the disgusted gagging and retching sounds coming from their children caused that.

"If I had someone willing to miss the ball who could babysit you, none of you would be coming at all," Aro declared in frustration.

His children - all of them - had been nagging him for a month about the party they were due to host for the covens. Aro had made it clear, he thought, that though they would be attending, the short leash they would be on would strangle them if they dared to repeat the debauchery from the first ball. Yet, they continued to complain.

"Why do I have to stay with you?" Felix whined. Almost any other adult would be preferable!

Demetri looked askance to his big brother. "Why are you complaining?! I'm the one stuck with Caius!"

Felix laughed. "Yeah, that's worse to be fair, brother. Sucks to be you!"

Demetri bounced a cushion off Felix's head and within moments Aro had to forcibly separate them to prevent them from tearing a strip off each other.

"And you wonder why I want you accompanied and separated at the party? Really?!" he said, giving each a crack across their heads.

"But what about us?" Jane asked, gesturing to her twin. "We're always good."

"Ha!" Aro scoffed. "No, my princess of darkness. You threw up a gallon of bloodwine and passed out drunk the first time the covens were here. Not 'good' at all."

"Not to mention how you have both been all day," Sulpicia added. She was speaking about the twins, but looking to Aro expectantly.

Aro had really stepped up over the last few years ... well, in his opinion. Sulpicia was still doing much of the grunt work where the twins were concerned.

The twins, typical for intelligent children such as they were, had worked out how to play their parents. They knew what they could get away with when Sulpicia was home alone with them and they saved all their niggling arguments for their mother ... such gems as who sat where, who read which book, who wore which cape, and the myriad of other bullshit arguments siblings create to entertain themselves and drive their poor mothers to distractions. They didn't do that when Aro was home. They were transformed into dutiful, respectful, meek little mice when he was around.

Even though Sulpicia had made quite a show of telling their father how they were behaving, the twins learnt quickly that Aro would do little about it so long as it wasn't in his direct presence. He could of course check their memories for their conduct, but even the times that he had, he felt it unfair to punish either of his baby vampires hours after the fact.

That pissed off Felix and Demetri. It was massively unfair, they felt, when they were so often in the firing line for things they had forgotten they had done!

Aro scowled at the twins, but with them both wearing their best puppy dog expressions and looking contrite, he let it go, as they knew he would. Sulpicia might have been more annoyed but even that limp scowl was an improvement on Aro's old ways parenting their younger ones.

Once she was sure her father wasn't going to address her arguments with Alec, Jane huffed and flopped into the sofa next to Sulpicia, continuing her gripe over the coming ball. "Well couldn't I at least stay with you?" she asked her mother, hoping for a more reasoned response than Aro's flat out dismissal.

"Oh, my darling," Sulpicia replied, stroking her daughter's hair, "I wish you could, but I envisage some conversations with Kebi that I would rather you not be privy to."

"I would rather she weren't listening in on any of your conversations, my queen," Aro said. "I know you women spend most of the time bitching about your men."

Sulpicia raised an eyebrow to her mate, daring him to continue. "You give us so much ammunition, my love," she said sweetly.

"Well, I'm a woman, why shouldn't I listen?" Jane scowled to her father and brothers, all stifling laughter.

"Of course you are!" Sulpicia said, pulling Jane close. "But I would still rather you weren't listening in, my dear one. You will be with Magnus, that isn't so bad is it?"

"It's better than Marcus!" Alec sighed, joining in on the whining.

"I will trade with you then, Alec!" Demetri shot to his baby brother. "Felix is way worse than me, why do I have to stay with Caius?!"

Felix and Demetri started arguing between themselves, trying to work out who was 'worse'.

I will kill them before the covens arrive, at this rate! Aro thought, considering it may not be such bad idea when their verbal argument became physical again. Aro sat himself down in the middle of one sofa, forcing Demetri to sit on one side of him and Felix the other.

"You are with Caius because Caius agreed to have you, and he thinks he can get through the party without killing you," he told Demetri before turning to Felix. "He knows he would kill you in that time."

Demetri's mouth hung open. "He THINKS he wont kill me? I feel safe now, Dad. Thanks!"

"Why can't we hang out with Carlisle? Or even Eleazar?" Felix asked, teaming up with Demetri.

Aro burst out laughing. "Carlisle?!" he repeated in question. "As if I need answer that."

To be fair to Carlisle, he had barely been in the coven for the last few years, so he'd been unable to cause any grief. He would return periodically with Marcus, they would stay for a month, and then go off again.

Each time they returned, Carlisle seemed a little more mature, a little more adult. He could hold his own in conversation without feeling nervous anymore, as he had lots to talk about. The confidence of experience, some would say.

Though Basileus had been hesitant to allow his youngest son to go on travels around the continent, he had to admit it had done Carlisle a world good.

Not that Aro could be so easily convinced. Carlisle had been home for a few months and he could see the cracks beginning to show now he was hanging around with Felix again.

"Eleazar then?!" Demetri asked. Anyone other than Caius.

"We asked Eleazar, my darling," Sulpicia explained. She could see Aro was about to lose his head with the incessant questioning. "He said he would rather be free to enjoy the ball."

Felix and Demetri looked askance to each other. That bastard!

Aro rolled his eyes and checked the clock. Why is time moving so bloody slowly! he moaned to himself, wishing he could send them all to bed and have some time with his mate - and without the whining!

"Listen to me, this is the last time I am telling you this - you will ALL remain with those I have assigned to watch you and you will behave perfectly …"

The whining from his children stopped Aro in his tracks. "OR," he bellowed over their din, "you can choose to spend the entire event locked in a cell. I don't care which, but choose now!"

"I could break us out of the cells. I can bend the bars," Felix crowed proudly to his siblings - they all looked at him with adoration.

"I'll take the cells!" Demetri said happily, reaching around Aro to high-five his big brother.

Aro grabbed hold of their wrists, one in each hand and exerted just enough pressure on their bent back hands to bring them both to the floor. "I will remind you of my earlier threat - I will happily humiliate you if you cause any problems this time." He smiled as he spoke with the expression of a serial killer!

"Parents aren't supposed to enjoy humiliating their children, you know!" Felix complained as soon as Aro released him.

"Is it my fault that humiliation is the only threat that works with you?" Aro replied.

"It isn't!" Felix spat, folding his arms tightly across his chest, giving Aro nothing to grab.

"Oh really? What else is there?"

Felix glared at his father. He couldn't think of a single thing he was willing to say as a consequence that both worked, and he would accept. Damn it!

"My point made, son," Aro said, delighting in getting one over his boy.

Felix knew Aro would be taking any reason he could find to embarrass him in front of the other covens. He didn't recognise, however, that he had any control over that - Aro wasn't cruel, he would only humiliate Felix if the boy gave him just cause - Felix just had to behave like a Volturi prince rather than the court jester, or worse.

"I don't understand why we can't listen to the ladies talk but its fine to listen to the men?" Jane directed to her mother.

"Oh sweetie, men talk nonsense, there's nothing to worry about listening to them."

Aro rolled his tongue around his cheek. "Very droll, my queen." Jane has a point though, and one I should probably set some parameters around, he thought. "Whatever you do hear, do not react - the conversations going on around you will not require your involvement. Understood?"

Felix huffed. "So we can't leave your sight, we can't join in with the games, we can't drink, and now we can't talk!"

Aro simply smiled at his son. "That's about the size of it, my boy. You only have yourselves and your previous behaviour to thank for this."

Felix felt his annoyance tip over to anger at the injustice he felt. "Can we breathe?" he spat.

"You only need to breathe to talk, you don't need to talk, so not much point breathing, is there?" Aro returned. He felt his boy's rage through the sofa they shared - Felix was vibrating with anger.

"You're being fucking ridiculous!" he blurted out, his eyes turning black as he did so.

Aro sprang to his feet and snatched Felix up from his seat. "Good night!" he said pointedly, pushing his boy towards the stairs. "All of you!"

The twins and Demetri looked to the window in unison. "It's not even dark out!" Demetri complained.

Aro only had to raise his hand with a menacing expression to have the three of them scurrying away, following Felix up to their rooms.

"That was harsh, my love," Sulpicia said, deflecting Aro's kisses which started the moment the room cleared.

"They are doing my head in with their whining. Did you know that human nobility hardly even see their kids? Why do ours have to live with us?" he complained, continuing his efforts to seduce his mate. He didn't get very far.

"You are backing Felix into a corner, Aro. You know he will come out fighting, it will only cause more stress. You need to let go of the reins a little."

Aro gave up and flopped into the seat next to his wife. "I didn't have hold of the reins the first time the covens convened and look how that ended."

"It wasn't so bad, my love. No harm was done," Sulpicia said softly.

Aro raised an eyebrow to his mate. "With all due respect, my queen, it was 'so bad' and I won't be welcoming a repeat of their behaviour."

Sulpicia huffed and turned away, collecting a book from the side table and muttering about what a rigid prick her husband could be.

"I'm not getting any tonight, am I?" Aro said to himself.

"Sort yourself out, my love," Sulpicia answered sweetly, before returning to her mutterings.

Across the castle, Basileus was similarly engaged in prepping coven members for the coven ball. He had already spoken with Turk, who would be manning the bar, about keeping a very close eye on who he was serving what - there will be no drunk teenagers at this ball!

Now, the Creator was moving onto an entirely different preparation - Caius. Basileus had spoken at length with Hilda of the English coven about creating new guards for her purchase, and he hoped this would provide Caius with a job of some description over the coming years ... if he could get the coven master to agree, of course.

Athenodora answered when he arrived at their door, cape in hand as she knew it would be the Creator by his knock alone. "Would you like me to leave, Basileus?"

"No, not at all, my lady," Basileus said, trying to sound as pleasant and approachable as possible. "It's only a passing visit."

He seemed to only ever turn up at their door in a fit of rage and Freyr had requested that he make an effort to be a little softer, with Dora particularly, in the hope of improving relations. Ducking through the doorway, Basileus came into the main living chamber at the same time as Caius arrived from the bedroom - the latter clutching a couple of bottles of something black and gloopy.

"What is in those bottles, Caius?" Basileus asked, as if he didn't know.

Caius stopped breathing for a moment and nearly dropped the damn bottles! "Dungeon blood, my lord," he admitted sheepishly.

"And what are you planning on doing with them?"

Caius didn't answer straight away. After a moment or two glaring at the coven master, Basileus repeated his question, slowly, sternly.

"Henri enjoyed it so much last time that I assumed he will want some more … and he was easier to deal with a little doped up." Caius stopped talking when he realised he was rambling.

Truthfully, Henri had written to him asking for another barrel of dungeon blood to take home from the coven ball. Before that letter had arrived, Caius hadn't even thought about the damn stuff. Of course, once he did fix his mind to the barrels in the dungeons, he had also remembered his favourite medicine having a calming effect on the French leader during the last ball, and then Caius' thoughts went to the calming effect it had on himself, and how much he missed it.

There was something else, though. What will Henri think of me if I don't take it? he had wondered.

He couldn't lose face in front of the scumbag coven leader, not Henri of all people. There was no way in hell that Caius would willingly share the facts around his break from the drug. Actually, scratch that, there was no way in hell that Caius would allow anyone to find out he had needed to take a break from the drug! He had his pride, if nothing else. It was bad enough that the Volturi elite knew of his breakdown.

Deciding he couldn't risk having to explain himself to Henri, Caius tried to push Basileus into consenting to him taking dungeon blood, somehow.

"Would you rather I brought him to my chambers to take it?" Caius offered.

Basileus eyed the young master curiously as he searched though Caius' thoughts. I know what you are doing, you prideful little shit, he thought. "I'd rather you tipped the barrels of this shit away, quite frankly, Caius!"

Judging by Dora's contented smile, Basileus could see she wasn't any happier than he was about Caius going back on dungeon blood for the coven ball.

"I did offer to do that, my lord," Caius reminded the man, "After Aro ... "

"I know you did," Basileus agreed quickly.

He didn't wish to discuss Aro's downfall on the dirty blood, he was far more interested in working out what to do with a potential 'Caius downfall'. It could be useful, he thought, to see how far Caius goes and to see what happens next … but is it worth the risk?

Basileus had seen how close Magnus and Caius had become over the last few years and he wondered what would happen if their relationship was pushed a little. The Creator was conservative by nature and was against rocking the boat just to see the ripples in the water. I couldn't be less like Aro, he thought, smiling quietly to himself when he thought how keen Aro would be to construct such a scheme just to see the results. Basileus had to fight with his own nature to allow such a thing to pass, but he convinced himself that it would be useful to know where Magnus and Caius stood with each other.

"I will keep hold of the dungeon blood," Basileus eventually told Caius, taking the pair of bottles from his hands. "If Henri wants some, he can come to me for it."

Athenodora was visibly relieved and offered the Creator a drink. When she passed him the cup with her back turned to Caius she mouthed a silent 'thank you' to the man. That was enough to spur Basileus on.

"You won't want any, of course, will you Caius?" he said simply, taking a seat and sipping from his cup of bloodwine. "Not after I explicitly told you this dirty drug is for medicinal purposes only?"

"I don't drink it anymore." It was a bullshit response from Caius - a non sequitur, he neither accepted or denied Basileus statement.

Basileus wasn't so easily fooled. "Right," he said, bobbing his head to himself. "I will keep the dungeon blood. I won't make you beg for it, I just want to ensure it doesn't fall into the wrong hands, that's' all."

Without any warning, Basileus' booming laughter filled he ground floor suite. "Why shouldn't Magnus find out, I wonder?" he asked Caius, still laughing.

"I didn't say that!" Caius huffed, finding the laughter deeply unsettling.

"Maybe not," Basileus agreed, getting himself under control. "But you thought it. Your good lady doesn't look too pleased, either," he added, jutting his chin towards Athenodora.

With Caius still floundering, unable to come up with a response that he was willing to verbalise, Basileus waved his attempts away. "I suggest you go steady, Caius. You will have Demetri to mind, don't forget."

"How could I forget," Caius muttered to himself.

Hmmm, Basileus thought to himself, that worried him a little. "You will be kind to the boy, Caius, yes?"

Caius quit his mumbling and looked the Creator in the eye quickly. He was hurt that the man could think he would be anything other than kind to Demetri. Well, maybe not kind, but at least not a cunt. "I didn't offer to mind him to be cruel to him, my lord."

"I just wanted to check." Basileus softened his stance as he truly hadn't meant to offend Caius. "I must say, I am pleased with the turnabout in your outlook, Caius. Don't think it has gone unnoticed."

Caius appeared nervous in response to Basileus' praise, as though he was waiting for the back handed part of the compliment. "Dora and I have been making considerable efforts since … well, since Lucy … and when you called me out …" he tried to explain, stuttering increasing with his awkwardness.

"I need to talk to you about something else," Basileus said, changing the course of conversation to give Caius a break. "I have been exchanging correspondence with Hilda, the English coven leader. She has some ideas about transformation conditions affecting vampiric gifts."

"I spoke to her briefly about such things, my lord."

Caius' eyes already glittered with excitement at the chance of a new experiment. He hadn't worked for six years and he was chomping at the bit to do something interesting. Not quite as interesting as his old work, but something new and a little different, yes, Caius was well up for that.

"We mostly discussed Jane and Alec and the similarities of the gifts Mikhail and Katerina possess … we both felt that their experience immediately prior to the transformation caused those gifts."

"How would you feel about running some tests?" Basileus asked. "Burning humans before turning them, but not just burning. I want to know what a variety of extreme conditions could do to vampiric abilities." He was pleased to note that Caius' thought had already turned to listing out the possibilities, but Basileus had to wonder if Caius was up to the task. "It would need to be scientific, Caius. Properly conducted … but I imagine it won't be pleasant."

Caius shuddered involuntarily as his thoughts moved to the darker side of actually conducting such experiments. Shaking such thoughts from his head, he eventually replied, "I can do that for you, my lord."

"Wonderful." Basileus stood from his seat and handed his empty cup to Dora as he passed on his way to the door. "We will talk with Hilda when she arrives."

Athenodora waited until she was sure Basileus had moved on from their door. When she heard the Creator's footsteps fading up the stairwell, she turned to her mate. "Extreme conditions?" she asked, eyebrow raised in disapproval.

"Hmmm …" Caius muttered, flashing to his unused writing desk and taking up a quill. "I should start making a list, I suppose."

Dora joined her mate and looked over his shoulder to the list he was scribbling out. "I am surprised you are even considering this after what happened with Lucius."

"When Basileus asks you to do something, you do it. I learnt that the hard way a long time ago."

Caius looked over his brief script and tucked it into his jacket pocket. He wanted something to show Basileus should he need to prove at any point that he was taking the experiments seriously.

"You resisted with Lucius … in the end," Dora reminded him. "Basileus didn't force you to continue, he let you leave."

"I wouldn't like to tempt fate twice, Dora." Caius knew he had, in fact, tempted fate a good many times since Lucius' demise, or rather, Magnus had on his behalf. That wasn't a situation that could continue forevermore.

Athenodora still wasn't convinced. She didn't want Caius back on dungeon blood and by looking at his list there was no way he would be able to complete the experiments without it. "I don't think you should do this, Caius."

"What do you want me to say?" Caius spat, unfairly taking his uncertainty out on his mate. "I have to do something around here and I am running out of options," he explained in a softer tone. "I have little to do with the guards, thank the gods."

"You instruct the guards' training, Caius," Dora offered, hoping that would be enough of a job. "And you are the only one to run missions."

"Magnus runs training with me and missions only come a few times a year. It's not enough." Caius took his mate's face in his hands gently and looked into her eyes. "Don't worry. It's just a few experiments, Dora. I have done much worse."

"You have been much nicer to live with recently, Caius. I would rather you didn't need to go back on dungeon blood on a daily basis." There, she thought, I said it. Honest.

Caius could see his mate was being genuine, not simply wishing to keep him from a high. "Have you really noticed that much of a difference?"

"Yes!" Dora shot out. "Haven't you?"

Caius declined to answer. Half of him hoped there was a difference in his demeanour, the other half still struggled to merge his old life with his new one, or rather, his hopes for a new life. I need to change conversation, he thought quickly.

"I need to feed before the ball, are you coming?"

"We have bloodwine ... " Dora caught her cape in midair as Caius threw it in her direction.

"No, I need human blood," he explained, fastening his own cape at his neck.

"Why?" Dora asked. "Because of Henri." That wasn't a question - she knew it would be because of Henri. "Why do you care what that cretin thinks of you, Caius?"

"I don't care what he thinks of me," Caius said, bristling at the very idea. "But we are vampires, Dora, we're supposed to have red eyes."

She knew he was lying - Caius wanted to save face in front of Henri and it was blatantly clear. It upset Athenodora to know that even with her, Caius couldn't be truly open with his feelings. Even after all their years, all they had been through, he still held part of himself back.

She also knew why, of course. Each and every time Caius had been rejected by someone who claimed to love him, it had left a scar in his emotional capacity and those scars had built up hard and fast thousands of years ago in his human life, let alone after he'd been turned. It had left Caius with an insane need to protect himself, his feelings, his pride. His pride came before everything – even her.

"I'll come," she replied, swinging her cape around her shoulders. "It will be nice to spend the night with you."

Caius narrowed his eyes to his mate's wistful tone. "Why do you say it like that?

Dora smiled. It was more sympathetic than kind, but there was love behind it. "Because by tomorrow night you won't be you … or rather, you will be the other version of you, who I have come to dislike intensely."

Caius nearly choked! "Charming," he said, laughing at the brazen insult.

"I'm sorry, love," Dora said with a shrug. "What else do you expect if you're already planning on taking that stuff again?"

Caius didn't answer, he simply held the door open for his mate to follow him out into the night to feast on human blood.

Basileus strolled right into the middle floor suit - Magnus and Freyr had taken to leaving their door open when they were willing to accept guards in their private quarters to cut down the amount of times they were being disturbed when they weren't willing to see guards!

"Are you ready for tomorrow?" the creator asked.

"My only instructions are not to kill Henri and that I have Jane to mind," Magnus breezed, gesturing for Basileus to sit with him. "Easy enough to prepare for. Is there something else?"

"I've just been to see Caius and Dora …" Basileus drifted off seeing Freyr looking to him expectantly and holding his goblet of bloodwine just out of reach. "Yes," he huffed at the shield maiden. "I was nice to Dora."

"Good Creator," Freyr said, playfully patronising the most powerful man in the world. "Then you may have your drink."

Basileus took the bottles of dungeon blood from his cloak and set them on the table between himself and Magnus. "I have just taken this from Caius."

That was all he needed to say.

"Oh, hell no!" Magnus boomed, already getting to his feet.

"Not yet," Basileus said quickly, pulling the Juggernaut back down. "He's not drank any yet. He has the bottles ready for Henri."

Magnus scoffed. "So he says."

"My thoughts exactly," Basileus agreed. He was glad they were on the same page. "Look, I wasn't privy to his last breakdown on this, but from what I have seen in your memories, it's not a breakdown we can afford to have in front of the visiting covens of the alliance."

"Why would he even want to go back on that stuff?" Freyr asked. She sounded tired for the events that would come, rather than for those passed. One look to her mate confirmed that Magnus felt the same way.

"I can see the point to it if it's for battle," Basileus said. "I can even see the point to taking it for the work Caius used to do. It wasn't pleasant work."

"Very much like entering battle, I would say," Magnus added, which is why the man had supported Caius in not returning to such work. He was mightily pissed off that Caius would throw his efforts back in his face just to get wrecked with the French leader at a party.

Basileus agreed again. Both with Magnus' statement and his thoughts on Henri. "But for a coven celebration? Not appropriate. At the same time, Henri will be making a bee-line for Caius and Caius finds the French leader insufferable."

Magnus smirked. "That would be because Henri is a prick."

"Henri is easier to deal with a little doped up …"

Basileus stopped talking and shook his head very slowly at Magnus until the master ended his plan to simply kill Henri on sight and save them all the bother of his company. Once he was sure the Juggernaut was over his anger spike, he continued.

"Caius isn't like Aro on this stuff," he said giving the bottle of blood tar a shake. "He doesn't go crazy after a single shot - it's continuing those shots that's the problem."

"We will have to keep an eye on Caius," Freyr told the Creator with certainty.

Magnus squared his shoulders. "I'll be keeping an eye on him alright."

He hadn't spent the last few years working with Caius on everything from his temperament to his conduct to see it all go to waste for one night on dungeon blood. But Basileus is right, he reminded himself. Caius isn't like Aro, he isn't addicted to dungeon blood, he can have a few shots without it sending him into a spiral of despair. I can help him with this, he thought. But how …

Freyr's mooching about their quarters broke his train of thought. "What are you doing?"

"Moving the breakables before the inevitable." Freyr collected a particularly priceless statue of a Norse goddess from beneath the window and stashed it in her bedchamber before she continued. "If Caius is going on a bender, and it seems like he might be, I would rather we didn't lose anything else of worth." Caius will lose enough as it is, she added in thought, thinking of the damage he could cause to his relationship with his mate if he did go on said bender.

"You don't have to bring him here," Basileus said quickly. He wasn't trying to put the responsibility directly onto Magnus and Freyr, he just wanted to know they would be looking out. "We could get him down to a cell if the worst happens. I have keys to the dungeons …"

Freyr's glare cut Basileus off. The shield maiden was almost a match for Atia in the frosty glare department. "You will not put him in a cell, Basileus!" she told him forcefully. "Magnus will bring him here if we feel he needs to be anywhere and I'll stay with Athenodora."

That was them told!

"Are you keeping the bottles?" Magnus asked Basileus. Neither of them were willing to argue with Freyr on the matter of where Caius would end up that weekend.

"I plan to," Basileus replied, tucking the dungeon blood back into his cape and heading for the door. "We'll see how they go."

What's to see? Magnus thought. He could see exactly how the party was going to go. Or so he thought.