Previously: Isabella returns to Italy and takes her place as Steward of Aro's throne, Aro admits his visit to the Void, Aro claims divine right to the throne, Caius is still loyal to Aro, Marcus warns Isabella and tells her he sometimes wishes he's died with his mate, Jane warns Isabella of possible revolt, Isabella warns the Whitlocks to leave Romania and go into hiding, Caius sets Aro free, Marcus and Caius made a deal with the Romanians, and Isabella was dethroned.

Chapter 16 - By Declaration of the Romanian Order

"By declaration of the Romanian Order, you and your coven are pardoned of all crimes and shall be exiled to live out your eternities in the ancient hills of Velathri. Volterra, and the entire vampire world, is now under Romanian control." Stefan began, reading off the deal that was made behind my back. I knelt quietly at Vladimir's feet, held by Fyodor and Demitri, trying to contain my sorrow. I had only wanted peace. Was that impossible? It seemed it was not meant to be, and in my optimism I had interrupted the war and made us lose everything. "The Volturi Crest is disbanded. Any vampire seen or heard to be honoring the Volturi Crest shall be put to death without trial. Take Isabella Volturi to her mate, and remember that we allow her own mate to judge her out of mercy. Release her to them."

At his order, I was thrown roughly to the ground by Fyodor and helped up by Caius and Marcus. Marcus then led the way out of the castle, and we traveled to a small outlying village in silence. Once we entered a small alleyway where Athenodora was quietly hissing into a phone 20 feet away, Marcus spoke.

"I am sorry. He came to me, threatening to unleash Stefan on us all, and I could not let that happen. We do not even know what it is that he can do."

"Who came to you, Marcus?" Aro asked, coming out of the shadows. I flinched a bit, not having realized he was even there. Once I saw him, I felt fear for the first time since returning from the South. He was covered in dirt, and his clothes were torn. His eyes would be the brightest of reds if not for the thick film over his irises, causing the hue to be almost pinkish, and there was still a speck of blood in the corner of his mouth. The most terrifying aspect of his countenance was that he was expressionless, even as his anger seemed to clog the surrounding air with a hot, coastal humidity.

"Vladimir said these things to me, and I would not have believed him if he did not hate us so wholly." Marcus replied, looking uncharacteristically serious. "His ties to us are strong, but in a way that makes me fear very much for our safety."

"Yes. I do believe that Isabella was correct in her assessment of us all." Aro admitted coolly, finally turning to look at me. His eyes pierced mine with a practiced sternness. "Trickery and war are all I know. I have always lied and cheated, but you can no longer expect any better from me, let alone from our enemies. I need you in this war. I need you helping to lead it, but you must be ready to end this war with violence. There is no other way."

I was silent. He was asking too much of me. That was not in my character. It was obvious that he saw where my mind was going, as his eyes darkened in frustration, causing his eyes to become flat, black mirrors. He howled out his impatience and dove at me. I reacted instinctively, letting his momentum roll me over backwards. At first, I only defended myself, thinking that he needed to burn off some steam after what I had done to him, but he was not going easy on me. He was fighting with all the fury I had witnessed only in his own memories. It was when he went for the kill that I realized how serious he was being. I was able to deflect his momentum only enough to save myself, but I did not avoid his teeth. He removed a sizable chunk from my shoulder that nearly made my right arm useless.

The shock almost immobilized me, but he went for the other side of my neck right away, knocking my self-preservation instincts into high gear. I flung my useless arm around the front of my torso right on time to get in the way of his teeth, causing me to lose that arm from the elbow down, but at least I still had my head. I was no longer only on the defensive.

In the second that it took Aro to remove the lower part of my elbow from his jaws and throw the arm to the side, I was on him. With an unbridled roar of my own, I was on him, left arm at his throat. The moment I made skin contact, I overpowered him with my gift, leeching his own gift from within him, letting it feed my own. I leaned down and ripped his own right arm off from his shoulder, evening the score. I hopped back to my feet, spitting his arm to the ground at his feet, and let myself laugh as coldly as possible.

"Well, get on up then, Vulture of Velathri. Your city has forsaken you! Vladamir sits upon the throne, and you waste your time fighting a young, Southern warrior as if I were the one that has eluded you for thousands of years!" I growled out, sinking into a crouch, beckoning him forward with my left hand as he slowly stood again.

His answering growl was immediate and untamed, but instead if diving at me again he ran his remaining hand through his hair. "This is useless."

I hesitated only a moment before standing from my crouch and tilting my head in question. Aro only growled again and moved to retrieve his arm. Shrugging, I walked over and grabbed my own arm and the chunk of shoulder that he had removed. I let out a hiss of pain as the bit of shoulder refused to my torso. The arm wasn't as bad. Aro was all put together again before I was, and he turned to Caius.

"How many were still loyal to my Crest?" He asked, his back to me. Did the man trust me, or not? I had no idea where that kind of violence towards me had come from, and it had gone so suddenly. I could not come up with any sort of explanation for Aro's behavior. I watched him warily.

"All of them, brother. Isabella kept all of them loyal. She told them to not put up a fight when her reign came to an end, and in the confusion they just followed that order. You were originally supposed to retake the throne, but it was always supposed to be taken from her." Caius replied, glancing over at me, appearing as shaken by Aro's emotional state as I was. Aro hummed, and it almost seemed as if that bit of information had taken him by surprise. He turned to look at me again, and he took a moment to examine me anew. My clothing was ragged, and my Volturi cape was even torn in a couple spots. I knew my hair was sticking up in all the wrong places, and I had not fed in at least a week.

"You did not betray me at all." Aro muttered quietly, finally piecing my actions together. "You were rather convincing."

"Thank you." I replied, not knowing what else to say. Aro smirked a bit before offering his hand. I hesitated a moment, unsure about anything anymore. It seemed Aro was not going to take no for an answer, and he stepped forward to take my hand in his.

"Why did you do it?" He asked in a whisper, trying to use his gift on me, even though he knew my shield was in place. I figured telling him the truth couldn't hurt.

"You were so lost. I had to try and fix everything." I replied, thinking it sounded quite stupid saying it out loud after everything that had happened.

"You are smart, powerful, and brave, but this is a conflict thousands of years beyond you, beyond me even. You've met him, Isabella. You must see that now. It isn't something we can fix." Aro said, and an involuntary shudder went through me at the memory of the Other. Aro's expression suddenly went dark. "What did you give him for your freedom?"

"Nothing." I replied, and Aro seemed to grow angry. I shook my head. "No really. He gave me something. I was to take it or stay there forever. That was the deal."

Aro just watched me for a while, and it was actually Marcus that spoke up. He seemed almost frightened as he spoke. "Since you went to Romania, you have been connected to Stefan in a way that has confused me. His connections move whenever you do, as if you control their gravity." I felt my own face go hard, and I glared at Marcus, willing him to shut up.

"Isabella…" Aro said, drawing my attention back to him. He looked almost hopeful. My expression stayed stony. Aro seemed to grow excited at my reaction. "Did you know that Stefan cannot be killed by fire? When he is ripped apart and burned, the Spectral world protects him from the final fire. You cannot kill what does not have a soul. Isabella… if he were to have his soul again, we could kill him and end this war."

"No…" I breathed, suddenly realizing why the Other was so excited about making that deal with me. I felt light headed, and I actually fell to the ground, denting the stone where I landed with a thud that reverberated through the alleyway. I vaguely felt Aro lower himself to the ground next to me and heard him speaking, but I couldn't focus. In order to end this war, I had to give Stefan back his soul, but if I did that, the Other would come for me. I would take Stefan's place as the soul that powered the Void.

I thought of Benito and Maria, the way they had simply morphed into the Other at his will, disappearing from tangible existence. A sob burst out from my body, and with my focus on the Void, I felt it for the first time. It was like a breath within me, but it did not come from my lungs. It seemed to flutter against my ribcage, crying out desperately, anger and helplessness coiling around it as it moved. My sobs grew stronger and fear filled me as I realized what this fluttering breath within me was. It was Stefan's soul. I was already connected to the Void.

The strangled sound of my sobs sounded in time with a chilling and otherworldly laugh that echoed from within me.

.:!*!:. later in Volterra .:!*!:.

It had been over three weeks since Vladimir and I had taken the vampire world back. There had been many uprisings, but we were containing the situation. Those that did not pledge their allegiance to the new rulers were brought in to be judged. We were still having problems with a number of vampires though. About 20 covens had disappeared only a couple days before we took back the throne, as well as a decently large number of known nomads. They seemed to be policing vampire secrecy against our wishes, like Volturi vigilantes. Any scouts we sent out went missing as well. It was not known whether they were being held as prisoners or simply being killed. Demitri was able to sense the location of some, but many others simply vanished from even his ability. Those that did not vanish (and were not subsequently presumed dead) were always on the move and always seemed to know when to move again to avoid our search parties.

There was certainly a leak in our ranks, but no matter what I did, I could not find it. I had questioned each of our people individually, and they were not lying or leaving any information out. They were all being surprisingly forthcoming. Their loyalty to the Crest had been easily abandoned. I suspected that was Chelsea's doing though. She had become one of our strongest supporters, showing her gratitude for being protected by keeping the peace among our ranks and those of the old Volturi Guard. They had been working as a single unit since day two due to her useful little gift.

Demitri surprised me the most though. Once the backbone of the Volturi Guard, he was now second only to Fyodor as top informant. He seemed frustrated by his gift being thwarted. Demitri recognized some of the vampires that seemed to always be involved in the illegal policing activities. Many of the names did not surprise me. The Cullens were often involved, as were the Denali Coven. The Amazon, Egyptian, Orlando, and Finnish Covens also came as no surprise. It seems that Amun's coven was also often involved, which did surprise me. I had thought that Amun was distrustful of Aro, but he apparently held Volturi ideology high enough to fight for it. Demitri was also convinced that the God of War was involved in much of the resistance we faced.

"Stefan, Demitri has lost Jane and Alec." Vladimir announced, worry and fury obvious on his face as he came in, followed by Demitri. "This confirms it, brother."

"I would not say that." I muttered, hesitant now. Vladimir was convinced that Aro, Caius, Marcus, and Isabella were fighting back against our ideology by using these other covens. He had sent out Jane and Alec to the last patrol near the hills where a scout of ours had gone missing. He was convinced that with their gifts, only Isabella would be able to take them out. He felt that their disappearance proved his theory.

"What else could be going on then, Stefan!? The Witch Twins would not have been taken out by the nomads in the area. Only Aro's third could have done that. When are you going to admit that they are fighting back, that they won't take our rule lying down!?" Vladimir shouted, waving his hands about. I rolled my eyes at his dramatics. Looking to Demitri, I saw him glaring at me and raised a brow in his direction.

"You should not have spared her, Count." He said darkly, surprising me. "Violence is never her first option, but you took away all chances for diplomacy. Now, the First Queen will not hesitate to burn the world down."

"If you knew what I know, Demitri, you would understand my disbelief. She has other ways of taking me down, easier ways. She does not need the secrecy." I dismissed, waving my hand in his direction.

"Since her change, she has never taken the direct approach, sir." Demitri said, his eyes full of an emotion I could not quiet place. Was that respect? Pride? Was it fear? It almost looked like all three. "Within hours of waking up from her change she defeated me in a spar and took my place as Leading General. Within her first month, she integrated herself into both the Volturi aura and the Whitlock aura. In just eleven days, she helped the Volturi take out the South, a society that stood still in its ways for two centuries. Then she turns around and plans to take the throne, but instead of a direct approach, convinces the Wolf Hunter to do it for her while she waltzed into Romania to make friends with you. Why would she just 'take you down' when she can get others to dismantle your ideology around you? Why would she kill you when she can instead make you seem weak and get the vampire world to turn against you?"

I stood in shock, not even able to hide it from Demitri. Vladimir huffed, slapping Demitri on the back before speaking. "I think you finally managed to convince him where I failed."

"She has not even been on this earth for twenty years. You give a child a hell of a lot of credit. We should be worried about the Vulture." I snapped. Demitri laughed aloud.

"Her youth makes her unpredictable and reckless, old man, and that makes her far more dangerous than Aro. It certainly makes her more dangerous than you." Demitri replied, still laughing. "She won't be afraid of doing something stupid, especially now that she feels as if she is being told what to do by you. Rebellion is what youth do best."

"Can we take her seriously now, brother? We need to move quickly to win the trust of the younger vampires in this world. Most of our kind does not remember our rule." Vladimir spoke up again, always the focused one. Demitri nodded, taking his leave, and I pursed my lips.

"We do not even know who the leak is, brother. How will we fight her when we cannot even trust our own people?" I asked, finally accepting that we needed to do something about Aro's third. I was terrified to kill her though, as she had possession of my soul. What would happen to me if she were to burn? Like it or not, we were connected now. I just had to find out what the consequences of killing her would be for me. "I think that I need to take a trip into the Void."

"Are you sure that is wise?" Vladimir questioned, shock written all over his face. "You have not done so in many ages for a reason. You know that it weakens you."

"Yes, brother. I am sure. I need some answers that I will only find there." I had barely spoken the words before I felt my veins set aflame. I gasped involuntarily at the pain, my body falling to the ground, only to find myself standing in the middle of a glorious desert.

The heat that flowed off the blanket of sand covering the earth was powerful, and the sun shown bright and strong onto the sandy floor. The desert scene before me was very familiar. There were mounds rising out of the sand sporadically in every direction. These mounds were coated in black shale and rocks, the sand that once hide everything having been eroded away before even my brother and I walked the earth. I knew that this was a perfect mirror of the Black Desert, west of the place I called home for over a thousand years… the Oryx Nome, near modern day Minya, Egypt.

I did not sparkle in the sun, and I did not expect to here. While it was a mirror of the roughly dangerous and beautiful land of my human years, it was all an illusion. I had been here enough times to allow the familiar landscape to keep me calm as the Other appeared out of a collection of the black rocks before me. My hatred and fear overtook me for only a second before my resolve steadied me again.

My brother had asked me only once about the Other's appearance and my own turmoil at the question had caused me to let loose a bit of the spectral world into the room around me. The mud walls had melted, and the firs that Vladimir had been wearing had caught fire. He had barely escaped harm that day. He had never asked me again.

Taking a mental deep breath, I met the Other's gaze. At first, when one looked upon the Other, he didn't seem to have any features at all. He looked so average and unremarkable that he was almost faceless. He had no description that matched known words. When one bravely met his gaze, and allowed their surroundings to leak away, the glamour of the fearful mind wavered. His sickly and glowing yellow eyes would flicker in and out of consciousness, and his unnaturally sharp cheekbones and gaunt face would poke into existence. His sharp, gap teeth would take shape from his lipless mouth, like the teeth on a tiger fish. He had no hair on his body. His forehead was wide and free of eyebrows or wrinkles. When he blinked it was catlike, quick and with two sets of eyelids. The top of his head dipped in a heart shape, caving in the middle to reveal a cranial spine that ran from the top of his forehead all the way down his back and connected with the feathered tail that swayed soundlessly in the air behind him without touching the ground. The rest of his body looked completely like a man's, except that his skin was a very pale, green tea color.

His toothy mouth moved when he spoke, his own speech only a breathy hissing from his throat and wide pig nose and a grinding of sharp teeth. His actual communication was purely mental, his lack of lips or tongue making human languages impossible for him otherwise.

"Stephanos, my son, welcome back." His voice caressed my mind, causing me to shiver involuntarily. My eyes closed without my permission, and when I opened them again, I could no longer see his true appearance, my fear having got the better of me. "What brings you here of your own free will?"

"You already know." I replied, my thoughts again on the predicament in Volterra. I thought on Isabella. "I need to know how to defeat her."

"Ah…" The Other whispered, his mind filling my own with images of his meeting with her. They were all tainted with feelings of longing, impatience, and glee. "She is a spectacular one, isn't she? I cannot wait until she is mine. Her soul will serve the Void far better than yours."

"But you let her go." The thought slipped before I could control it, and the Other began to laugh.

"No. I did not let her go. I gave her a rain check." He laughed out, and over his mental voice I could hear the hissing and gargling of his physical laugh. "She will either die by your hand trying to retake her mate's empire, ending up in the Void, or she will sacrifice herself to me in order to ensure your death and the reestablishment of the reign of the Volturi. Either way, she comes back to me."

"What makes you so sure she will not succeed intact?" I asked, actually curious. Could the Other see the strands of time?

"Because as long as she is free of me, this war shall continue, and she is determined to end it, no matter the cost." The Other smiled, a widening of his mouth and a flashing of his glowing eyes. "No one knows better than you about cost, Stefan. She will pay even more dearly than you have."

I was suddenly on fire again, and I screamed, my eyes opening to see Vladimir sitting on the floor beside me, looking worried. I was breathing hard, the unnecessary air swirling in my lungs. I felt hot and cold at once, my skin unusually hot for a vampire, and I was experiencing shakes. My stomach rebelled, and I vomited up venom and blood. I was wrought by the phantom of fever that could no longer harm me. Vladimir said nothing. While I shivered and gasped, he guarded me. After nearly 2 days, I was able to bring myself into a sitting position. That was when my brother finally spoke.

"Was it worth it?" He asked, his voice stony and bitter. I nodded, still feeling fatigued and weak, but I was able to let out a breathy chuckle.

"It will all end soon, brother. It is only a matter of time." I replied, a dark acceptance overcoming me. I would be the owner of my soul again soon enough, one way or another. It was finally almost over.

The moment that Stefan returned from the Void, Volterra began to awaken. Her stone covered streets began to grow quiet as people suddenly decided to stay in for the day. Clouds gathered, dark and overbearing over the little city. It did not rain, but thunder began to shout from the clouds.

"War is soon, Isabella." Aro whispered in the alleyway, his cell phone to his ear as he stared up at the bloated clouds. "Are you ready?"

Having received an answer, he simply ended the call without saying goodbye. He bent down and touched the ground between a couple of cobblestones on the street. The dirt seemed to hum with power in response. Oh yes. War was soon. He was far surer of it than he had been all those years ago right before he had led his coven into Romania. The hills of Velathri had an ancient power to them, and they were his home… his birthright. This time, fighting here, he was invincible.

Marcus was trying to be quiet a couple blocks down where he was standing watch over me. About 2 hours ago, I had told the Brothers that I needed some time alone and would be back by morning. Apparently, Marcus had followed so that I would not be alone. I was trying to pretend I didn't notice him. Aro didn't like all the alone time I seemed to need recently. I had to make sure he didn't know what I had been doing for the last couple weeks though.

I refused to tell them the whole situation. Aro was under the impression that I was going to wait until the final battle to give Stefan his soul back, we would burn him, and this war would finally be over like I wanted. I couldn't bring myself to tell him that it wouldn't be that simple. We were going to make our first big move in just 32 hours though, so I knew I had to get my own plan going.

Sighing, I began the process of centering myself. Closing my eyes, I opened my senses while making sure to stay focused with my shield. Over the last couple weeks, I had been experimenting some more with my shield. Turns out that shielding a lot of people is very hard to do, and I could only hold five people under my shield until it took too much focus to do other things. Creating one shield over large groups was much easier, but shielding individual minds was harder. I had to keep four up now though as well as one over me in order to keep the whereabouts of those that had escaped to join us a secret. Jane, Alec, Felix, and Renata had all joined us slowly over the last 15 days in order to feed us information.

Not that we needed it from them. In my personal experimentation with my shield, I had discovered something else. I could actually let my shield down for small moments to let the power of the Void from Stefan's soul into me. It not only enhanced my senses, it also allowed me to do the exact things that Stefan had bragged about when I had gone to Romania. If I was focused, visions of the future would come to me, I could tell lie from truth, and I had no doubt that used as raw power, I could use it to kill.

Most importantly, I would get random glimpses of his plans. Those Romanians were so concerned about finding the leak when it was Stefan himself, not that he knew it. In my relaxed and focused state, I got more little flashes of thought. Stefan was feeling recovered from his trip back into the Void. They were going to wait for us to go to them. They knew we were coming now. It was inevitable to him. I opened my eyes. It was time. They were ready for us, and I was as ready as I would ever be.

A.N.: Oh dear… so about all that (literally YEARS). I would apologize, but I am not really all that sorry. I entered my upper class years in college and got crazy busy. I got married. I moved across the country. I got a job with weird hours. So yeah… about that. Sorry, not sorry, I guess. I am kinda back now? Kinda. HI! This story has been all over the place plot-wise in my head. I am also working on like four others as well (on my phone at work. Don't tell my boss.), so I am getting it done slowly. I have like three different possible endings planned for this one. My hope is that as I fill the blanks in between here and the end, that the best ending will become obvious. That is what tends to happen to me. My stories write themselves. It is nice to be posting again after so long. Let's see where this goes. You guys willing to get back on the inconsistent EJ12212012 fanfic train after all this time? LOL