Chapter 38
I DO NOT OWN TWILIGHT OR CHARACTERS
"The Volturi are on their way. They're going to be here in three days, on the day of the seventh Spring storm… And they're coming with an army."
Three days ago Alice spoke those words to her.
Three whole days had passed of total and complete preparation. All night and day they spent strategizing, running through last second training, drilling the plan they'd come up with into each others skulls over and over and over. They spent three days hunting the animal population practically to death, not to mention the crime rate of Forks was at an all time low, having also been hunted to near nonexistence by all the vampires working hard to be at full strength.
Three days of being with Alice and her family for what could possibly be the last time. Three days of wishing she could tell her father goodbye, just in case. Tell him she loved him one more time, and call her mother up in Phoenix to tell her the same. Three days of wondering about where her friends would go when they graduated a month from now and wishing she could have been there to walk the stage and get her diploma with them.
Three days.
Seventy-two hours had never gone by so fast for Bella.
Now she stood in a wide open field of softly swaying grass as the sun shone gray light through thick, boiling clouds. They crackled ominously, as if God himself were ready for war. Still, the day seemed too bright despite the storm rolling in.
She was surrounded by the Cullens and the nomads. The wolves stood all throughout their meager crowd, each partnered off with a vampire, their fur swaying like the grass with the rain scented breeze. To her right stood Alice, who gazed out over the field, her eyes glassy and far away, peering into the future, watching the Volturi with all she had.
Three days ago, when the first vision had struck, Alice explained to them what was going to happen. The Volturi were finally ready to fight. They would fly into Forks en masse, on the day of this seventh Spring storm, which promised to be nasty and loud. There would be so much thunder and lightning that it would drown out the equally loud sounds of vampire on vampire combat, so as not to alert the nearby Forks population.
They had unblocked themselves to allow Alice to see this out of pure show of strength. The Volturi didn't do sneak attacks, didn't try to hide the fact that they were going to come after you. They weren't afraid in the slightest, and their pride would never let them do anything else but boldly and totally boast complete domination.
Probably because that's what they were used to.
Bella watched Alice, feeling far too calm even as electricity danced in the sky and in the air as they all stood together silently, awaiting what fate would bring, for the Volturi to walk from the trees on the far side of the clearing with the hundred vampire soldiers Alice promised they would have.
She admired her, even now, always. Alice's apple cheekbones, her soft heart shaped lips, the sway of her short black hair over a perfect jawline, and those expressive golden eyes, peering into what was only known to her second sight.
Though Bella adored that beautiful shade of golden in Alice's eyes, she wished with all her heart that it was bright blue instead. She'd tried to convince Alice to drink her blood because she knew it made her stronger, tried to convince everyone to drink from her, but she was flat out refused, much to her frustration.
Nobody wanted to risk weakening her in any way, though Bella couldn't remember feeling weakened at all when Alice fed from her. The look Alice gave her when she suggested doing it again was so furious that she couldn't even make an argument for it. All she wanted was to give these people the best chance she could to live… Give Alice whatever she could to help her survive the oncoming battle.
But she was rebuffed, thoroughly and utterly by everyone. Rosalie told her to stop trying to be a self sacrificing idiot because it was completely counterproductive to the entire plan, which was not what Bella was trying to do, but whatever.
She reluctantly pried her eyes away from Alice when she felt a cold, wet nose nudge at her hand. Leah slid her muzzle up under Bella's palm with a soft woof as Bella turned to her and smiled lightly into Leah's wolfen face.
She rubbed her muzzle gently and Leah rumbled what Bella took to be words of comfort before giving her palm a little lick and then stretching out her front legs with a long, doggy groan of satisfaction.
Then she plopped down on the grass with a sigh as if to say, This is boring.
Bella couldn't help but laugh at her friend's gall as several wolves and vampires alike looked around at her in disbelief.
Leave it to Leah to make their dramatic pre-battle stare into the distance a joke.
"Being a dog doesn't mean you get to kiss my girlfriend, Lassie. Do it again and I'm going to kick your ass after we kick the Volturi's," Alice said without even looking over, apparently not as lost in her visions as they'd thought.
"Really? I don't think that counts, Alice," Bella grinned despite herself as Leah snorted in response.
"It counts," Alice replied, but the corner of her mouth quirked up lightly.
My girls, Bella thought fondly, and tried to ignore the way her heart ached fearfully for them.
"Man, Leah is right. Where the hell are these goons?" Emmett sighed, the tension broken by their banter. He stretched his huge muscles as well and then shook his arms out.
"They sure do like to take their sweet time," Edward muttered, his arms crossed as he peered off into the horizon.
"What if they don't even show?" Rosalie said, buffing her nails idly on her own marble skin. Her show of disinterest was just that, however; a show.
"Oh, they're coming," Alice murmured softly. "You don't have to worry about that…"
Everyone glanced at her nervously, Bella included.
"Just stick to the plan," Carlisle said calmly, noticing the way everyone tensed back up.
"The Volturi's hubris is their biggest weakness. This is only further proof of it," Esme added.
"No, their biggest weakness is that they're a bunch of pussies and we're gonna kick their ass!" Emmett whooped, apparently eager for the fight. He was echoed by several barks from the wolves, notably Embry and Quil, who seemed to have taken a liking to the biggest Cullen because of their mutual love for fighting and comic books, despite previous altercations. All that training together seemed to have bonded at least some of the two species.
They would never admit it, but that didn't matter much in the end. It was obvious that the meatheads (Leah's words, not Bella's) had all taken a liking to each other.
"Emmett," Esme admonished, but he and Jasper were sharing twin cocky smirks.
Bella wished she had all their confidence. Right now she just really felt like she needed to pee.
"Stick to the plan, Em," Edward reminded him intensely, never once looking away from the tree line where Alice promised the Volturi would come from.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I got it. Protect Bella and kill everything. No biggie. Trust me, no one's getting to Bells through me. And especially not Alice. Right Pixie Sticks?"
Emmett had adopted Leah's nickname for the smallest Cullen with gusto, much to her annoyance, but Alice only allowed a smirk to spread her lips slowly, one that did wonders both for Bella's anxiety and her libido.
God, she was sexy when she was dangerous, and she looked so, so dangerous with that smirk on her face.
"Right," Alice agreed and tossed him a cocky look of her own. Emmett grinned at her, and Bella didn't know how she was going to be able to stand losing any one of the Cullens for any reason today.
I won't. None of us is going to die here, she thought vehemently. I refuse to let that happen.
Bella noticed Edward looking at her and when she looked back, he gave her a tight nod that was meant to agree with her and reassure her at the same time.
"Hubris goes both ways, children," Jane broke in with a sneer from nearby.
"My foot is about to go both ways up your ass," Rosalie sneered back at her, to a general muttering of agreement from the surrounding masses.
"That doesn't even make sense you empty headed fool."
"I'll show you empty headed real fuckin' quick-"
"Enough!" Carlisle barked at them, cutting across Rosalie. "Not now, not here. Control yourselves, all of you!"
Bella was silently agreeing with him when she felt a gentle tug on her pants leg. She peered around and saw Omi gazing up at her with shimmery red eyes. She knew exactly what the little girl wanted and it broke her heart that she couldn't give it to her.
"I can't pick you up right now sweet girl. I'll carry you around all you want later, okay?" Bella told her softly.
"I'm scared," Omi whispered as if the whole clearing couldn't hear her.
Bella bit her lip and tried to ignore the trembling in her hands.
Me too, Omi. Me too…
She couldn't tell her that though.
"Don't be. Everything's gonna be fine. You've seen fights before, right? You've even been in them before. And you always made it out just fine. You're a real soldier," Bella encouraged her, but Omi just shook her head.
"Not with Aro. He's mad, isn't he? Mad at me and Jane…" Omi whimpered, nibbling at the tip of her thumb.
Bella hesitated. Now was not the time for Omi to freak out. Everyone was watching them anxiously, afraid of exactly that. If Omi panicked and ran or lost her mind, they were so done for. She had to choose her words so very carefully.
"Yeah, he's mad, but it doesn't matter cause we're gonna kick his butt," Bella grinned as she crouched down next to Omi and pulled her hand away from her mouth to hold it in her own.
"No you're not. No one kicks Aro's butt," Omi said worriedly.
Fair point. Still couldn't agree with her though.
"I do. I kicked the Volturi's butts before, didn't I? You remember. I'm really strong, and so is my family. We're gonna be just fine," Bella cajoled her gently. "And you see all these big bad wolves? Aren't they scary?"
Omi looked around at all the wolves and nodded shyly, nervously.
"And they're all on our side. You know what their favorite meal is? Vampires. But not just any vampire. Special ones. Volturi vampires," Bella whispered as if it were some huge revelation and Omi's eyes widened. The wolves around her snorted but didn't do much else as Bella continued to grin at Omi.
"I'm still scared. Aro's really mean when he's angry. He's gonna kill me. And Jane. And you. I don't want him to kill me, Ms. Bella. I don't want him to kill you either. You're the only one that's ever nice to me and you're really pretty and you remind me of my mommy even if I can't remember her anymore."
Oh fuck. Oh fuck, her heart just swelled and burst three times over.
Don't cry, Bella, don't you cry.
Bella had to take several large breaths to keep from bursting into tears and pulling Omi into her arms to hug her forever.
"He's not going to kill you, Omi. I won't let anything happen to you, I swear. You just stay right next to me, right with me when the fighting starts and I promise no one's going to hurt you," Bella vowed and squeezed the immortal child's hand as tightly as she dared. "Can you do that for me?"
Omi nodded rapidly.
"Yeah, sweet girl?" Bella tilted her head at her and tweaked her nose. Omi giggled and nodded some more, her mood flipping like she had bipolar disorder. "Atta girl."
Omi may have been crazy but she was still a little girl at heart.
Bella stood back up and knew deep in her soul that she meant it. She couldn't let anything happen to Omi, either. She'd never be able to live it down. She could have just turned the girl back and sent her somewhere safe, but instead she'd brought her here, and now she was going to make sure nothing hurt her.
She also had to protect Alice and Leah and Carlisle and Esme and Edward and Rosalie and Jasper and how the hell were they going to do this again?
Bella ignored the fact that everyone was staring at her. Ignored everyone except Alice, that is.
"You'd make a great mother, you know," Alice told her quietly, watching her with blatant adoration.
Bella blushed and rubbed her hands on the sides of her thighs, unsure whether to be flattered or embarrassed.
"So would you," was all she could think to say and Alice laughed lightly.
"Have you ever considered adoption?" Alice inquired playfully with a faux hopeful look on her face.
The thought of having a family with Alice bloomed inside Bella and made her feel suddenly breathless. She had an image of her and Alice walking with a little girl between them, each clutching one of her tiny hands, smiling and laughing as the child -their child— skipped along. Then a picture of them standing at an altar with Alice in a gorgeous white dress as Bella lifted the veil back and saw her perfect face in all its glory.
Then a rapid series of images of Bella spending the rest of her life with Alice hit her. Each one filling her heart with hope and love and a fierce determination that blotted out all the fear she'd been feeling lately like stars bursting to life into a pitch black sky.
She realized then that she was taking too long to respond and that her eyes were starting to water. She shook herself out of her day dream daze and saw Alice gazing at her with growing concern.
God I really love this girl… Forever and ever. Forever ever…
"Isn't it a little too early to be considering kids already?" Bella finally said with a grin, feeling happy despite the circumstances.
Alice's responding giggle was cut off by Jasper's interruption.
"I hate to break up this conversation, but they're here."
When Bella whipped around, she knew he didn't hate to break it up in the slightest, because he wasn't looking out at the stirring tree line, but directly at her and Alice. His eyes were dark amber and the fighting hadn't even started yet.
Jasper…
Something in them seemed to swirl threateningly, but Bella got the feeling he didn't even know it when he quickly turned away from her, his jaw locked up tightly. A sense of foreboding that wasn't entirely because of the Volturi fluttered in Bella's stomach but she didn't get the chance to ponder on it because the hour of truth had finally arrived.
The Volturi came out of the trees in a long, long line that nearly knocked the breath out of her.
She had never realized how large a number a hundred really was until she saw a hundred vampires floating onto the field, each of them dressed in all black like a bunch of guillotine executioners. Their very presence seemed to open up the sky as the rain started to come down in a heavy drizzle.
She watched several of them pop open umbrellas but not to protect themselves. They held them out over those that wore the Volturi royalty black and red cloaks even as they got wet themselves.
Bella expected to feel terrified, expected to want to run and had already braced to fight the feeling, but it never came. Instead, as they came closer and closer, all she felt was a burning, sparkling hatred, swirling in her belly like absinthe, filling her up with fire even under the cool sprinkle of rain.
These were the people who had caused all of her misery, who had taken her life from her, tried to kill her and now wanted to kill everyone she loved, who wanted to burn down her home and slaughter the innocent as if they had the right, as if it were justified.
When her fists clenched and her muscles bunched up and the rubber band of her instincts began to stretch back like a slingshot, it was not with fear. It was with unbridled hatred and determination to kill these people.
For everything they'd done and wanted to do. For everyone she knew and loved.
And hell, for her own self too. She had really been looking forward to graduating with her classmates, damn it!
Her eyes flickered quickly over every member of the Volturi that wore the cloak when they came to a stop a respectable fifty feet away. She recognized Marcus, Caius and Aro almost immediately as they looked exactly as they did in the portrait that resided in the Cullen foyer.
Marcus stood to the left of Aro. He was tall with dark hair and an aged look like she'd never seen before on another vampire, as if all his years actually taxed him like they did no other. He looked as if he'd rather be anywhere else in the world right then. He wouldn't be as much of a threat as the other two.
Caius stood to the right of Aro. Even from here, seeing him made Bella's lip curl back. His white blond hair framed his face that would have been handsome if the ugly look of arrogance and disgust for all of them hadn't marred it.
And between them stood the leader of all her worst nightmares.
Aro was smiling… Almost benevolently. Something about him made Bella's skin crawl despite of or maybe because of his genial expression. His skin seemed translucent somehow, like paper, and his devious eyes were a milky red. His cloak was threaded through with gold where the others were not. She sensed the power radiating from him in a subtle way, as if he didn't need to say or do anything for one to know how ancient he was.
So this was the man that had caused all of her pain. Seeing him didn't frighten her; it only seemed to steel her resolve.
What a curious, lucky thing…
As if he noticed her unwavering gaze, his eyes met hers.
A chilly finger slid down Bella's spine, leaving goosebumps in its wake.
Okay, yes, she was a little afraid of him. She would be stupid not to be.
But she also hated him. Hated him so much it didn't matter. Hated him so much it was like the fear wasn't even there.
Bella felt a peculiar sensation then. Like an age old sixth sense people sometimes have when they sense something's going to happen. It was usually vague, unhelpful, just a whisper of what might come, good or bad. But not this time.
I'm going to kill you, she thought, looking directly into Aro's eyes. No matter what else happens, win or lose, live or die, I am going to kill you.
As if he'd heard her, or maybe because her unwavering glare irked him, his smile tightened. A crack of thunder rang out and lighting arced across the sky as the rain began to really come down, soaking them all through. It broke the tense stare off between their little militia and this frightening army.
Beside her, Leah finally stood back up as Aro spread his arms wide and spoke.
"And so here we are!" Aro declared with a beam in a simple inside voice despite the growing volume of the storm and the distance between all of them. No vampire or wolf would struggle to hear him with their hyper senses.
Somehow his obvious flare for the dramatic took away some of his intimidation. Bella found herself wanting to laugh at the stupid smile on his face, creepy as it was.
What a douche-bag.
"Two opposing forces at a stand still. One must wonder how it really all came to this," he said, his smile fading with a sadness that Bella almost could have believed was real. Then his eyes trailed over her once more with a gleam. "Old friends and loyal subjects turned mutinous… For one pesky, pesky girl."
Bella's gaze never wavered from him. She didn't let him see how that pierced through her when she knew she agreed with him deep down.
"Do not place your own guilt upon our shoulders, Aro. You and yours are alone are responsible for where we stand now. You can still walk away. This needn't come to violence," Carlisle replied, always the voice for peace, even now.
"My dear Carlisle, you know it is far too late for that," Aro tsk-ed and lowered his hands. "You all had the chance to avoid retribution, but somehow you'd rather die like fools than give us one girl. All we require is peace of mind, a guarantee of our world being kept safe and concealed. All we needed was the life of Isabella Swan, but now we are forced to take her life and yours by force. A tragedy…"
The gleam in his milky red eyes belied his pleasure at the upcoming fight.
And then Bella realized something.
"You wanted this," she blurted. Everyone whipped their eyes onto her, surprised that she'd have the courage to speak up.
Aro merely arched an eyebrow at her.
"Wanted this? No, my dear girl. We never relish the thought of vampiric death. No, this is the last thing I wanted," he said somberly, but Bella saw through it.
"Bullshit!" she scoffed and then blushed bright red when both his eyebrows hit his hairline at her vulgarity.
"Bella," Alice hissed at her nervously, but Bella ignored her. All that hate and anger was boiling up and she couldn't seem to stop it now that she'd realized how it really was.
"You wanted this. When the Cullens told me that you'd have come for them sooner or later, I didn't believe it. But I do now. This isn't even about me. This is about control," Bella spoke slowly, gaining momentum as she did.
She felt a thousand eyes on her but ignored it, because that rage was building up and up and up. The Cullens had taught her how to control it, now she just had to do it.
"You're not here because you want to contain the secret of vampires. You're not even here because you're worried I'm a threat. You're here because they defied you. The Cullens rejected you. You… You're like a spurned little boy that got turned down for prom times ten! They didn't want to join you and your crazy tyrannical coven and that scared you. If you couldn't contain them, couldn't control them, then they had to be destroyed," Bella scowled, her fists balling up.
The rain soaked her through as Aro's smirk faded slowly.
"You know nothing of which you speak, little girl," Caius spat poisonously.
Oh, I think I do, Bella thought breathlessly as she saw the restless stirring within the Volturi. I really do…
"You wanted this. You wanted a reason to come after them. All you needed was a reason to come and get rid of them that seemed even slightly plausible so you could maintain your pretense of justice. So don't even try to make me your-your scapegoat."
How could she have ever blamed herself so utterly? These people, the Volturi would have come eventually whether Bella was in the picture or not.
"But you underestimated them. You know what you didn't want?" Bella smiled, actually smiled in the face of death, aware of how crazy she must have looked.
"You didn't want them to rise up against you. That's what you were so afraid of. And by acting the way you have, they did. So you don't get to blame us for what this has come to. Now you can either walk away or reap what you've sewn."
At this, Aro threw his head back and burst into raucous laughter. He was joined quickly by Caius and then all of them were laughing uproariously.
Bella's cheeks burned slightly but she didn't back down because Alice took hold of her hand and she felt the strength of everyone standing around her, backing her up, believing every word she spoke. It would have been more intimidating had they not looked like a bunch of cliché villains in a movie, laughing their evil villain laughs.
Again I say, what a douche-bag.
"Good lord, what a riot," Aro finally contained himself with a chortle. "What an uppity little fledgling you are, Ms. Swan. I've not seen such audacity since my own newborn days! Reap what we've sown, ha! Cheeky, aren't you?"
As quickly as his humor came, it disappeared as his eyes flashed. Again a chill ran down Bella's spine but she still didn't dare back down.
"But you are mistaken, my sweet child. The only thing I want right now is your head on a stake, and I will have it. We will not stand defiance, you are correct there. Our world depends on it. And I will not have one foolish girl ruin all we've worked to build. You have led these people astray, and for that they must all pay the ultimate price. Make no mistake, their blood is on your hands, Isabella Swan."
Something inside Bella snapped. The rubber band, the gunshot, the hot electrical wire cracking to life inside her bones, her soul, her veins, her heart.
"The only blood that's going to be on my hands is yours," she growled, her voice rough with instinct, the hair on the back of her neck rising.
The whole field tightened up. The wolves snarled and tossed their heads, shifted forward. The nomads and the Cullens all crouched down slowly, their eyes darkening. The Volturi line held still, but Bella saw the way many of them tensed up nervously.
Here we go, Bella thought, her stomach knotting up. This is it.
Aro only smiled delicately, as if all of this amused him.
"And your head will be in mine," he replied lightly with that eerie smile of his.
"If you want my head so badly… How bout you come and fucking get it."
Emmett let out a whoop as several wolves snarled and the vampires jeered at the Volturi. Bella couldn't help the slight burst of confidence it gave her.
Aro narrowed his eyes at her, then raised his right hand.
"As you wish," he said and crooked his fingers just slightly, so slightly Bella almost missed it.
The Volturi soldiers all began to move at once. Together they began to draw weapons of all kinds. Long swords and short daggers slid free from concealment. Whips unfurled from hips and a few spears were brandished. Bella watched them pull small silver objects free of their pockets with their other hands.
Her mouth went dry as a hundred lighters clicked to life even in the roar of a strengthening storm. Shielding the lighters with their pale hands, they touched their flames to the Volturi's perfected version of napalm and set their arsenal on fire.
Rain hissed as it spattered against the flames and made their blazing weapons steam ominously, like noxious gas.
Bella's breath hitched with her first real rush of fear. She felt everyone around her draw the same anxious breath, felt them shift with terror of the potent element.
Holy. Shit.
They hadn't seen this. The Volturi hadn't given away all their aces, apparently. Already she felt everyone edging back, absolutely petrified.
And yet…
"The napalm is strong, but not that strong. They won't be able to keep that going for long," Carlisle called out quickly to reassure all of them. It was enough to stop them all from bolting, and luckily so, because Aro was done waiting.
"This won't take long," Aro said and then held his arms out to his soldiers. "Well, you heard Ms. Swan… Go get them."
Alice had told her when it all happened, it would happen fast. There would be no slow motion rush at each other like in the movies. It would be an instant clash, absolute chaos. Unbeknownst to Omi, Bella had told her exactly what Alice had told her before they'd reached the battlefield.
"I won't let anything happen to you, Bella. I swear to you. You just stay right next to me, right with me when the fighting starts and I promise no one's going to hurt you…"
With a roar of sound from either side that was echoed by a bone jarring clap of thunder, the two opposing forces surged towards each other. In a heartbeat they were ten feet away from each other. Wolves leaped forward, maws wide and snarling, a fearless front line. The nomads with their claws outstretched, fangs out, black eyes wild. The Volturi poised to cut through all of them like a hot knife through butter with their blazing weapons.
And Bella saw it all as she soared above them like a bird caught in a maelstrom, sprung forward by Garrett and Marshall's powerful arms. In her own arms she held Omi, whose face burrowed deep into the crook of her neck, terrified.
For a brief moment time stood still as her eyes fed her brain a lifetime of information in a split second and she entered that space where only feeling and instinct mattered.
Then she slammed back to the earth in a spray of mud between all of them and screamed, "NOW, OMI!"
A rush of pure power flooded Bella's entire being. She lassoed it, felt her own gift surge up so strongly her whole body seemed to vibrate. She took everything Omi gave her and with a soaring sensation stronger than the one she'd had flying through the air, she threw her arms out with her hands splayed wide and exploded the air around her, concentrating on four people in particular.
The blast of her gift combined with Omi's vaulted the entire Volturi front line off their feet as they came careening towards her. They went down like dominoes as Bella's gut clenched so hard she thought it exploded too.
On her knees she watched as four red lined hoods fell free from four stunned faces. Solomon, Holly, Mark, and Benjamin all struggled to their feet in the pouring rain… Powerless.
Then they were blocked out by the still oncoming army.
Bella got to her feet just in time to hear the loudest, most horrendous boom echo around her as the two sides clashed and thunder tore the sky apart in a wild white flash.
She didn't get the chance to catch her breath, to dwell on the soft ache in her bones, because she was suddenly fighting for her life. Three vampires came straight for her as the air was rent with screams and snarls and howls.
Bella immediately entered the eye of the storm. She had learned how to control it better and it was probably all that saved her life. As a man came towards her, intent on running her through with his flaming spear, she sidestepped and grabbed its shaft before she wrenched him off of his feet with it. She flipped him and he hit the ground at the same time that Emmett came barreling in and stomped so hard on his skull that it collapsed.
There was no time to marvel at the horror of it because she had to whirl out of the way when the flaming blade of a sword made a swipe at her head. The woman wielding it screamed like a banshee when Alice appeared out of the bedlam before her and came flipping over her head like a warrior acrobatic.
There was a dull crack that could hardly be discerned from the rest of the cracking cacophony going on around them as Alice took the woman's head off her shoulders mid flip, hit the ground, and ducked.
The blazing dagger the third man swung missed her by a hair and Bella snarled with fury at the sight of it, but a second later Jasper hit the man like a train.
Bella couldn't see what he did to him because more people were still coming and a stray werewolf came tearing past and blocked it, but she did see his head go flying up a second later.
And now the full tide of the battle broke over all of them. Bella couldn't even tell who was who in all the chaos and the rain but as people surged around her, she knew who was trying to kill her and who wasn't fairly well.
Which seemed to be every single member of the Volturi. She was clearly the focus and the entire fight centered around her. It was honestly terrifying. If it hadn't been for the Cullens surrounding her, Bella wasn't sure she could have even fought through the fear of it. She was sure the only reason she survived of her own accord was because of her second gift, which told her exactly what she could and should to do live. She had learned how to fight well but not that well.
Again and again the Volturi came at her. In droves they came swarming. She dodged, twisted, and screamed animalistically with her fury. Fire came streaking through the rainy weather like flashes of death, dodged and avoided only barely.
It seemed impossible, but surrounded by everyone she loved, they held off the assault. She saw Emmett bellowing and clothes-lining four people at once with his massive arms. She watched Carlisle and Esme tear those who came at them limb from limb. She saw Edward surrounded by the Denali women as they slaughtered soldier after soldier. She watched Rosalie bitch slap one man so hard he was knocked off his feet before she kicked his head free from his neck.
And beside her, always right beside her, was Alice. Like a fucking goddess, a stone faced warrior queen, Alice fought beside her. They kicked, punched, and dodged in an effortless tandem, always acutely aware of where the other was, of who was trying to kill them, of who was the biggest threat to the life of the other.
A woman leaped at Alice like a bat out of hell and caught Bella's foot in her face. A man tried to jump on Bella's back when she turned it, flaming dagger poised to pierce it, and Alice turned and dropped him in a merciless blur.
"COME ON THEN!" Emmett bellowed over the madness. "Come on!"
His cry was echoed by all the others, filling Bella's vampire with a vigorous confidence. She screamed with them, but beside her, Alice made not a sound, her face ice cold, black eyes blazing.
Unbelievably, they were pushing the Volturi back. They were better fighters than the Volturi foot soldiers by miles. All the flames on their precious weapons started to go out. They began to back away, frightened of the monstrous wolves towering over them, bearing down on them as they watched their comrades come apart. Many of them had already fallen. They actually looked poised to run.
Bella's initial blast had been enough to give them an edge. She'd stopped their most gifted from making an impact. They were using this window of advantage to its fullest potential, and had lost almost nobody yet.
But as quickly as they gained their edge, they lost it.
The ground beneath their feet shook-
And buckled.
Like an earthquake, everyone hit the ground as it was rent apart by some unseen force. Bella cried out for Alice, felt their hands brush for a split second before she keeled backwards under the sinking earth. Her head cracked on a rock and a ringing filled her ears.
Heart hammering, Bella waited in the maelstrom of her mind for it to stop. It took a long moment, but when it did, she felt her heart sink. Looking around, she saw the field had been rippled to pieces and she now lay in a small depression in the earth.
Standing in the dead bodies of the Volturi foot soldiers were four cloaked figures.
"Enough!" the man Jane had identified as Benjamin snarled, his fists clenched. His middle Eastern face was filled with rage as he glowered on all of them.
Around her, everyone struggled back to their feet, stunned by the quake. Bella wiped mud from her eyes and stood. Her head hurt. Her arm throbbed where a stray blade had sliced her bicep open and her shin ached where she'd smashed it on someone's face.
But none of that mattered. She looked around desperately and was relieved to see all of the Cullen's were alive, if not unharmed. Most of them were okay save minor injuries like hers, but Emmett was cradling Rosalie close, whose leg kinked the wrong way as if it were broken, and half his face seemed to be missing. They were the closest to Benjamin and had probably taken the brunt of the blast.
"You will defy the noble Volturi no longer!" Benjamin continued. "You have erred in challenging their benevolence and now we will punish you for it!"
"Oh no," Alice whispered beside Bella. Bella followed her gaze, felt her stomach drop out when she saw who stood beside him, small and crying.
It was Omi.
"No," Bella breathed. "How…?"
Fuck, this is my fault. I should have paid attention to her after the first blast. I thought she would stick with me!
Bella hadn't been able to keep up with the immortal child with a hundred people intent on killing her. Neither had anyone else, because they'd all been fighting for their lives. Somehow Omi had slipped away, probably terrified, and ran right back to the people who had always controlled her.
"This ends now," Benjamin declared. "Your gift has failed and ours have returned."
"You think that's all I had?" Bella yelled at him as their rag tag group huddled up again. "You think I can't take them right back?"
"Do you really have it in you, Ms. Swan?" a woman hissed like a slithering snake from beside Benjamin. She must have been Holly. Her hair fell in curly waves despite the pouring rain. Her eyes were the brightest red Bella had ever seen.
"Can you really take everything from us and still have enough left in you to fight? To survive another assault like that?" another man -Solomon— drawled, standing at an imposing six feet and 10 inches tall.
"I don't think so. You can take away our gifts and be too weak to protect yourself, or let us keep them and die even more quickly," Mark, the last of them cackled with the same bright red eyes and curly hair as his sister.
"That is, if you can still take them," Solomon added. "Can you, Ms. Swan? If Omi is now ours once more?"
Omi cried loudly, shaking in the rain like an urchin kitten. Bella could feel the fear stirring around her. This was bad. They'd been counting on Omi. If they could have killed the gifted ones with two waves of her and Omi's gifts together, they could have easily taken on Marcus, Aro, and Caius alone.
But Omi had slipped through their fingers. She had slipped through Bella's fingers.
Bella could already feel the toll of her gift. Her bones ached, her soul weakened. It took so much more when Omi was backing her. Could she do it again without Omi's help? And they were right. If she did it again, she'd be too weak to even move. She was panting. She clutched at her throbbing chest, where it felt like she'd been burned.
Whatever she was, it most certainly was not a vampire. Her stamina wouldn't last forever, not like the rest of them.
She felt the weight of these people's lives hanging on her as they all looked to her in desperation, hoping to see her standing strong, ready to blast them all to hell again.
This was really, really bad…
"Omi!" Jane barked suddenly. "Come back here, you dumb little brat! Now!"
Omi's face went from terrified crying to furious snarling in a split second.
"No! I hate you Jane! Fuck you!" she screamed at the top of her little voice, practically demonic.
"You stupid shit… They're going to kill you!" Jane yelled.
"Fuck you!" Omi screamed again. "Fuck you fuckyoufuckyou!"
"Omi," Bella cried desperately, intervening before Jane could make their situation even worse. "Omi, baby, please…"
She has to listen to me. She has to!
Omi stopped and looked at her, trembling. She looked at Bella with her wide eyes, her bald head gleaming in the rain. She flinched when lightning flashed, followed instantly by more thunder.
"Come back to me, sweet girl. You don't want to do this," Bella pleaded, stretched out a hand and took a small step towards them. Omi hesitated, whimpering.
Omi gave a mew of fear that broke Bella's heart.
"Aro will kill me," she sobbed and shook her head rapidly.
"He'll kill you anyway, darling," Bella said quickly.
I don't want her to die but I can't let her get everyone killed either, Bella thought in terrified frustration.
"Lies and slander!" Aro spoke for the first time since the fight had started. He still stood thirty feet back, under an umbrella held by a nameless man. "Do not listen to them my sweet Omi. When have I ever hurt you? I fed you and kept you safe. Jane has only ever caused you pain…"
Omi waffled back and forth as Bella snarled.
Aro was right even if he was twisting it, which meant Omi was going to listen to him over her. She had to stop this and stop it now.
"He's lying!" she shouted. "You know he is Omi! Jane may have hurt you but I never did! And I never scared you the way he does!"
"There is a good reason for that. How long have you known me, Omi? You have seen what happens to those who defy me. You have known Isabella for such a little time. Who do you think tells you the truth? Who do you think is really stronger? Look at her now, already too weak to cast her spell again. And here I stand, untouched…"
"Because you're a coward!" Bella screamed at him furiously. Indeed, he sat back with Marcus, Caius and Sulpicia, having not moved an inch.
"Because they can't touch me," Aro countered. "Fight for me as you always have Omi. Give Sulpicia your strength as you have so many times before and all will be forgiven. You know I always keep my word. But join them, and I promise retribution will be swift."
It happened so quickly.
"I'm so sorry Ms. Bella," Omi sobbed.
Despair swelled in Bella's heart when Sulpicia immediately stiffened up.
"She's ours," Caius laughed. "And so is this battle."
Oh fuck.
"No, Omi…" Bella whispered.
"Now you burn," Benjamin declared coldly. The Volturi soldiers left rallied around their leaders, and as much as their numbers had been cut down in the initial assault, there still seemed to be so many of them left.
The nomads and the wolves were wounded, some badly. Though nobody had died yet, some looked close to it. Leon still stood tall and strong at the head of his pack, who seemed shaken but steady, but Jacob and the Quielutes looked awful.
Leah's muzzle was cut open and bleeding into her mouth, but she never stopped snarling, unafraid even in the face of what was rapidly becoming less like a chance to live and more like certain death.
That was comforting, at least.
"And how do you plan to burn us in the rain? Your fires have all gone out," Carlisle replied quickly as their own morale seemed to physically drop in spades right before Bella's eyes. The alarm in their ranks was quickly reaching panic levels.
"It never rains forever," Solomon said softly. "Even God let up eventually…"
Before anyone could say or do anything, Alice spoke up.
"He's right," she breathed. "The storm has almost passed us."
Cold, blatant fear made Bella feel violently ill when she realized that the rain was already letting up. It had gone from a downpour to a gentle pattering. Within the minute, it had become a soft sprinkle. The thunder echoed farther and farther away.
It was enough for Benjamin.
Flames burst to life in his palms and Bella felt more than saw their little ragtag group flinch as one.
She saw his eyes glow, and what Volturi members were left let out cries of delight. They were even in numbers now, but not in gifts.
The dark clouds were blowing away, slowly but surely. Soft gray light pierced the sky sprinkling them gently.
"They planned it this way," Alice said. Bella had never heard her voice so anxious in her entire life. "We only had a limited amount of time to break their ranks…"
"Kill her loved ones first," Aro called out as if he were a casual baseball coach at a friendly game. "So Ms. Swan can understand the error of her arrogance before she dies."
Bella felt something hot and heavy brush her arm and felt Leah snarl beside her.
"I have to get to Omi. Which means I have to get close to them," Bella said quickly as they tightened up their formation. Wolves growled and the nomads hissed. "Alice, Leah, we have to punch a hole to her. I can do it with my other gift, but we have to do it fast."
It was the only plan Bella could come up with, and as no one else seemed to be offering up any ideas that weren't totally suicidal, it was all she had.
Unfortunately, Solomon heard her.
"You won't get close," Solomon promised.
"But we sure will," Mark cackled, and within the blink of an eye he was in front of her.
Bella felt his fist crack her across the jaw and just like that the war was back on. Mark was gone so fast it was like he'd never been there, howling with laughter as Bella struggled to come back to her senses when the Volturi were suddenly on them.
Though there were less people than before, the bedlam was even worse. They were now fighting with even more ferocity than before.
"Stay beside me, Bella!" Alice screamed. "Stay right next to me! Leah, let's go!"
And though they were holding their own against the weaker soldiers, Bella still saw, through the hellishness, allies dropping like flies. Fists punched through chests, wolves yelped high pitched yelps of pain.
Benjamin hurled fireballs through the air that set people on fire like kindling. Bella heard them shrieking as they went up in flames. Zafrina's friend went down with a dagger sticking out of the back of her head as Zafrina howled with rage. The Irish collapsed with no limbs and no heads.
Kate and Tanya screamed when Irena's head went flying through the air, the sound of Mark's maniacal laughter following it as he danced around them, uncatchable. Holly stalked towards them and froze Tanya with a piercing stare.
Mark leaped for her and Edward, always the fastest Cullen, got in the way at the last second. He was caught in a headlock and Mark looked puzzled for a moment, before he laughed again. Edward met Bella's eyes for the last time when Mark snapped his neck so hard his head spun around. His body hit the ground and his sightless eyes watched the clouds above drifting away.
The Cullens all screamed, Bella included.
No. NO!
There was no chance to mourn, to grieve, because they were still all fighting to survive. The wolves were being overwhelmed as they tried to protect their vampiric partners because Solomon was as animalistic as them. He lunged at them fearlessly, wrapped them in his long arms and broke their ribs like toothpicks just by hugging them in his morbid embrace. He smacked their muzzles and snapped the bone inside. He got his arms around one particularly small one and squeezed till a high pitched shriek left the wolf's mouth and he collapsed, dead in seconds.
A howl shot up, so broken, so hurt that Bella turned and saw Leah with her head thrown back and knew without a doubt the fallen wolf had been her brother Seth.
Oh no. Oh no…
Then Solomon turned towards Esme and Carlisle and began to stalk towards them purposefully.
"Leah!" Bella cried out to her, but it was no use. Leah turned from her and Alice and torpedoed towards Solomon like a freight train. Jacob, Leon and the Cullens all converged towards the center of this and because of that so did the gifted members of the Volturi.
Bella lunged to follow after them instinctively, filled with hatred and wrath.
They killed Edward. They killed Seth. They're killing us. I'll kill them! I'LL KILL THEM!
"No, Bella!" Alice gasped and jerked her to a halt. "We're all going to die here! We have to get to Omi! It's the only way to save them!"
Bella turned back at Alice's plea as several Volturi members came rushing at them. Bella acted with pure rage. She headbutted one man so hard his face crunched in and grabbed the next one by the throat. His throat collapsed before Bella could even slam him into the ground as Alice dismantled the other woman in seconds.
"Follow me. Follow every move I make. Use your visions. And stay with me, no matter what. I won't lose you too," Bella ground out through clenched teeth, fighting every urge that told her not to follow that little voice so adept at saving her life and to pitch herself face first into all that fury she had inside.
Alice nodded and for the first time Bella saw real fear in her beautiful black eyes. It brought her to where she needed to be to do this.
She is not going to die here. Not my Alice, not any more of my family.
Right then, survival meant getting to Omi. The path opened up in her mind, like another eye opening.
The next group that rushed them blinked in surprise when Bella lurched forward and slid right between their legs in the mud. Alice mirrored her movements exactly, precise enough and skilled enough to see and act on her visions of Bella's choices.
They were on their feet and sprinting at the same time, side by side. Bella had eyes only for Aro and Omi. She wasn't exactly sure what they would do when they got there, but god dammit they were going to do it.
They dodged, ducked, killed their way across the battlefield as one.
Go here, not here, dodge now, swing up, swing low…
The voice never stopped whispering to her and suddenly they were free of the bedlam and sprinting pell-mell towards Marcus, Caius, Aro and Omi.
Aro watched her with unaffected apathy, but she saw the way Caius's face lit up in alarm at the fact that they were actually getting close.
"Benjamin!" he yelled.
The effect was instantaneous. One second they were running, the next the ground beneath them shook and crumpled. Bella tripped and hit the mud but Alice staggered and maintained her balance.
The next second a burst of wind shoved her off balance as Benjamin appeared and swung a fire filled fist at her face.
Alice jerked back and avoided it, but the fact remained that Bella was abso-fucking-lutely infuriated at it.
She was on her feet in a flash. With fury and wrath, Bella pulled on her gift with everything she had, determined beyond hell and heaven to peel him off of Alice and peel him off now.
Before she could even consider what she was doing, a burst of energy so strong it seared her insides shot out of her chest and hit Benjamin in the back. He twisted towards her, shocked, as the fire in his hands -unbelievably— flickered for a moment.
Aro's eyes widened briefly, stunned, as did Alice's.
A moment later his power came roaring back thanks to Omi and Sulpicia's protection, but his second of hesitation was all Bella needed.
Her hands shot out and closed around his neck. She watched his eyes bulge in sudden terror. His hands came up and clutched at her wrists, burning them viciously, but Bella didn't even flinch.
"You. Will. Not-"
With an almighty clench of her hands, his neck broke in two different directions.
"Touch her!"
Benjamin hit the ground motionless-
One of his pinky fingers twitched.
Bella didn't think about it, too riled up. Her chest heaved, aching with the effort of breathing. The strain was nothing because it meant saving Alice. She looked up and saw Aro staring at her in disbelief, but she turned to Omi, whose small face was filled with awe and a trickle of fear.
Bella knew what to do then and it had nothing to do with her second gift.
"Omi," Bella murmured and held out her hand. "Come here."
Her display was enough to convince Omi that she was stronger than the Volturi apparently, because the girl didn't even hesitate to bolt for her this time.
Atta girl, Omi.
"Stop her!" Aro snarled and Caius and Sulpicia came right after Omi. Marcus didn't move a muscle.
Omi was quick. She could have tried to convince Omi to use her power for them again, but there was no time and she couldn't take the chance that the girl would trade sides again. So Bella did the only thing she could. Omi was in Bella's arms in a heartbeat and without a second to spare, Bella's teeth sank into her throat. Omi let out a cry of fear and pain, but Bella dropped her to the ground and hissed, "Stay down!"
She didn't know how else to protect her.
Caius came right for her as Sulpicia went for Alice. Caius was one hell of a fighter, no Volturi foot soldier, and Bella was on her heels immediately, fighting for her life. She was already worn down from using her gift so recklessly and he was strong. His knuckles cracked the bones in her cheek, her ribs, her collarbone. He grabbed her by the hair and wrenched her off her feet. She came back up and kicked out his knee but he clawed at her eye, nearly blinding her as she screamed.
"Die, you wretched girl!" he hissed to her ear when he caught her from behind in a kill hold that made Bella's stomach drop out. The little voice in her head couldn't even catch up, it had happened so quickly.
Unfortunately for Caius, Sulpicia was not one hell of a fighter, was perhaps even less skilled than the foot soldiers they employed. As such Alice was there to help her almost immediately. She cut low and took out his Achilles's heel in quite the morbid fashion with one swipe of her vampiric claws.
Bella could breathe again as he collapsed with a shriek of pain. When she turned around, Alice was already stomping on his throat and pulling his head free from his shoulders in one smooth, cold, calculated motion.
She then turned and tossed it unceremoniously across the field at Aro's feet.
Because of course Alice was going to be a total badass about it.
They didn't get the chance to revel in this victory because with that sixth sense all vampires had, they turned to see the tide of the battle headed straight for them with Solomon, Mark, and Holly leading the way, murder in their eyes.
The Cullens tried to chase after them, but to Bella's horror they were too wounded to keep up. The wolves were too hurt as well, though Leon tried his damnedest on two broken back legs. They were stopped by the rest of the Volturi getting in the way and they had to fight for their own lives instead.
The sight of her loved ones in so much pain, still trying so hard to survive, to protect her, filled Bella with unbridled anger and power. She didn't move but stared down the rapidly approaching trio with utter loathing, her jaw locked.
As hurt as she was, as much as her gift had already taken from her, she still summoned it. Every fried nerve and raw muscle lit up.
"Bella!" Alice gasped when she didn't immediately move.
She needn't have worried.
When they were but an inch from them, Bella let loose. The air trembled and blew back with the force of it, knocking them off their feet like bowling pins.
Bella hit her knees as black swam in her vision. She puked as her whole body shook with the effort, tasting raspberry blood on her tongue.
"Bella," Alice breathed worriedly. Her cold hand cupped the back of Bella's neck, soothingly, but Bella wasn't done yet.
Fuck you. Fuck you, all of you. I'll kill you!
She was on her feet and moving despite the way the world kept trying to tilt the wrong way. Holly and Mark had only time to yelp as they struggled to their feet when the blur that was Bella took their heads in her hands and ripped them off.
It was unbearably satisfying. She turned to go for Solomon, but Alice was already there, twisting his head around with an awful crack. Bella thought she might have heard him begging for his life on the wind of his last words.
A rush of affection and love gushed up inside Bella for Alice. Everything hurt but nothing mattered when Alice met her eyes with solid protectiveness, adoration, a thousand emotions she could never name but never wanted to lose.
In that moment she felt like nothing could stop them. They were going to win here. Win forever and ever.
We are forever in this moment. If we never are again, we were in this moment.
Together they turned back to Aro with Bella leaning on Alice just to stay on her feet. And though her knees were trembling, threatening to give, Bella still met his eyes with a rush of triumph. Her whole body ached in all the worst ways. She was struggling to breathe and blood was dripping thickly down into her left eye, making it hard to see, but there was no mistaking the cold anger and hatred that darkened Aro's features. His red eyes went black and his sneer was absolutely sinister.
"Surrender, Aro. It's over. You've lost all your best and already the rest of them are beginning to fall," Alice called out to him but Bella had this horribly clairvoyant feeling that Aro was going to do anything but come quietly to his execution. Alice obviously felt this tenfold because her hand tightened on Bella's hip and her body posture became completely protective of the brunette.
"Must I do everything myself?" Aro hissed in response. "You think I'm simply going to lay down and die like the dogs you fight with? No, my darling Alice. I may die here, but you and your precious lover will too."
That brief moment of triumph was gone when, with that, he threw off his cloak in that dramatic flourish of his.
"Shit," Bella muttered as she remembered this wasn't over, not by a long shot, not while Aro still lived.
Death had not been avoided. In fact, they seemed to have only spit in its face.
She remembered also that though he was alone -considering Marcus seemed completely content to never move again— he was quite possibly one of the oldest vampires on the planet, which meant he was ancient, experienced, and totally powerful. Not in the way of gifts, but in raw strength and speed.
He was on them in seconds; in a lightning blur he was before them. Alice shoved her out of the way and Bella couldn't hold herself up. She stumbled sideways and watched in horror as Alice suddenly began to do everything in her power just to survive.
Left, right, up down around, left right left, Aro swung at her lover, her Alice, her lovely Alice, intent on slaughtering her. It was all Alice could do to even dodge him. He was miles ahead of any other fighter on this field, better than Garrett or Emmett or even Jasper.
No-Get up, get up! Help her!
Bella's head swam. She struggled to get up again, gasping for air. Using her gift so many times had taken so much, too much from her.
"Come now, sweet Alice," Aro crowed as they danced a deadly dance. "You cannot dance forever. Sooner or later, the song. Must. End!"
He punctuated each word with a particularly vicious swing, and if he caught her even once-
He caught her.
Alice's head snapped back so hard it was a wonder her neck didn't break right then and there. Aro lunged for her, but the most primal sensation in the world erupted inside Bella, overrode any other instinct or pain. It called on her very soul like a shot of adrenaline straight to the stem of her brain. She surged up and got between them, took the full brunt of his swinging claws, didn't even try to avoid it.
They sliced low and deep across her throat, and breathing was suddenly impossible but it didn't matter, because that little voice had gone from whispering to screaming in her head. Alice hit the ground, cradling her face, stunned.
Save Alice, save Alice, save her!
Aro's swing took his arm out wide and Bella looped one hand in his hair and the other around the back of his neck. His hands came up and crushed against her torn, bleeding throat and black spots popped in her vision from lack of oxygen, whether because she was bleeding out or because air simply couldn't get past her windpipe. She yanked him forward hard, felt his immeasurable strength resisting her. Their eyes locked an inch from each other as they bared their fangs like wild animals, snarling.
But she didn't let go. The voice in her head screamed don't let go.
No matter what, she wouldn't let go, because if she didn't let go, he couldn't kill Alice.
For Alice. Don't let go.
For Alice.
"This is how it ends for you, Ms. Swan," Aro murmured to her poisonously, stuck but unharmed by her hold. "And when you're dead, I'll take your precious Alice as well. Then I'll burn your pathetic town to the ground, drain your father dry… What was his name again? Ah yes… Charlie. How does it feel knowing you got everyone you love and hold dear killed? You've only seconds left, my dear. Remember this feeling in hell, Ms. Swan… It might hurt less."
Fuck you, she thought furiously, her eyes swimming with darkness and tears that she blinked through with a low, guttural growl. Fuck you. You. Won't. Touch them!
Bella felt a flash of agony and pain even as she began to pull him forward with all her might. She saw his eyes widen in surprise and then anger when he actually began to budge.
Slowly but surely, Bella began to pull him closer and closer. Her muscles screamed with the effort, the anaerobic strain as she fought for air that would never come. Her mouth yawned open, her fangs tingling in the air, almost eagerly. His neck looked so pale and vulnerable in the soft gray light.
Just hold on. Don't let go, Bella thought wearily as everything began to fade to black.
Don't let go. For Alice, don't let go. Just hold on…
"Would you really die for them you foolish girl? Die then. Die, damn you!" Aro snarled, squeezing her torn throat tighter, so tightly Bella thought her head might just pop off.
Still, Bella surged forward, pulled him towards her, struggled against him with everything she had. Somehow she knew it wouldn't be enough. He was too strong and she was too weak. She had nothing left to give, but she didn't dare back off.
Why fight so hard? Why not just give in? Everything hurt and it would be so easy to pass out and give into the comforting blackness… But she couldn't.
For Alice.
"I know what you're trying to do and it will never work. I will crush your throat to nothing because you will never make me as weak as you truly are! You will never make me a pathetic human!" Aro screamed into her face though Bella saw the anxiety in his eyes because he was still getting closer and closer.
But he was right. Bella couldn't do it. She was going to black out. She couldn't do this alone. She couldn't do it.
I'm so sorry, Alice, she thought. I can't do it. I'm so sorry.
"I told you I would have your head," Aro hissed with that eerie smile of his.
But Alice, as always, had other plans.
"Now, Bella!" Alice cried.
The sound of Alice's high, lovely voice was music to her ears. A split second later, Alice came in from the side with her arms raised high. She brought them crashing down with everything she had on Aro's wrists. His grip broke and air rushed sporadically into Bella's lungs when Aro suddenly released her and began to struggle wildly at her own unforgiving grip.
It was a mistake.
"No-Release me, girl! Let go of me! No, get away, get away from me!" Aro howled with rage. Bella felt his claws dig gouges into her arms but didn't let go, even when his nails bit into the bone. For the briefest of moments she was too surprised and giddy with the sudden rush of oxygen to do anything but hang on to him.
Then Alice screamed her name and she lunged forward all on instinct.
Bella sank her teeth into the side of his neck, bit down deep and hard. Her fangs went icy cold and she heard him scream with fury but Bella held him tightly, not daring to let go. She didn't let go, even when his flesh began to warm palpably around her fangs, and his body became fragile and weak beneath her.
"Bella," she heard Alice sob and looked up to see Alice coming up behind a screaming, kicking Aro, reaching for them with those big, bright black eyes of hers.
Oh Alice. My Alice.
Bella reared back with a gasp and before Aro could even say a word, Alice was on him. She hooked a hand under his chin from behind and with the furious wrath of a thousand angels, she snapped his neck like a toothpick.
Aro was dead before he hit the ground. It was really anticlimactic. Bella was almost disappointed.
Not really.
Then Alice's eyes met hers like star spangled magnets. Like always. Bella swallowed the best that she could through her bleeding windpipe.
And Alice… Alice smiled at her. A soft, tender thing. It lit up Bella's whole world. The gray light shone the clouds and reflected off her long white fangs, her swirling black eyes.
And because Bella could never resist her, never get over that infectious love, that joy Alice brought out in her, she smiled back.
All of this happened within the span of a single blink, a heartbeat.
Then Alice leaped forward just in time for Bella to collapse into her arms, clinging to her with a gut wrenching sob.
Oh god. Oh my god, Bella thought.
"We did it darling, we did it," Alice gushed into her ear, half sobbing, half laughing. "Oh Bella. Oh Bella!"
We… We did it? What did we… Do again…? God my head hurts…
Over Alice's shoulder, Bella watched as the Volturi began to turn and run. Seeing their true leader fall was enough to break any of their resolve, but they didn't get far. The nomads, the wolves and the Cullens all cut them down as they ran.
Bella's body was going numb. She was finding it hard to stand. She was soaked in her own blood. Everything hurt.
"Bella… Bells? Oh my god, no. Carlisle! Carlisle!" Alice screamed as she realized how badly hurt Bella really was.
Which was… How badly again?
She lowered Bella to the ground quickly and cradled her head in her arms. Bella stared up at her face, mesmerized by how pretty she was, delirious from the pain and blood loss. Alice was saying something to her but it all sounded far away, bubbled off from Bella's ears.
God she's so beautiful. I'm so glad she's okay. Am I dying? I must be. But it's okay, she's okay. Alice is okay… We won. Did we really? It doesn't feel like it. Edward is dead. Seth is dead. Who else died? Am I going to die…? Who else did we lose here?
Not my Alice… At least I didn't lose her. Never my Alice…
Something soft tickled the back of her head and for a second she thought it was Alice's soft hair, but then realized it was inside her skull.
A faint memory. Like it had happened a million years ago.
What was it…? Did it really even matter when everything hurt so much and Alice was staring at her with so much fear in her eyes? Why did she look like that? They'd won, right? Shouldn't she be smiling at Bella?
I wish she would smile. God, I love her smile. I love you, Alice, smile for me… We won.
Then she remembered Benjamin's pinky twitching. Slightly. So slightly it almost couldn't have happened.
That sixth sense went from a tickle to a boom when Alice suddenly went up in flames.
The sound bubble exploded with Alice's piercing scream as her lover twisted away from her, screaming, screaming, screaming.
Burning.
Bella's heart stopped and she vaulted upward even as her body begged to collapse, slammed into Alice and threw out a wayward hand, summoned the last of her soul, the last of herself, to stop the stream of fire Benjamin cast at them from several feet away.
The bolt of energy hit him squarely and he went down hard. Bella saw Carlisle close in on him from the peripheral of her vision. Then she and Alice hit the earth, spraying it high, and she couldn't see anymore. They rolled in the mud with Alice in Bella's arms, hugged to her chest desperately, so desperately.
No. Not my Alice.
NO!
The fire went out but still the last thing Bella remembered before it all went black was Alice was no longer screaming.
And somehow, she knew the silence was even worse.