The Secret Beneath the Roses:

Chapter 20: Illusion Shattered/ The Rose Tinted Glasses Fall Away

A/N: This is the next to last chapter of action with the Volturi before the two girl's get to go home. And then it's time for fluff and happiness :)

"I know where they are," Alice announced as she came out from her visions. "Emmett already got out, but Jasper is surrounded by Volturi who are trying to push him in the way of a falling pillar. We have to stop them."

"And what about Esme and Carlisle?" Rosalie asked as they pushed against the swarm of vampires and wolves running away from the Great Hall collapsing around them.

"I...Their not going to leave," Alice replied softly and Rosalie had to strain to hear her over the panicked cries of others around them and over the sound of stone crumbling.

"Why?" Rosalie was afraid of the answer but she needed to know. They were her adoptive parents.

"Esme was killed off in the battle, and Carlisle refuses to leave. No matter how hard I try to convince him in my visions he has no further motivation to live without his mate."

"No-that's horrible!" Rosalie wouldn't wish the pain of losing a mate on anyone. She had merely been separated from Alice and that had been unbearable to her. She felt like every cell in her body was dying, her being begging to be close to Alice again. She could only imagine how terrible it was when a mate died. "Are you sure we can't do anything to get him out?" She didn't want to leave him despite how horrid the remainder of his existence would be without Esme. She didn't want to have neither of the Cullen parents.

"It breaks my heart but no, there is nothing we can do to stop it from coming true. We shouldn't waste our time on that. All we can do is help Jasper and get out of here." Alice shook her head. She too hated this outcome but there was only so much she could do if Carlisle didn't want to accept her help. The two girls made it into the Great Hall, jumping over slabs of stone on the floor and ducking past a falling pillar. Jasper was in the middle of the hall, pinned to the ground by three Volturi vampires. He snapped his teeth at them but they merely sneered down at it him. "If you intend to bring this place down then we will make sure you stick around for the full collapse of it."

"You would even be willing to kill yourself for it?" Jasper asked, squirming in their hold but he was pinned too thoroughly. Chunks of the ceiling crumbled around him and he winced as a huge chunk bounced against his head.

"Yes, we would. Such is our loyalty to the Volturi," responded one of them.

"Sorry to break the news to you, but your loyalty to the Volturi ends today." Rosalie's sentence was the last thing they heard before she slammed into them like a wrecking ball, knocking all three of them off of Jasper. The blonde haired vamp didn't question her appearance, merely rose to his feet and went to help her.

The Volturi vampires snarled and hissed at the two Cullen's but they were no match for the power house that was Rosalie. She decked the bigger of the three so hard in the jaw his head snapped off, his useless body dropping to the floor. Then she turned to his friend who was scrambling up to his feet, trying to grab her by the back. She slipped out of his grip, turning smoothly on the balls of her feet and kneeing him in the groin. He dropped to the ground and she drove an elbow into the top of his head, caving it in. Jasper finished off his opponent too, tripping him as he came to swing at the southern boy. As the vampire tipped over, Jasper karate chopped the back of his neck, cutting it clean off.

As they did this, Alice dove into a vision. She wanted to make sure that Edward had gotten himself and his wife and child out. She caught a glimpse of him running out into the streets of Rome above, trying to get away to more stable ground as the city sidewalks cracked and rumbled.

She gave a small smile at this, exiting the vision. "Rosalie, Jasper. Our family is alright. They got out. We have to go now. The place won't last another minute." Jasper and Rosalie didn't need to be told twice. All three used their vampiric speed to dodge the falling chunks of marble and the shattering walls. They made it to the city streets in mere seconds, and didn't stop running until they had regrouped with Edward, his family, and Emmett who all stood on top of a hill, watching the chaos in Rome unfold. A good portion of the city had caved in, buildings and streets gone missing in the giant maw that remained after the destruction of the Volturi headquarters. The wolves and allied vampires had made it safely out it seemed but it was hard to tell when they were scattered about. The remnants of the Volturi army had dispersed too, among the city, something that the Cullen's would have to worry about later. For now they wondered where Carlisle and Esme were.

"Where are our parents?" Edward asked, stroking the top of his daughter's head and kissing it gently, calming her down. He was glad to no longer be under the control of Sulpicia. Her powers were truly terrifying and he hoped he would never have to encounter them again. A quick kiss from Bella had reversed the pheromone spell and he was back to normal but he hated himself for ever bending to the Volturi royalties wills and whims.

"Uh, about that," Alice started, swallowing thickly. How did she put this without causing her family distress? "Esme died during the battle and Carlisle didn't want to live without her so he...he stayed. There was no way to convince him. I tried a thousand different scenarios and every time the outcome was the same. It was inevitable. I'm sorry."

Bella let out a loud gasp and covered her mouth with her hands while Emmett turned around and punched the tree behind him hard, splintering the wood. Edward merely worked his jaw, his expression hard. He and Bella understood the intrinsic nature of the mate bond and how it changed a vampire's entire outlook but Emmett wasn't as understanding since he had never bonded. "Why didn't you try harder! Why didn't you try harder to save them!"

"Emmett-" Alice opened her mouth to speak, caught off guard by the raw anger in his voice.

"I should have stayed behind and dragged Carlisle out of there myself." He ran his hand through his hair, upset at Alice.

"I'm sorry," Alice mumbled. A loud explosion came from the hole in the city, fire jetting upwards into the sky. The noises of panicking people and city sirens filled the air. "I think it's time we got going," Edward sternly said, his eyes grieving for his lost parents. He had no intention of ever coming back here.

The Cullen family turned their backs on the city of Rome as they walked away, Alice turning away last. She had spent all those years in the Volturi's lair and now it had been turned into ruins, the vampire royalty scattered and decimated. She let a brief smile grace her lips. They should have known better than to mess with the Cullen family. And while Esme and Carlisle were lost to them it was a small price to pay for taking down an oppressive oligarchy.


Aro's eyes opened wide as Alice gently retracted her hand off of his shoulder. Images of what he had just saw flashed in his head in a never ending whirlwind. "So you see this is what will happen, if you choose to fight." She whispered softly to him, her own mind reeling from the magnitude of the vision she had foretold.

"This is going to happen?" Aro's voice was shaking and no doubt it was because he had just seen that the whole of the Volturi would be destroyed by the Cullen's, himself included. Caius was losing patience next to Aro. He wasn't going to wait around to find out what the vision was. He opened his mouth to snarl out the words that started everything. "That's it. I'm taking charge of this myself. Volturi army-" Aro's face contorted in panic and he rushed forwards, pushing Alice roughly aside and taking the other vampire by surprise. With a quick twist of Aro's wrist, Caius's head was rolling on the floor.

Aro was breathing hard, his hands shaking. Then he began to chuckle to himself. Everyone was quiet as they watched this, unbelieving that Aro had just killed a fellow Volturi leader. The Cullen's shot each other looks while Sulpicia's face dropped open in surprise. Caius had been in on her plan to overthrow Aro and now...now he was gone. Just what had Alice's vision been about? Had she foreseen Sulpicia turning traitor? Did that mean her plans were all revealed and ruined? She slowly began to back her way through the army of Volturi, trying to find Jane and Alec. She had to get them and get out of here. Aro still was laughing, looking at his own hands. Marcus didn't know what was going on. What had been in that vision Alice had had? Had she made him go crazy? He knew she was dangerous. They should have never trusted her.

During this time Alice took the chance to approach the Cullen's, Rosalie specifically. In her vision she had seen the truth and knew now that she had to kiss Rosalie to get rid of Sulpicia's influences on her. She crossed across the room in quick strides and before Rosalie could respond she grasped her roughly by the cheeks and pulled her down for a kiss. It was brief, kept that way by Alice because she knew that the situation Aro had just caused wasn't going to calmly go away. There would be time later for kissing and on reuniting.

"Aro, what in your blasted mind did you do to Caius!?" Marcus finally snapped, deciding it would be best to confront the man.

"Alice-Alice-I-" Alice put a hand over Rosalie's mouth to shush her. She turned to the rest of her family, fixing them with a serious stare and cutting off their greeting towards her. "We need to leave and now. This situation is only going to escalate and go to hell. And we need to be out before that happens."

Carlisle nodded his head tersely. "Of course. But it's good to have you back Alice."

Alice allowed a brief smile at this, staring at the joy in her families faces at having her back, before she got back to business. "Which way did you guys come in?"

"We took a secret passageway in, which existed in the time during which I had served the Volturi. Luckily Aro had never thought to remove it. And it's in the opposite direction of the Volturi army."

"And tell the wolves and other vampires to retreat too. We don't want them to get caught up in this too."

"I did it because if I didn't then the whole of the Volturi council would have been destroyed!" Aro's high pitched cry broke through. He was gesturing violently at Marcus, looking as if he was about to strike at him. Marcus didn't flinch away at his wildly waving arms.

"I fail to see how the Cullen's could have single handily taken down the most powerful vampire group in the world," Marcus scoffed, clearly in disbelief. "And I don't see how you couldn't have merely stopped Caius as opposed to killing him."

Aro growled at this, looking mad enough to scratch Marcus's eyes off when the Volturi army parted to let Sulpicia, Jane and Alec through. She had thought about fleeing, but an even better idea had entered her head. Why leave when the leadership of the group was on the cusp of falling into her lap?

"Aro, it seems you have become unstable and the leadership of vampire royalty cannot be left in such hands." Sulpicia spoke with flourish and with a snap of her fingers Jane activated her powers. Aro fell to his knees, overcome by pain.

"Sulpicia what are you doing?" Marcus demanded, stunned by her course of action.

"I am restraining him. He is no longer capable of leading us, so I shall do it," she replied smoothly.

"You're overthrowing me and Aro? That is a grave crime! One that you will pay with your head if you continue on with it. And don't tell me that Jane and Alec are also in on this."

"Yes, they are." Since she didn't know how much of the truth Aro had seen in the vision she was going to spill everything. "I was planning this for centuries, but I was going to overthrow you old farts from the throne sooner or later. Caius was in on my plan-he was going to help me with it because he was tired of how you and Aro lollygagged with decision making and the likes. We need strong leaders to lead nobility and cast judgments, not ones softened by friendships."

"Sulpicia you snake!" Aro spat out and Jane redoubled the pain so that the man howled in pain and writhed on the floor unable to speak more.

"You will never get away with this!" Marcus took a step forward, wavering as to what he should do. Jane was focusing on Aro now, so could he take on Sulpicia and Alec? He would just have the army capture her. "Volturi army, capture this traitor and her little friends!" But the army stayed still, watching him with impassive eyes. If he could sweat he would be doing so profusely now. What was this disobedience?

"I wouldn't say that. While you were up on your throne I was making friends and converting everyone to my side. It turns out they are as tired of you and Aro as I was." Sulpicia's pale lips stretched into a wide smile. That wasn't necessarily true, but a little tweaking with vampirirc pheromones had made this a reality.

The Cullen's who had been making their way out of the Great Hall, paused. Carlisle stood and watched the escalating situation with concern on his face. While he and Aro had had their differences, they had been friends once. He couldn't leave him to his death no matter how terrible he was. He had always made exceptions for Carlisle's family where the others had not. He owned the man for turning a blind eye so many times to his law infractions.

"Carlisle we have to go," Esme tugged on her husband's sleeve but he wouldn't budge, his gaze intent on the struggling Volturi leader.

"I cannot," he answered her.

"Why not?"

"It wouldn't be right to do so," was his simple answer.

Alice who was leading the group out, doubled back. "You can't go back there!" Alice insisted. "If you do then you will only die! I can't have that happen again!"

"He died in your vision?" Esme gasped, horrified.

"Yes." Alice nodded her head solemnly. "So that is why you must leave this to be. Please, Carlisle."

He grimaced. "I'm sorry. I cannot. I have to do something to help." With that he ran back the way they had come.

"Carlisle!" Alice and Esme cried out at the same time. "Damn him for being so good hearted and stubborn headed!" Esme spat and ran after him.

"No, Esme!" Alice stretched out a hand to stop her but she was already just wind.

Alice turned back to face the other family members. "What do we do now? In my vision Esme and Carlisle both died. I can't let that happen."

"Then we have to go back and protect them," Emmett stated as if that was the simplest thing in the world. "Hell yea, we get to fight. I was hoping I could get to do that." He flexed an arm muscle. Jasper, Edward and Bella nodded their heads in agreement.

"Sorry Eddy but you cannot come. In my vision you got under the control of Sulpicia's powers and killed Aro. She used you as her pawn. I can't risk having you fall into her hands again, " Alice insisted.

Edward opened his mouth to argue but Bella put a hand on his shoulder. "Edward, please don't. Listen to Alice. Take Renesme to safety. I will fight on your behalf."

"I can't leave you to fight! That's not right!"

"Guys we don't have a lot of time to argue. Either Bella stays or she goes with Edward and their child," Rosalie suggested.

Edward locked his jaw and dug his heels in. It was clear which choice he wanted.

"Alright, well, while you guys figure that out, me and Jasper here will go and save our family." Emmett clasped the blonde haired boy on the shoulder and they moved out.

Rosalie intertwined her fingers with Alice's. "Let's get them back," she smiled and they too rushed off, going to save Carlisle and Esme from death and going to save the Volturi from a coup de' tate.

Alice only hoped that they could stop the progression of the events before they took the worst course possible.

A/N: So I kind of pulled a Twilight Breaking Dawn part two twist at the end. It turns out Alice's vision didn't actually happen yet just like it didn't in the movie. I was so mad when it turned out to just be a vision. I really wanted some fighting in the movie, but it was not meant to be. I decided to do the same for this chapter because the idea just popped into my head last minute and I was like, sure why not. It'll make things more interesting and it's not like anything dramatic actually happens in the vision to the Cullen's family, with the exception of Esme and Carlisle, so it would be better if it was all fake. But the fight they are about to engage in is real this time.