AN: Hey, this is a bit better timing. I don't think that I can get another chapter out before I go to Europe, but it won't be for lack of trying! I'm about half a page to a page in, so it might not be quite ready by Sun. Thank you Dr. Numana for beta-ing, you are just to kind. Please feel free to review, the more the merrier.
Disclaimer: This isn't mine: so very very depressing. I think I'll survive though.
Group Fights
Chapter 7
Alice POV
Silently thanking Adrian for catching me, I sank quickly into a vision.
Edward and Bella were in their meadow. Victoria was there, with two others behind her. One a recognized as Jane, but the other I didn't know. He was a handsome man, about six three with deep brown hair. He looked as if he had brown eyes, bordering on black, but I couldn't be sure with the distance. He had a canine appearance, even more so then the werewolves. And most amazingly, he was some kind of human, maybe even a werewolf in actuality. None of this was looking good. My brother was standing protectively in front of Bella, a now familiar look of determination coloring his features. This would be a fight to the death.
The vision was a picture—the frozen image of a possibility. That meant that it wasn't certain, I could stop it. It was in the meadow and at the moment they were headed to Seattle, so for now they were safe. Great, that meant I could think of something.
As soon as I had stored the picture in my memory, I looked over at Edward. He hadn't even notice me fall, entranced as he was by his bride. I threw a gesture as Nia to make her get the couple to go ahead and leave. A few smiles and glances from her had them on their way.
They were gone, so I whispered to Nia, Max, and Fang to join me. After a quick thought, I also called Jasper and Carlisle. We might not be able to afford Carlisle being left out, and I would end up telling Jazzy anyways.
Hey everyone, I've had a vision—" Adrian interrupted me by walking into the room.
"I already know you had a vision, and that would be enough to make Edward suspicious anyways."
"Okay, it was about Edward and Bella, and the Volturi were there, namely Jane, along with Victoria and a guy I didn't recognize." I went on to describe him, and with every word the people that had been to the School grew more and more upset.
"Ari." Fang said. I think it was about the second thing that I'd ever heard form him. He just looked over at Max as she sent out very strong "I'm freaking out" vibes.
"So they were cornering Edward and Bella in their meadow."
"Bad, that means that they've all agreed on something long enough to chase after us."
"Hmmm… I wonder if we can make them disagree again. That would help us, and have a certain amount of entertainment value."
"Entertainment value?" Carlisle wasn't as used to Nia's love of a good fight as the rest of us were.
"Yeah, I would love to see the Volturi kick the School's ass."
"Except that if they fight then the vampires might end up changing Erasers. That wouldn't work so well…"
"Good point Adrian. We'll have to think of a different plan." Okay, I think they've missed the point here.
"What about protecting Edward and Bella? That was the reason that I'm telling all of you." Honestly, why can't they concentrate? This was a rather simple discussion, even if what we're trying to do is not so simple.
"Of course we haven't forgotten. If we can beat them all soundly before hand, they can't very well come after our favorite couple, now can they?"
"That only works if you know for certain you can beat them so disastrously that they can't come for you again." Carlisle was upset by that, he knew that it meant that we would most likely have to go up against the Volturi, and kill many of them.
"So you are saying that we have to what? Murder them all in their sleep?"
"Sure, I was made to be an assassin. I would enjoy killing the Erasers. Maybe I could get the Volturi, but I'm not so sure. There are a lot of them."
"Nia, you can't actually be considering this. Why don't we just do what Alice said and keep up a solid defense on Bella and Edward?"
"Because you know as well as I do that if they get away once they will come again. Much as I hate to use clichés, the best defense is a good offence."
Max's face adopted a shocked look, and she spit out, "Artemis. If we're having these issues then she might be on the receiving end of them as well."
"I'll go get her; I taught her how to leave signs about where she had been."
"I'm going to join you."
"No, you need to help out here if you don't mind. You're almost as good at this at me."
"I don't like it, but alright."
I skimmed over the future, looking to see if Nia's decision would make a drastic difference in the future. I didn't see any change, so I let Nia go look for her sister. Otherwise I would have told her what would have happened, and told her not to go. She swept off, the flowing skirt of her dress twisting around her legs in a way that I knew Adrian was silently admiring. I looked over at him.
"We have bigger problems then her looks," I mouthed.
"I know, I just—" He wasn't going to finish that—whatever else he was, sentimental was not on the list.
"You know that I'll still get everything done that needs doing." He just glared at me and looked at Carlisle. "I don't like it at all, but Nia's argument makes sense. We need to beat them to the point where they won't be coming back."
"We can't attack Volterra, there aren't enough of us."
"Could we make the problem of the School disappear?" My husband never forgot military planning, no matter how much he had hated it."
"That works really well actually." You could see Adrian thinking about it. "Then we only have to worry about the Volturi, whom we've been preparing for anyways. We can so handle this as long as we think first. I'm guessing Edward and Bella aren't to know?"
"I thought it best if we didn't get either of them mad at each other over what we could hopefully handle on our own. If it even looks like it is getting out of hand, we tell."
"Cool, I don't care either way, I just want to get this going before we have to worry about running out of time."
Leaving the boys to discuss planning and knowing that I would be useless until they had some ideas, I went to clean up after the reception. Max and her almost silent shadow followed, with Max seemingly in a rather demanding mood. "Is my Flock in any danger with this going on?" I scanned the future again, this time checking on the Flock.
"They'll be fine, the School has been distracted by us. You can stay or you can leave, 'cause everyone is going to be after Forks."
Max looked torn—her Flock and her need to protect people. Yes, Nia had shared that story about her facing off a boy with a gun to protect a random girl.
"I'll stay, and when things heat up Fang will take the rest of the Flock to see Ella." Of course Fang didn't even show that he had heard. I swear, that kid could creep me out, I had to get Jasper to tell me if he even had emotions or not.
Max started to help me clean, and Fang got all the decorations boxed up as we took them down. Chores that would have taken most people four or five hours took us a little over two and a half.
"How much longer should the others be?" Why did Max need them, did she have any plans?
"I'm not sure, their plans keep changing every time someone objects to something. I can't believe that its taken them this long, but they can't decide on something. Even though they've spent half the time going over all the powers and abilities of both the School and the Volturi. I think we're stuck just waiting for them, but in the meantime, it would be a good idea if we went over all those abilities. It's not going to be fun, but I suppose we have no real choice."
Max highlighted what the School could give the Volturi, mostly Eraser fighters and close to unlimited scientific knowledge on humans. The Volturi could use that to get useful gifts for their Guard, so I betted that it was the chief reason for the alliance on their side of the bargain. That and the fact that the School could experiment on humans, without the Volturi having to work around the blood. Really other then that the School had nothing to offer, so they weren't the biggest problem for us to tackle.
The Volturi were the biggest issue, as hopefully Victoria would just be a single vampire with a strong will, and therefore just needed to be counted in with the tally of vampire warriors, not made a whole enemy grouping. On the other hand, the Volturi had all the money and will in the world. And an army of the undead whom will follow their every command. I told her and Fang every thing that they had ever done, and of all the vision I had ever had of their commands.
I wondered what we could do to stop them. We would do something, but we needed to figure out exactly what would happen. I hoped Nia would get back before the Flock left, we needed all the fighters and all the planners we could get.