REVIEW! OMC Breaking Dawn comes out in seven hours!

Instantly, the others take her cue. What a mercurial crowd. One instant the are about to drop the threat and beg forgiveness, the next they're attempting murder.

Interesting. Should I survive, I'd like to talk to Carlisle and ask when they became so easily swayed. Jane isn't even one of them, and here they are accepting her choice as reason enough to kill me.

The bodies swarm over me. I am pressed into the floor, the crushing weight of seven vampires squirming and ripping. Only Jane and Alec, closest to me, have successfully landed blows. They are also Volturi, trained to this. They know what they're doing…

Alec, I believe, is the one who tears off my arm. I summon all my strength, still increased from the changed and fueled by Edward and how I love him, and push up and off…

Praying it will be enough.

The vampires roll off me. I grab my arm in furious haste and pull it along my body. I can feel the healing begin instantly. However, it will not be useful in this fight… a fight I know now will happen. I will lose. My power, for whatever reason, just isn't enough. I don't know enough, can't do enough.

You're not enough, Bella.

And that agonizing thought is energizing. If I do this, if I can single-handedly destroy seven furious vampires with only my own brute strength, maybe I can convince myself I am enough, maybe he will never leave again. It is too much to hope for. However, if it does… I can win. I can do anything for Edward. This single action is truly nothing.

If I die, what of it? He won't kill himself. He wouldn't. He loves Esme too much. Esme couldn't lose another child. He wouldn't do that to her. My love is far too good. And he promised her. He may break promises to me, but never to his own family. So I will die here, and they will have but a few stragglers of this amassed army to fend off.

They will live. I will never be in danger of the agony alone again. I will die and so there will be no more pain. I will die, and in dying deserve him.

It is a deal I make with myself. It is something that, like so many other resolutions, so many other decided views, is broken the instant it's made, and also endures forever.

"I love you, Edward," I whisper. I know they can hear me. In addition to buying a few precious seconds for my arm to heal, it is aiding my soul. I need to know I can be with him. Somehow, someday, not on earth but perhaps after it, I can see him. If as a spirit I'll never hold him, at least I'll know he is alive. "Edward, I will always, always love you. If I die here, forgive me…"

There is a moment of curious staring. The other vampires eye me speculatively, red and gold darting from my face to each others'

"Can we do this?" Tanya asks. She spreads her hands speculatively, turning to face her sisters. "Can we kill her?"

"Yes… we can." Jane's bloodthirsty smile is beautiful, but her teeth are bared, showing an utterly empty heart and a clear threat to any who stands in her way.

"I didn't mean to offend, Jane. I don't want to irritate the Volturi, as you know… but I really don't think we should."

"Why not? This girl is a pretender. A newborn. She is trying to defeat us… all of us! Can you call yourselves vampires when you're not only defeated, but mocked, by a mere human?"

"I'm not mocking anyone."

"By virtue of saying that you are! If you do not die here you are! The Volturi are unstoppable. If you want to turn against me, fine. My power is useless against the pet human, but I can turn it against you… you will suffer, and you will know the wrath of the Volturi!"

Jane is clearly overcome with insanity, but I don't think I'd mess with her in this state if I were them either.

"I'm not going to give up. I'll fight you until I'm dead, because I have to live so I can deserve Edward. I'll lose, but I'll fight…"

It's the last thing I'll ever say, I know that. I have this one fight ahead of me before my life ends after all. And I can't bring myself to regret it. Yes, it's not the peaceful death I once faced off the cliffs of La Push… but it's something worth struggling for. And I got to hold him one last time. I die today, but they take nothing from me, only a few fleeting hours of happiness and an eternity of agony when he leaves again.

I have no pleasure ahead, and so this causes no pain.

The moment of silence, of contemplation is over. Here, in Esme's living room, Jane leaps at me, once again the first to attack, and it begins. The others look on curiously, waiting for a signal.

The fools… even I know better than to let tiny Jane face a newborn alone. She isn't as adept or agile as Alice. Always before she's had her power to save her, and now it is just her against me, as the others look on.

It is over in seconds.

I try not to think of her, cruel, but at least alive, while I kill her. She's sentient. She thinks and knows. She may be evil, but she's no more than a child… and I know her. A person. I can't stand having to do this, to literally tear her into pieces and set them in a neat pile for later disintegration.

I have just finished tearing up Jane when Alec screams. It is a blood-curdling, horrifying scream, and it makes my soul turn. Will I ever be forgiven for the pain I've caused?

I know it is a mercy as I charge to him, my arms wrapping around his neck with an unstoppable force… it is a simple matter to disconnect his skull, and from there to drop him into pieces. He falls on the floor beside the remnants of his sister.

The other vampires watch.

"Well," I quip, "either attack me or get me a lighter. I gotta get rid of these bodies."

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