Caius held his head high as we walked back into the hall.
He lead me straight across to two women I had not met before, "Bella I would like to introduce you to my wife and mate, Athendora and this is Sulpicia, Aro's wife."
I greeted them each with a hug, "It's such an honour to meet you both, I'm Bella."
"Let us step out for a minute," Caius lead us through a door into a small chamber.
Caius spoke to Athendora and Sulpicia, "Isabella is the Pentacle, she will guide us through these troubled times".
"Sulpicia," he reached for her hand, "He has paid for his crimes, he is gone. They are both gone," Caius passed her the note from the door.
They read then leaned on each other for support.
Sulpicia took a deep breath and grasped my hand, "It has been a long time coming, Marcus did what he needed. I will miss the men they were before the loss of Didyme, I look forward to your help in the days to come. Aro was never my mate and we were both aware of that, he became distant from me after Didyme was taken from us. We feared the reason but could never be sure. He kept Athendora and I virtual prisoners in the tower, citing our safety. We all believe it was to ensure we didn't try to leave."
Caius spoke softly, "We need to make the announcement, Bella do you want your mate to stand with you for this?"
We walked back into the hall, "Please, I will call him over," I whispered back then I linked with all my family. "Edward, I need you up here with me. Will the rest of you wait together for this announcement."
Edward walked up, Caius welcoming him for the sake of the guard and made introductions.
We lined up Caius took his place over on the left, Athendora by his side, Sulpicia on his other side, next to me with Edward on the right. Our hands linked in support of each other.
Caius spoke out clearly, "Aro has been sentenced for his crime of murdering his sister. Didyme's mate enforced his rights before joining her. We will all mourn the loss of Marcus and Aro, may they find peace."
We heard a some soft gasps and a few whispered words before all in the room bowed their heads in shared silence and remembrance before Caius continued, "In these dark times we are fortunate to have found the long awaited Pentacle. She will lead us all to a brighter future.
I, Caius, leader of the Volturi, pledge my allegiance and friendship to the Pentacle."
Caius had dropped to his knee, facing me, for the pledge. I didn't need to feel the emotion to know the level of shock in the room.
Felix was the first to take action. He dropped to his knee calling out, "I, Felix of the Volturi, pledge my allegiance to Bella, the Pentacle."
With that everyone started dropping to their knee, calling out their pledges. I was the only one left standing. Caius was grinning, I scowled back. He just winked at me, grr men!
"I, Isabella Marie Swan, named as The Pentacle, vow to do my utmost to help bring about a brighter future for all," oh boy, what do I let myself get sucked into. Do you think I should point out my idea of 'all' includes far more than just vampires? Maybe not today, fine print can come later!
I mentally checked with Caius then spoke to the room, "Please take the time you need, much has changed in a short time. We will reconvene at ten am tomorrow."
We walked out of the hall to head back to the room, as we walked it hit me, I was now the leader of the Volturi and so the leader of all vampires, wow! We came here in fear they would try and control us, well me in particular, talk about turning the tables!
When we got back to the room we quickly agreed we needed to update our friends.
Using the mental links I grabbed Peter, Charlotte, Sam, Emily, Billy and Eleazar's attention then asked if Caius, Athendora and Sulpicia wanted to join into the connection. The wives were overjoyed to be included. I gave them and the family here a run down of events.
"Okay, here is what happened since we arrived," I gave them a slight heads up before the film show! I gave an abridged version of events.
I know I need major help getting a handle on dear Marcus's parting gifts and the rest of the craziness (not my first choice of word in this instant but I'm trying really hard not to swear). I think I am in need of serious imprecation after this morning.
I had just finished explaining about needing to let out the gifts Marcus had given me, when Caius got the first to get a question in, "Shape-shifters and humans?"
"I was human first, Billy and Emily know about the supernatural due to the shape-shifters, they are the most level-headed humans in the know. Sam may change shape but, hey, so do I, I need all the advice and grounding I can get. This is what you pledged into whether you realised it or not. When I said 'all' I meant it in the widest sense. Everything thing on this planet, living or not is included in my idea of all, get used to it," I could hear Athendora giggling, I don't suppose Caius gets told of very often, oops, or not!
Ever the diplomat, Carlisle suggested getting out into the field again for training before any more could be said.
We reviewed the list of powers I could potentially use from Marcus's venom collections only to scare my self silly. It wasn't like the list had one or two new powers it was into thousands. Fortunately many were variations on the existing collection so hopefully 'all' I need to do is trigger each one then they will add themselves to the rest. My biggest fear is as soon as I release my shield all the powers will activate like they did when Kate's venom joined mine.
Nothing major then...!
Athendora and Sulpicia promised to support me in any way they could but they were retiring to their rooms to mourn. I promised to keep them up to date with any developments.
We didn't even get as far as the garden when Felix just happened to be waiting for us. He got an invite to join us. Demetri, Jane, Alec and Renata were also waiting in the garden, they never spoke just tagged on behind. Renata was struggling with Aro's loss but wanted to stay busy, she had lived in his shadow so long she was worried about what her new place would be.
Yeah, let's make a party of watching Bella lose control while learning all our powers along with a whole heap of other powers. Maybe I use sarcasm a bit too much rather than actually admit I'm worried about things.
I made my way to the far side of the field giving everyone strict instruction to keep as far from me as possible. I slowly released my shield. Let's just say it's a good thing everyone kept their distance.
Nature was closest to me so that is what went out of whack first. Plants growing up like a forest around me, seeds germinating growing to full maturity and then dying. Soil and rocks dancing in the air, rocks changing in front of my eyes into different forms anything from lava through diamonds and gasses. Rain clouds forming over my head falling as rain sleet, snow or hail, swirling round me or rising up then changing into steam. I could smell the different gasses separating and recombining, I could change them to liquids or solids, freezing to boiling. I could control even the light. No atom was too big or small to speed up slow down or simply move to a different time and space.
As I recognised each modification, each power, I shut it down.
I glanced down at the scar James left me with, I healed it by rubbing it out with my finger. The other scars disappeared or reappeared just as easily. Another thing to control and shut down.
I looked over at my family and new friends. The colours, shapes and textures surrounding them and flowing over them was mesmerising. I could see their entire aura, powers and relationships only made up a small portion of the aura. Moods, actions, thoughts, honesty, energy, health, life, past, future and more were all visible to me. Now I looked round me, plants and animals all have auras too. I mended and healed everything I damaged both today and yesterday with my actions. Then I closed those powers down too. Now I could see magnetic lines and lay lines through the earth, and more, the fault lines and underlying strata all the way to the core.
I realised I was no longer stood. I'm floating, the nearby plants and animals had floated to me. The lion whose aura I was inspecting just appeared then disappeared when I finished, same as the squid. Oops.
I tested, I can call things to me, they appear in front of me then return back to where they came from. I can send them to anywhere, wait, I can see anywhere and any-when too. Almost like having an extra set of eyes that I can send.
Hold up, Jake is scared of crabs, yes he is sat watching t.v. at home, maybe a crab crawling out of his bag of chips. Ha, I got him, that squeal was classic. Put the crab back on the beach. I'm cruel, poor Jake.
I wonder what caused his fear, I watched a small boy running splashing through the tide pools then heard his scream. A dark haired women rushed across to him, grabbing him up in her arms, a crab clinging to the little boys toe. As the scene faded I realised the little boy had been Jake and the woman his Mother, Sarah. I have memories of her from my childhood but it shocked me how much Rachel and Rebecca resemble her. The vision of Jakes' past came to me as a film playing in part of my mind. I was still fully aware of everything around me but a level of my awareness had the new information.
Looking at what was to come, my future visions expanded too. They merged with the route / risk overlay; I can now see how different decisions effect the future.
Ah, my audience. I placed a block on all my new tricks, lowering myself back to the ground and walked over.
"Wow Bells, what happened to all the plants and what was with the lion?" an excited Emmett just couldn't wait.
"I think a few new powers might possibly have been triggered," talk about an understatement, but hey, this is me.
"So you can make plants grow really fast?" Emmett asked.
"I think it's more to do with changing the speed of flow of time in that case," nothing major, just control of time.
"How about all the rocks and things spinning in the air?" I'm amazed Carlisle is letting Emmett do all the questioning.
"Control of all the elements, I think Psychokinesis might cover that," I was mumbling but vampires still hear everything.
"All aspects of Psychokinesis?" Carlisle asked.
"I think so," I admitted.
"Have you triggered Marcus's gift to see relationships?" Carlisle continued the questioning.
"And then some, I can see all aspects of auras and manipulate them but not completely change them. All life has an aura, all energy has an aura, the planet has an aura," the sheer quantity of information catching up to me.
Carlisle could see me reeling "Any other major revelations?"
"Remote viewing ability has increased, I am no longer constrained to the present. Another thing I would like to show Jasper," Jasper's eyebrows twitched in question but he stepped towards me.
I reached for his hand, my other hand sweeping a distance from his hand up his arm, his neck and face then back down across his chest, then his other arm, "Look, I have the ability to heal."
Alice was the first to notice their absence. I removed all his scars and healed some of the scaring on his aura.
Jasper stood and stared at the now smooth skin. He stroked the previously puckered skin pushing up his sleeve revealing scar-free wrists. The prominent scar over his eyebrow he reach for next, it too was gone. He was shaking as his eyes met mine, "All of them?"
I just nodded.
He ripped his shirt off. Twisting his arms and torso to try and catch a glimpse of any remaining scars. There were none. He stopped dead then moved at a blur. He scooped me up into the tightest hug you can imagine. He was whispering over and over, emotion cracking his voice, "Thank you, thank you, thank you."
"Alice," I manoeuvred an arm free to extend my hand to her. "I'll take them back to their room then I'll come back, wait here for me."
As soon as Alice's hand met mine I unblocked my power and imagined the three of us stood in their room. We were there. "I'll leave you to have some time to get used to your new look. I will keep a link open, just give me a yell and I can be back in a blink."
I heard Alice call out as I blinked back to the field, "Thank you, Bella."
"Hells Bells, I know you're fast but where did you go and where are the other two?" Emmett's loud voice cut through the conversations that had started in my brief absence.
I laughed, "The Psychokinesis power, I teleported them back to their room."
His eyes widened in surprise, "Wow, you're every super hero ever dreamed up all rolled into a Bella size package."
Everyone laughed at that.
The rest of the daylight hours were spent in the field.
If using my shield to chop things up and throwing fire balls scared everyone yesterday today's events took things a step further. I can break the molecular cohesion between individual atoms, I can make dust particles look big. I can cause the atoms to increase their speed to the point of internal combustion. All this I can do remotely, I scare myself.
Jasper and Alice rejoined us after a few hours. I have never seen Jasper looking more relaxed or at peace with himself. I can get used to a smiling, content Jasper. It's so nice to think my powers can have a positive effect on someone after all the training to fight and destroy.
Carlisle had always considered all three of the Volturi as friends but had spoken most to Aro, both Caius and Marcus had kept a distance. Carlisle and Caius now get on like old friends, becoming closer in the last few hours than they had in all the years Carlisle had spent here. They went to investigate the documents in Marcus's study.
Jasper collared me as we walked out of the field, "Words can not convey what you have done for me today. I will be forever indebted to you."
"No Jasper, family don't allow debts like that to exist. I would do anything for you, as you have for me. I came from such a small broken family, the gift of family that your family has given me, is greater than anything all my powers could ever bestow," I hugged him.
I spent some time repairing the scaring in both Rosalie and Esme's auras, they both carried a heavy burden of events in their human lives. Edward and Carlisle both had scarring on their auras of a different nature, I helped heal the self-inflicted scarring caused by self-hatred; all have such bright, pure souls, if they could once believe it of themselves it would be blinding.
I didn't bother making my normal excuse of having to hunt, I went with the truth. I need time to come to terms with these new powers. I grabbed Edward and promised to pop in on the wolves, the Denali's and to find the Whitlock's.