A/N: Please R&R and be honest. Special thanks to Lightshadow17 for the idea for this story. For the sake of this story, Trevor was the first to coin the phrase: united we stand, divided we fall. This chapter has a tiny cross promotion of the story: The Wolf Pelt Cloak. I felt I owed it to the author, Lightshadow17 for the idea for this story. Sorry this chapter's a bit short, but I have a rule that I should never write longer chapters for the sake of having long chapters. I didn't have too much to say in this chapter, but it is crucial to the plot. You can't just skip this chapter if you're pressed for time on the computer; it has a bit of a plot twist. Again, crucial! Thanks for reading!

Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight and or any of the characters that appear in the Stephanie Meyer books. However, the characters of Frederick, Trevor, Lucian and Sonia are of my own creation.

Attack, Counterattack

"Sonia is not only an adept fighter, but she is the smartest of the four Romanians. She can analyse your strengths and weaknesses in a second, and is more than expecting an assassination attempt from you. She orchestrates many of the covens in Europe, and knows how to persuade an angry vampire that we were responsible for the death of his mate. If it wasn't for her and her mate, the Romanians wouldn't be a threat. Ultimately if we eliminate both of them, the Volturi become the dominant power, and the Romanians will be forced to go into exile," Marcus said, eyes locked with his son Trevor. They had been discussing the pros and cons of each method of assassination. Trevor was such a good vampire assassin because he was so incredibly fast, even for a vampire. This gave the target less time to react when Trevor's scent became apparent.

The two had discussed several different ways of killing Sonia, and were left with just a couple of realistic options.

"We could challenge her openly, just like Frederick did two years ago, you beat her, the truce remains intact. We could have her killed secretly." Marcus speculated.

"That would have double benefits. If I could kill her, and Lucian could be convinced that Stefan or Vladimir was responsible, then she would be eliminated, and we could divide their ranks. United they stand, divided they fall." Trevor said.

"We could find a way to goad her out into breaking the truce, we would have the law on our side, and we could call on other covens and nomads if we needed to. She would then be easy to kill."

"Marcus, I think she would be too smart to be goaded into breaking the truce, and she wouldn't risk suffering the same fate as Frederick. I think the only way to take her out will be assassination. Load Stefan with evidence, frame him. United they stand divided they fall."

"Yes, Trevor, but how?"

"If you call a meeting with her to discuss the truce, and demand that only that the two of you go, then by the time she realises that I am impersonating you, it will be too late, and I will kill her. Then, when Lucian accuses me of her murder, your argument is: why would we kill Sonia so openly? It must have been a third party, because that is too obvious to be true, we are being framed by an unknown vampire or coven."

"No Trevor, Lucian will see right through that and you know it. Even if he doesn't, he will be so grief-stricken by the loss of his mate that he won't listen to our fabricated reasoning. Vladimir and Stefan are all too eager to resume fighting after thirty-one years, and will hardly step in to keep the peace. Trevor, you are letting your impatience cloud your mind. Focus. Killing Sonia is the first step, but to kill Lucian, the truce must still be intact." Marcus replied, irritated. He got up, and started pacing, even though it did nothing to calm him down or help him think clearly or get more comfortable, it was an old habit that had helped when he had been human.

"Stefan has been growing increasingly jealous of the others, especially Sonia. Ever since Sonia's troops defeated Stefan's in that little war game they had, Stefan has come to realise that he has the weakest army, and is the weakest link of them all. Trevor, he has tried to be subtle about it, but Lucian has found out that Stefan is preparing for an assassination attempt on Sonia."

"How do we know that Stefan is plotting against Sonia?" Trevor asked.

"Trevor, I'm needed at Caius' side. That incident with the children of the moon has left him... drained. Oh and, to answer your question I have one word: Mathias."

*

The four Romanians were seated a round table, symbolising unity. But Vladimir and Stefan's seats were considerably closer to each other's. Lucian and Sonia were the same. The four of them were talking tactics. They agreed that Trevor had to die. Nothing else mattered. The Romanians were determined that if they would go down they would take Trevor, Marcus, Caius and Aro down with them. Starting with Trevor.

An hour later, they departed, going separate ways to check over their personal guard. Vladimir had nineteen vampires to himself. None of them had talents, except one. Gargoyle was a powerful tracker, and an impressive fighter to boot. He would be right up with Vladimir, but for his intellect. He was not very smart and only thought about crashing through a wall of Volturi and ways how to kill them all. He was anything but subtle, but Vladimir valued Gargoyle as his second in command.

Stefan had similar troops, but more trackers and two weak shield powers among his twelve. Whenever he was away from Vladimir, Sonia or Lucian, the two shields were with him; Stephen and Richard from Britain. They stayed at his side whenever he wasn't with Vladimir, Sonia or Lucian.

Sonia had only nine vampires, all with talents, and all adept fighters. Some of the talents included mirror talents, which reflects the talents of others back onto the user. For example, Aro's mind reading power would be reflected so that not only was the talented vampire unaffected, but the mirror-talented vampire would be able to read Aro's mind. Sonia had found this to be an exceptional talent several times in the past sixty years, and it had saved her life more than once. She also had two strong trackers and one weak future-teller.

Lucian's guard was the brunt of the Romanian army. It consisted of numerous weak talents within his forces, but mostly just fighters. That was the weakness. The strength of Lucian's guard came purely from numbers and coordination. There were forty vampires exactly, and they were led by Lucian, a clever tactician. Lucian's army had only become so powerful when he had inherited most of Frederick's guard after he died.

Together, the Romanian army consisted of seventy-one vampires, plus the four commanders, and united, they were a fierce wall of sheer power. Three days later, the four commanders came together, and the 75-strong army of vampires swarmed across Romania with purpose. If anybody had seen the looks on their faces, they would have been terrified. But they were moving too fast to be seen. They were moving towards Italy, towards Volterra and the Volturi. Vladimir, Stefan, Lucian and Sonia were going to stage a full-scale assault on the Volturi.