A/N: Here you go, enjoy and review

Chapter Eight- Catching Fire

Arianna POV

"Once, a very, very long time ago. There was an angel named Sephrenia, she wanted desperately to have children, but she was unable to. So she went a white witch and asked her to help her create children. The witch told her that creating life was not something she could do, witches could change things, kill things, save things, but they could not truly create life and not truly destroy life. Sephrenia was desperate, she wanted children so badly, and so she asked the witch if she could half-create life, make a compromise.

"The witch told her that this would be possible, but that Sephrenia herself would have to be the first to make the change. Maeve, the witch, said that her children would be frozen, trapped in a space between life and death and forced to live off the lifeblood of others until the prophecy was complete and the children earned true life.

"Sephrenia agreed quickly to the idea. The witch was still trying to talk her out of it. She warned that it would take millennia for the prophecy to be complete."

"What was the prophecy?" I asked eagerly.

"I'm getting there." He laughed. "The prophecy started off with the fact that she would create ten children, all mated pairs. Then that three of them would 'rise above the others'. It gets a lot longer, but since her three children that would rise to power are Aro, Marcus and Caius, and that's already happened I'm not going to go into detail. The interesting part is the part that hasn't happened yet. It gets really cryptic near the end. The witch told her that the prophecy would only be complete when the children of smoke and fire somehow managed to turn all the good vampires into angels and the bad ones into dust.

"Of course, the witch also told Sephrenia that the prophecy might never happen, because if the children die before the three great powers, then all will be lost and her children will travel down their destructive paths and destroy the world.

"But of course Sephrenia pointedly ignored that, she wanted children, not warnings. And thus she became the first vampire."

I heard Carlisle laugh. "That's about the most summarized version of the story I've ever heard." He teased, looking at Alec.

Alec just smiled, "She's already heard the full version, but she didn't get it. It happened over three thousand years ago after all."

"Is it really real?" I asked.

"Apparently," said Alec, "but for all we know Aro just made it up and followed its guidelines to make him seem more powerful."

"He would do that wouldn't he?"

"Oh yes."

At that point all the Cullen children walked down the stairs, they had gotten changed and were wearing new clothing. Rosalie looked around the room, "Are there any immortal adult-children in the room that would be willing to come to school with me?" she asked hopefully.

"Why would you need one of us to come to school with you?" asked Maggie, she was sketching on the other side of the room.

"Our teacher asked that if we had any younger siblings and/or cousins that would be willing to get a day off school could come in and help her mark projects that the class did. We get ten extra marks on the project, normally teachers just give us a hundred percent for our mid-terms, this could be a new record, and since Edward currently holds the record of a hundred-and-six percent, I want to beat him." She finished with a glare at Edward.

"Not going to happen." He laughed.

"Why does she want our help?" asked Maggie.

"Because the projects are games for kids, and since she's not a kid, she feels she needs help. So do you want to help?" she threw a hopeful look at Maggie.

"No," she snorted.

"You're going to need to give her an excuse Maggie," chuckled Edward, "or else she's just going to bug you about it until you go in."

Maggie frowned, "We're going hunting, right Siobhan?"

"We actually were going to go." Was all Siobhan said.

"Alec?" Rosalie turned to Alec.

"I'm over a thousand years old Rosalie," he laughed. "Do you honestly think I act like a child? Then add on the fact that the only human contact I've had in centuries is at dinner time."

"Ari?"

"Are you insane?" I pointed at myself, "Two week old, newborn vampire, remember?"

"I'll acknowledge that point," she said, "but if you and Alec combine yourselves together you'd be able to come."

"I agree with that," said Maggie.

"Whose side are you on?"I shot at her.

"Mine. If she's taking you she's not taking me."

"Please guys," begged Rose.

"Now Rose," said Alice grinning, "stop picking on the children. They can't do that and you know it."

Rosalie laughed, "I do know, I was just hoping to beat Edward's record."

"You'll beat it in math anyway if you start doing the study contract she offered."

"By how much?" said Rosalie eagerly.

"You'll get one-hundred-and-twenty," replied Alice. Rosalie sent a smug smirk at Edward who rolled his eyes. The group walked out the door into the garage, you could hear the engines start up and them driving away.

The house seemed strangely silent without the insane teenage vampires in it.

Siobhan looked around, "We're going to go hunting now, Carlisle. Anyone else want to come?"

All the human-eating vampires ended up going hunting, no-one wanted to risk going anywhere alone, and they would have to go far enough away not to be noticed. The Cullens and the Tanya's family, plus Alec and I would be enough to hold the Volturi off if they attacked. So it was all good.

Better than sending people hunting in smaller groups and getting them killed off anyways.

Tanya was sitting in a corner of the room reading a book, Kate and Garrett had finished off their activities and were watching TV. Carmen and Esme were out back gardening. Carlisle and Elaezar were having some kind of debate about a book I've never heard of. Alec and I were looking around the room going 'now what do we do?'

I leaned back into his chest, staring at the ceiling. We were still curled up in a tiny ball, leaning against the couch.

Elaezar looked over at me. "Ari, what exactly is your gift? It seems to have so many different parts to it that I can't get a good reading."

Excellent, I'm not bored anymore. "I'm not entirely sure, we didn't really have all that much time for experimentation since Alec wasn't technically allowed in my room and Aro came in during the middle of it and chased him out."

Carlisle looked over, "I'm shocked Aro turned down the opportunity to miss any experiments at all, he's insanely inquisitive." He said wryly.

Alec chuckled, "The amount of power manipulation going on in the room scared the living hell out of him. He figured it would be better to wait until after he knew how to control it before he went and strengthened the gift."

"So what can it do?" persisted Elaezar, "you've got me curious now."

"So far we know I can strengthen and weaken the gifts of others, and that I can imitate the gifts of others. And it's controlled by singing, which is a pain in the neck -literally- when someone realizes that all they have to do to stop you is crush your throat in."

"That someone wouldn't also happen to be Aro, would it?" snorted Carmen, walking into the room with Esme following.

"Why, now that you mention it, Aro was the one who demonstrated that wonderful knowledge."

"How did he stop it from healing?" asked Carlisle. Always a doctor.

"He poured some kind of liquid into it." I shuddered slightly.

He looked at Alec. "Do you know what it is?"

"No not really," he said thoughtfully, "I know there's no venom in it, it doesn't leave any scars. Apart from that though, I've no idea."

"Can you try using your gift again Ari?" asked Carlisle. "I'd like to see what we can find out."

"Aro's not the only one who's insanely curious," muttered Tanya, grinning.

"Yes, but Carlisle doesn't have the psychopathic tendencies." I choked out laughing. You really can't get the joke until you've met both of them.

Carlisle rolled his eyes, he was grinning slightly. "Hilarious guys. Let's see it Ari."

I didn't bother using words, I knew now that just my voice would do it. Using words would get me a lot of power, but just singing would be more controlled. I felt the power ebb and flow with my words, I looked at Kate "Can I demonstrate using your gift?"

She nodded "go ahead Ari,"

I lifted my voice to hit a pure note; it reverberated around the room, sending power with it. I collected it in one huge pool and sent the power out to her in one big stream. I held it there for a few seconds, filling Kate with power like a river running into a dry lake before I pulled it out and sent it crashing back towards me.

Trying to control all the power is like trying to control a river, it flows and twists, trying to break free and rush out. It would be impossible without some kind of tool, which is where my voice comes in.

Eventually I had it all back and I stopped using it. The room echoed slightly, like there was something missing. Kate let out a low whistle. "That was quite a surprise. It felt amazing, like I was floating in raw power."

Carlisle tapped his chin; you could tell he was thinking hard. "Ari, when you change your gift to someone else's colour how good are you at controlling the other person's gift? It can take a vampire ages to learn how to control their gift, and they can't have any distractions. You're already concentrating on something and the gifts are brand new to you."

"I'm not sure, we were about to try that before Aro decided to crash the party."

"Let's try it now then."

I tried to figure out whether I would need power more, or control more. It takes a lot of effort to change my gift, but then again, it's going to take a lot of control to copy someone else's gift. "Kate, what do you think when you use your gift?"

"Try to imagine a pocket of energy building up and then let it out at someone in one big shock. It helps if you make yourself angry too."

"Do you think it'll take more power, or more control?"

"You'll need however much it takes you to change your gift, plus a tiny concentrated amount to create the shock."

"I'll try going for control first, if that doesn't work I'll go for brute force."

I hit the same pure note that I hit before and felt the power start flying. I collected that power up and balled it within myself before changing how it felt to an electric blue. Kate's gift. I felt a different sort of power.

I could understand what Carlisle meant now, not only did I have to have perfect control over my voice (which luckily enough seemed natural for me) but I had to find a new way to control this new power. Her gift was so faint and light, the energy for it was barely there. If I didn't know what I was looking for I never would have found it.

I tried to gather that tiny energy up, but it was like trying to get a handful of water out of mist. Nearly impossible. I concentrated harder- changing my voice, so that although I still wasn't using words it soared through the octaves changing tone, but still remaining a beautiful unbroken sound.

My gift became harder to control then, but Kate's gift grew strong enough that I could actually do something with it. I did what she told me and it welled up into a concentrated, tiny ball of energy. Compared to the power of my gift flying around it was nothing, but in reality it was a lot more useful.

I turned towards Kate, holding out my hand. It was like tying to see through a wall of blinding light, difficult but not impossible. I was still concentrating all my energy to stop the pressure of my power from collapsing in on itself- the way a river would breach a dam- and keeping the spark of electricity from dying out that I didn't notice that I had a bit of an audience. There was a woman that I had never seen before standing in the corner of the room. She reminded me of Bella and Edward, she had a heartbeat, but there was something inhuman about her. This must be Renesmee. She stood up and went towards the door. I stopped looking at her and turned back to the task at hand.

I grabbed Kate's and and sent a tiny jolt of electricity through her. She gave me an amused glance, "Just shock me Ari. I felt that, but don't hold back." I reached out again and grabbed her hand sending an even stronger jolt of electricity through her. She jumped and her eyes rolled back slightly.

I lost control of the power and it slammed back into me. I stumbled backwards. Ouch... serious whiplash. "I'm sorry Kate. Really, really sor-"

"It's all right Ari, I told you to. It was fun, even when your eyes started glowing."

"My eyes started glowing?" I choked out. It's not like I don't have enough problems with them already, bright red, glowing eyes. Everyone in the room started nodding. Well, damn.

She laughed ruefully. "It took me ages to get it to be that powerful a shock, how did you manage it?"

I frowned, thinking. How exactly had I done it? To say that the amount of power I could have with so little effort scared me would have been the understatement of the century, it terrified me. Some people do okay with power, look at Carlisle, he's one of the most powerful vampires on the planet if you think about it, but you'd never tell by looking at him, and you could tell he didn't think of himself that way.

But then there were the people like Aro, who turned into absolute sadists after a while. What if I turned out like Aro and Jane- twisted beyond belief and caring nothing about anyone other than me? I shuddered slightly.

The others were waiting for me to answer; they were totally oblivious to that bit of soul searching. Alec looked like he had guessed something was bothering me, but he's my mate, I can tell when something is bothering him too. Not that I've seen very much bother him, he's very calm.

I opened my mouth, "I don't know very much yet, but from what I've seen there are two big parts to learning how to use a gift. Figuring out how to control it and getting enough power to use it. My gift can get me all the power I need- maybe a little too much power. People have told me how they control their gifts, so it won't take me as long. It was trial and error for a while there anyways."

Carlisle nodded, "Amazing, no wonder you terrify Aro."

Renesmee-at least, I think it was Renesmee- came back into the room from the kitchen. Carlisle looked up at her, she was grinning. "Did I hear that someone was terrifying Aro? Can I help?" I think I have a sister in spirit here.

Carlisle smiled in response. "How are you, Nessie?"

"I'm good, thanks." She sat down beside him. She looked at us. "Hello, would you be Ari and Alec?"

Alec nodded, and I said yes. She smiled at us, "I probably shouldn't trust you," she said, grinning at Alec, she had that big open smile that made people want to grin in response. "But I won't tell anyone that I do if you don't."

Alec grinned, "Whatever you want." He seemed nervous about something. I'll have to ask him later.

Renesmee looked around the room, "I just came to ask Aunt Alice something, is she here, or are they at school?"

Tanya shook her head, "they're at school. You could always go there- it's lunch time right now and Alice will see you coming and head off of school property to talk to you."

Nessie nodded, "I think I'll do that then- thanks guys." With that she left the room and went to go find Alice- I wonder what she's going to ask her about...

Carlisle began to speak again, "I'd like to try something else when Bella gets back. Apart from that though, I can't really think of more experiments... for now."

If Carlisle wasn't so nice then I would have been worried about the 'for now', except I trust him and- better yet- Alec trusts him. I trust Alec's opinion more than I trust mine, he thinks things through while I just jump right in and almost get us killed, and then Alec ends up doing damage control.

Yeah, welcome to my life.

Alec looked at Carlisle. "Do you have a soccer ball anywhere?"

"In the shed." Alec and I walked out to the shed and grabbed the ball. I wondered why he had asked where it was. He didn't like sports, at all.

Alec passed the ball to me and I kicked it back. A feat that would have been impossible for me had I been human- I was the biggest klutz ever. "So do you want to tell me what was bothering you when Kate asked you how you mastered her gift so quickly." Oh... he wanted to have a private conversation.

I think this proves the point I made earlier about who thinks things through.

"Will you tell me what bothered you about Renesmee?"

His face grew surprised, and then he got the kind of wry smile that you get when you know that you've let something slip. "You noticed that, huh?"

"Of course."

"I was afraid she'd hate me. I've had people hate me before and never cared, but for some reason I just want the Cullen's to like me." He frowned.

"You do know that's a normal reaction, right?. Aro plays on that fact, making you want to fit in with the guard so you'll do what he says, so you've learned to not feel that need. It wouldn't really be all that surprising that you trust Carlisle more than you trust Aro, so you want to fit in with Carlisle's family, not Aro's coven."

He nodded, grinning ruefully. "I see your point. Now spill, what's bugging you about your gift?"

"It's too powerful, and I haven't had to do anything for it."

"No, you haven't done anything hard lately at all, just been kidnapped, dragged to Italy, died and turned into a vampire, been tortured, swam across the Atlantic Ocean... nope nothing hard happening in your life at all." His voice absolutely oozed sarcasm.

I shot him a glare; I do not want to laugh about this topic. "What I mean is, what if I start reacting badly to this power and turn into Jane or Aro?"

"You're afraid the power will corrupt you?" I nodded glumly, "Ari, I've never seen a vampire less likely to act like Aro. Jane turned into him because she was already open to corruption and Aro wanted her to be evil. You are heading in the opposite direction." I raised my eyebrow at him, still not believing it, "Aro turned you, what? A week ago-ish? And you've somehow managed to end up on the other side world turning into a veggie vamp. Trust me on this one, you are not going to turn into Jane. If you start to I'll be sure to let you know."

"We'll see." I smiled at him, I felt better and he knew it.

Stupid over confident... I shot the ball straight at his head. He head butted it towards me. Our little game of pass the ball got more intense after that.

You probably could have heard us laughing half way across the world.

Carlisle POV

Esme was making up some food for Nessie and Jake. She looked out the back window at Ari and Alec. "I really like those kids Carlisle, I know Alec is older than I am, and it shows too. But there's still something childish about him. He's so unused to positive emotions he's like a child on that front. I mean did you hear that conversation? He's afraid of wanting to fit in! If I could get my hands on Aro's throat..." She made a violent wringing gesture with her hands.

"I agree, I agree." I murmured soothingly, "remember Alice's vision. They'll be happy as soon as Aro is gone." Please let that day come to us soon.

"I know, but it makes me angry to see them like this." She looked out the window and smiled, "I hope it snows soon, I know Alec probably hasn't had a snowball fight before. The idea of throwing snow at someone would seem ridiculous to him. And we all know Ari will beam him in the back of the head with one." She gave the kind of sigh a mother would give when talking about her child. She already cared for them like she would her own children.

Although Ari and Alec were not true immortal children, they were still changed young enough to have that kind of innocence about them, the one that made people want to protect them. For anyone over about thirteen the innocence would disappear, but for Ari, Alec and Maggie they would always have people wanting to protect them. Jane had screwed it up for herself by being a bit... overbearing.

In the rest of Alice's vision she said they were our family. She said that her vision was becoming strangely blurred after Aro died in the vision where we would win. She couldn't see any visions of Aro dying at all and the area behind all the backs of all the vampires after that were blurred in a way similar to how Bella had a blurry spot around herself when she was pregnant with Renesmee.

And just like with Bella's pregnancy, whatever was causing the blurring around us was becoming a stronger and stronger future. The day before Ari and Alec arrived the pictures were slightly blurry, now she could hardly see anything at all.

The future may be uncertain, but until then maybe we could welcome some new members to our family. I looked out the window at the playing children. Alice said that it would happen. Why not let it? Even Rosalie likes them- and we all know that that is high praise. Esme sighed and looked out the window again. No, I definitely couldn't imagine anything better.