Most of the vampires who had witnessed for us with during the Volturi incident had come for Renesmee's wedding. Apparently, Jasper and Garrett had organized many of them into an exceptionally elaborate game of capture the flag. I doubt there had ever been such a gathering. I mused over the impossibility of the whole thing while we raced back to the house. I could hear Edward responding to Jasper's thoughts behind me as we ran.

"There is absolutely no way that you can put us on different teams."

"I'm sure you can make it even."

"I am not fighting against my wife; you know how I feel about that."

"Well, I didn't think you would want to fight against Alice either."

"You're right."

"I know we can figure out a way. Who all is playing?"

Edward chuckled, "Jasper, we are going to need a lot more space than the clearing. It looks like almost everyone is playing."

We slowed as we got closer to the house. Emmett was waiting impatiently. He was bouncing like Alice. "Come on guys. Let's do this."

"They can work this all out," Alice smiled. "Let's go find Rose."

Alice and I rushed up the stars and found Rosalie wearing jeans and a t-shirt. She was lacing up her tennis shoes. I never thought I would ever see Rose is jeans and a t-shirt.

"That is not going to be enough," Alice smirked. "This game is going to take at least twenty- four hours."

Rosalie and I gaped.

Alice went to the back of Rose's closet and pulled out hiking boots and hardy camping type clothing. "Wear this. You'll be glad you did."

"I'm not sure I want to play if it is going to take that long," I said.

"Oh, yes you do," Alice assured. "This is going to be so fun. You want to be there. I promise."

Alice found her own roughing it clothes and I was only slightly surprised to find she had and outfit all ready for me. I had learned not to fight Alice about buying clothes for me. It still made me wonder sometimes how she always had exactly what I needed at every moment. But, she was Alice after all.

By the time we made it back down, the teams were set. Edward was not the only one who was averse to playing against his mate. So, the teams had been organized accordingly. Garrett's team consisted of Kate, Edward, Nahuel, Maggie, Mary, Peter, Charlotte, Randall and me. Emmett, Rosalie, Tanya, Zaphrina, Senna, Benjamin, Kachiri, Tia and Alice were with Jasper. Esme, Siobhan, Liam, Carmen and Eleazar decided to stay in and visit. Carlisle was getting ready for a shift at the hospital.

Jasper, Emmett, Edward and Garrett had also worked out logistics and rules. They decided the clearing was too small and changed the playing area to a 20 square mile area in the Olympic range. Each vampire was allowed to use his or her talent to the full extent. There were rules like no dismembering each other, Emmet didn't like those. Prisoners could be taken, traded and rescued. In hand to hand combat, first one with lips on the other's throat was the winner. The looser had to sit out for 5 minutes and then return to his or her team's base before continuing to play.

When everyone was ready to go, we ran out to the area. Garrett and Edward captained our team. They divided us up and sent everyone out to scout our territory. The terrain was beautiful and varied. There were rocky cliffs and dense forest. Occasionally, a small clearing provided an extra obstacle. We picked one of the larger clearings as a base and began to build a fort. We gathered boulders from around the area and made a somewhat crude looking structure that would house our flag. Then we added boulders around it so it looked like a natural out cropping of rock rather than a base. Garrett hoped it would deter the other team. Edward was sure, with Alice on the opposing team, they would already know where the base was and what it looked like.

Garrett led a meeting to discuss strategy. "All of the various talents on each given team is going to make strategy very important." He began. "We need to make sure we understand each other's talents and we need as much information as possible on the other team. We have Edward- mind reading, Bella – shield" he turned to me. "Are you better at using that than before?"

I smiled. "I've been practicing and I can push my shield out about a half mile now but it is very draining. I can remove it from myself, although I don't like doing it. It is uncomfortable to be so exposed and I really can only do it when I feel very safe."

"Ok, very good," Garrett continued. "Kate – electric hands; I think that will come in handy when taking prisoners. Maggie – you can detect deception, correct?

Maggie giggled, "Yep."

"I think between Maggie and I we can do some good interrogating." Edward observed. "I think we need to worry about the other team's talents. I know we can get around Alice by changing our decisions a lot but that will not be easy. The only way we can fight off Zaphrina's gift is with Bella. I'm not sure what we can do about Benjamin or Jasper."

Edward looked at Garrett, "Well, I haven't really seen Jasper use his power in this type of situation before so I really don't know."

Garrett nodded.

At noon, both teams met in the neutral territory between our team areas and our game began. Edward and I were scouts to start. We ran down a couple of miles from the meeting point and started into the other team's territory. We kept to the trees. I kept my shield around him and Edward scanned thoughts. We moved quietly from tree to tree for quite some time. I heard a low chuckle form Edward. "It seems Alice knew I was coming. Jasper is translating The Constitution into Swahili. I didn't know he knew Swahili. Alice is singing show tunes in Chinese. Emmet is not with them." He was moving from one tree to the next getting closer to them, I followed. "Neither is Rosalie. Wow, Zaphrina, Senna and Kachiri all are singing something I've never heard before. They are actually singing together and in harmony with their thoughts." Edward stopped and shook his head. I stopped right next to him. "I have never had that happen ever. Benjamin, Tia, Tanya and Kachiri aren't there either."

Edward stiffened and started moving back through the trees so quickly I could barely keep up. "They are coming to get us. Alice knows where we are." Edward hit the ground, I was right behind him. I was suddenly on my back and Rosalie was on top of me. I could hear Edward and Emmett's growls erupting all around.

I was put on my feet, Rosalie on one side and Jasper on the other. I was filled was utter despair I wanted to sink to the ground and curl up in a ball. Jasper picked me up and started running. Benjamin was waiting for us in a clearing. He had made a place to keep prisoners. I was put in and rocks covered the opening.

"Crap!" I sat down. Not even an hour into the game and I was a prisoner, a lot of good that scouting expedition did. Maybe Edward had gotten away, I could only hope. At that moment, I heard Edward enter the clearing. Through a space between rocks I could see him. He looked shaken. He kept blinking his eyes. Zaphrina and Senna had him.

I started to move my shield to help him when the despair hit again.

"Jasper," I whined.

Edward was placed in the same rock structure I was. It took everything I had to get over to him. With him this close, I could move my shield to protect him but he could also feel Jasper's control over me. Even with the despair, he relaxed greatly as I shielded him from Zaphrina. We sat there for several hours. Everyone went to do other things except for Jasper. As dark encroached, I wondered if Garrett knew we were captured yet.

I heard some movement; I could see Benjamin and Tia moving into the clearing. "Hey, Jasper, we're here to relieve you. Alice says that no one's going to try to rescue them, at least any time soon."

I heard Jasper get up. The despair ceased. He hit us with another strong wave of emotion, discouragement, said goodbye to Benjamin and Tia and sprinted away. I wondered, how delivering that emotion for so long affected him. It was taking me longer to recover than I thought it would. I was shaking. Edward and I held each other while our bodies released the hours of powerful emotion. The discouragement made it even more difficult to shake the despair. Discouragement hung in the air like a persistent fog, it made everything challenging because no matter what I did or thought it felt as though I could never be successful at anything, ever again.

During the night, the fog dissipated and Edward and I were able to relax. He whispered so low only I could hear. "I'm sorry. I should have taken better care of you than that."

For a split second I moved my shield to give him my thought, "We both did the best we could." I felt so bad I hadn't been there to shield him from Zaphrina.

"Can you stop shielding me so I can listen to them?" he whispered.

We sat cuddled together for several hours waiting for a chance to escape or for the rescue party. We were sure that if we tried moving any of the stones Ben would have them back in place before we could get out. We could hear scuffles happening here and there in the distance all night. We watched the sunrise and the scuffles continued. Every once in a while, Edward could hear traces of the thoughts of those coming to get us, but guards from Jasper's team would stop them before they even got close enough to for Edward make out any complete thoughts.

As mid morning approached, Edward leaned in close and whispered, "I can hear Kate, but I don't know what she's doing… Oh, she was just trying to keep Alice in the dark. If we move these two rocks we should be able to get out. We are going to push them out and run. Get ready, now!"

I heard two screams as we pushed the rock away and ran. Kate quickly caught up to us. Kate and I followed Edward. It felt so good to run. We had been stuck for 20 hours and while I wasn't sore or anything. I was delighted to be out.

As we crossed on to our territory, Kate began telling us about everything that had happened over night. It took quite a while before they knew we were gone. It had taken even longer to find out where we had been taken. During the night, the team had tried many different strategies but had not made it very close. They had taken Tanya and Kachiri as prisoners. Jasper and Emmett tried to get them earlier and Kate nearly took them as well.

Edward had listened to many thoughts during the night, Tia's were especially helpful. Now, we were certain as to the whereabouts of the flag. Edward had seen a stone fort. He knew Zaphrina, Senna Emmett, Rosalie, Jasper and Alice were taking turns guarding.

We needed a plan to get the flag. Kate, Nahuel, Garrett and Randall were left to guard our territory and our prisoners. The rest of us set out each going in a different direction. Edward and Garrett had figure a system to keep Alice busy. They told us to change plans every 30 seconds to keep Alice off. We off set our changes so that if she were looking, and we were sure she was. Alice would see a new plan every five seconds.

I took to the trees. I loved being up in the trees. It was still fun to be so nimble after my awkward human existence. I raced through the forest. First in trees, then on the ground, I changed from going toward their fort to going away.

While I ran, I changed plans from shielding on the ground to shielding from the trees, to shielding from a long way away and standing right next to their fort. At one point, I even decided to return to the house and stop playing all together. Another time, I decided to run to New Jersey. It was amusing making up crazy plans and thinking about how Alice would take them. I got to the fort before I ran out of new plans to decide on. I sat high in the trees with Jasper's fort in view and changed plans every thirty seconds. I knew I was to shield everyone so Zaphrina couldn't get to them as they worked to get in and out but I couldn't let Alice know. I could see my team mates getting close as evening approached.

Alice was in the dark about specifics, but she knew we were coming. The opposition had pulled together as many as they could get quickly to provide defense. Benjamin and Tia weren't around. They must be on their way to rescue their other team members and get our flag.

I spread my shield over the forest like a blanket. I realized that if Zaphrina were under the blanket too she would be able to still affect everyone. Then, I tried to put a hole in my blanket right around Zaphrina. I had never tried to do that before but it worked beautifully. The hole followed her every move. I watched my team mates. I tried to put a hole around Emmett and Jasper and that worked too.

I watched the fighting under my, now, Swiss cheese blanket. I could feel Zaphrina trying and failing to change what the others were seeing. At one point, she tried to blind Charlotte and Peter who were fighting Jasper and Emmett. She blinded Jasper and Emmett, instead. I giggled to myself. Charlotte and Peter quickly won. Emmett growled his displeasure as he and Jasper went to their fort for the five minute time out.

I saw Edward fighting Rosalie and watched him take her out for the moment, also. She made her way to the fort as well. Now, we couldn't get to their flag at all. I hadn't expected that rule to backfire. While Jasper and Emmett waited their time, Edward and Mary fought Zaphrina and Senna. Peter and Charlotte, together, had gotten Alice and were holding her. Maggie was biding her time, hiding in the woods. It looked like she was trying to decide if she was going to leave. I had a suspicion she was waiting to jump in and get the flag as soon as Jasper, Emmett and Rosalie left the fort.

Maggie's plan worked well. Jasper and Emmett left ready to bang heads together. Rosalie was watching Emmett, distracted. I saw Maggie's curls bounce. She was in and out before anyone but Alice noticed. The fighting continued and she dashed back toward our fort. Alice was screaming about it, she was still being held by Charlotte and couldn't go after Maggie. No one could understand her over the sound of vampire bodies colliding.

Then I felt it, overwhelming hopelessness, I felt as though there could never be a chance that Maggie would make it to our fort. I had the nearly overwhelming desire to pull my shield around me and curl into a ball. I took a deep breath and pushed the emotions as hard as I could. There was only one reason to feel this so strongly. Jasper was here. He had found me. He knew he could affect me even though Zaphrina couldn't. I wanted to find him and take him out, but it took all my energy to keep shielding my team.

Jasper spread the hopelessness out over the whole group. They were all incapacitated with grief even his own team mates. Maggie, however, was already out of his range. Run, Maggie, I thought.

It got eerily quiet very quickly with all the vampires stooped in hopelessness. Then, I heard Alice gasp. The misery immediately vanished.

I jumped down from my tree to search for Alice. She sounded close, smelled close. Then, I found her. Jasper was holding on to Alice in the clearing near their fort. Her eyes were glazed over, her body slumped. What she was seeing?

It only took a half a second before Edward was there holding on to me as he watched Alice's vision with grief in his eyes. No one had even taken a breath for 45 seconds, when Alice blinked. Edward gasped and instantaneously pulled me tighter.

"Tell me," I whispered.

Alice and Edward looked at each other in an obvious silent conversation.

"What is going on, Edward?" I was beginning to panic.

"Alice, please tell us." I heard Jasper whisper.

Alice and Edward locked eyes again. Alice bowed her head, closed her eyes and whispered, "Charlie."

Author note: I'm sorry about the 2 cliffies in a row. It will all come together in the next chapter.

PLEASE review.... I've got lots of readers out there....I want to know what you're thinking.