Disclaimer: We do not own, nor claim to own, anything that is from the wonderful imagination of Stephenie Meyer.

A/N: So here's the much awaited Chapter 12. Unfortunately, as much as we hate them, it's a filler. It's a very necessary filler, but a filler nonetheless. Nothing super duper exciting happens in this chapter, but there's a bit of foreshadowing for the final chapter. Because this chapter came out much later than I wanted or anticipated, the final chapter will not be posted until next Tuesday. –Ducks from flying food, etc. thrown by audience.– Hey now, not my fault. I wanted this posted on Thursday. Anyway, get on with the reading.

What He Would Have Wanted
By: cALLIEfornia BENches

The looming dark gates of the square brought back dark and distant memories, but each one clear and pristine in their condition. The clock tower to my left still stood high above the cobblestone plaza, and the square still looked like it could stretch on for miles at a time. Ahead were the various pillars and poles with statues above the spires; I had failed to see those intricate figures on my last trip here. I guess I was distracted that day.

The square had changed since last I had visited. There was still a light breeze faltering over my skin as I simply stood there, observing each and every detail of Volterra. But not one person lay in sight; the usually crowded area had absolutely no one within it. The eerie silence under the pale white moon created an unfamiliar air with the square, and it took some reassuring to persuade myself that this indeed was a place I had once been to.

I sniffed the air. No one had been here for the last few hours and all human scents had become scattered across the sky through the wind. I was all by myself, as it should be. I had taken Jasper's words to heart. I was a cold and brutal person. I was a curse, a certain plague upon even the eternally living. The lonely plaza simply reminded me of my deserved loneliness. I didn't belong with people; I never did.

So why was I here?

Why did I go here?

I hesitantly took a step towards the clock tower, glancing side to side nervously, awaiting a black cloak to cover my topaz eyes and capture myself and my life. But no one did, as I should have known.

I wandered around the square, letting my feet take me where they pleased. The town was beautiful at night. It seemed so serene and calm, as if everything was right in the world, even when I knew it wasn't. The moon cast shadows on the various statues and buildings, making the already dark ground even darker beneath its black umbra.

My nightmares hadn't done this place justice. Though it was more likely that the scenery simply had a bad aura connected to it in my dreams, and therefore was somewhat distorted to seem worse than it actually was. I furrowed my brow as I neared the ledge that I had once jumped off in an attempt to save Edward. A few feet from it was where that stupid camera bag had been laying on the ground, tripping me and changing my fate for as long as I existed.

And then there was the clock tower.

I looked up at it, craning my neck to see the time. It was 11:58. I couldn't help but stifle a sarcastic laugh at the irony. Shaking my head, I moved forward.

That movement forward brought another onslaught of memories crashing into my mind. Details; vivid details.

The way his eyes looked just before the blanket covered him, the way the sun had hit them at just the right angle so they sent a sparkle in my direction. The blackness of the coat, which, though it had looked soft, held nothing but my hatred. That blanket stole my life, literally and figuratively.

I swear I could see people around me, scurrying and scrambling in a way so panicked that they kept running into each other as they all headed for different directions. The screams that were entering my ears were earth-shattering. They were screaming about Edward; my Edward. They were frightened of him. I nearly scoffed aloud at the thought. Like Edward would ever hurt them. He couldn't hurt a fly, let alone a city of people.

I closed my eyes as the familiar senses overwhelmed me. I felt like I was at Volterra on that steaming hot day, again. I even raised a hand to the back of my neck and could have sworn it was hotter with sunburn. The sun felt like it was beating on my, making my skin throbbing and uncomfortable. The screaming and shoving around me didn't make me feel any better.

Just as it started to get to be too much, I opened my eyes. Everything was the same as it had been before; I had just imagined it all, as real as it had seemed. I breathed a quick sigh of relief.

Moving forward again, I reached the bottom of the clock tower. The place where Edward had broken the pavement was as good as new. I gasped. It was like it had never happened. You couldn't even tell that it had ever been cracked. I would have understood if they had replaced it with a shitty slab of concrete that stood out like a sore thumb, or even if they had tried to blend it in. But this—this was the work of a vampire. No human could do this good of a job.

I took a deep breath in, trying to see if there was any trace of his scent left anywhere in the square. There wasn't.

Then, as if struck by lightening, it hit me:

If there's a human Alice, there's a human Edward somewhere.

I pulled his picture from my pocket and stared at him. There was a small crease through the middle that faded around the picture from how many times within the past twenty-four hours that I had folded and unfolded it. The edges were a little wrinkled, too, just from being in my jeans. But it didn't take away from the picture at all. It still looked as good as it did yesterday. He still looked as good as he did yesterday.

I found myself looking for Edward, now. Even though the square was deserted, I was still hoping I'd find him. Alice had stayed around where she had died; maybe Edward had, too.

I took a deep breath through my nose, hoping to pick up his scent. I had never smelled him with vampire senses before, but I had a feeling I would recognize it if I smelled it. I walked under the clock tower, purposely over where they had taken him, and passed right over it. I hadn't been to this side of the town before.

I quickly shuffled my feet over the cobblestone bricks, ever so quietly approaching the clock tower with a silent ease. I couldn't seem to smell anything. There was nothing but the occasional sweet scent that belonged to nearby flowers. Slowly, the large tower loomed over my figure.

I stood silent for quite a while, simply gazing up with glassy eyes at the monolith. One year. In that short span of eternity, I had lost all my will to live, to do it forever. Each whistle of wind through my ears brought soft, velvet-like echoes in the square, and each gust on my neck a gentle peck. I wanted to moan. But I was still so transfixed intently upon the raised figure, hoping the hands of time would grant me one wish and wheel me back to this very place. One year ago.

I'd be ready then. I would have been able to dodge the bag. And I would have pushed my way through the crowd with tremendous force. If only…

A rustle of movement caught my attention from my right. Immediately, I tensed and my instincts took over. I crouched into the shadows and an inhumanly low growl escaped my throat. I didn't want to see anyone right now. It'd be too much for me.

A voice came from the shadows, speaking in a tongue that I didn't recognize. After a moment, it tried again. "You're a vampire," the low voice repeated. It wasn't a question, it was a statement.

I tensed even more, never having been near a vampire that wasn't one of the Cullens or the Denali Coven. I knew most vampires didn't have our diet, but I had never met one that chose to feast on humans instead of animals.

The voice now moved into the light of the moon, and I could see the black cloak that flowed over their body and the hood that was raised over their head, casting a shadow over their face.

"Follow me," they said.

I hesitated for a half a second before I decided to start asking questions. "Who are you?" I asked him.

He stopped walking and looked over his shoulder at me—or it looked like he was looking at me, at least. I couldn't tell with his hood. "I'm Felix," he said. "I belong to the Volturi. I'm sure you've heard of them?"

"Of course," I snarled. You ruined me, I added mentally.

He tsked. "Why so hostile?" When I didn't respond, he continued, shaking his head. "You're still a newborn." Again, it wasn't a question. "What could you possibly have against the Volturi with so little time under your belt? And even more so, what are you doing out by yourself in a village at your age?"

"I'm not a newborn," I defended myself, "I'm almost nine months old. And what I have against the Volturi is none of your business."

He shrugged and proceeded to turn around and go back to wherever he was headed before. When he noticed that I wasn't following, he turned around again. "Well, are you coming or not?" I could have sworn I saw him shake his head in disapproval.

I shook my head. "Why should I?"

"Because Aro wants to meet you, and we can provide you with food and shelter until you move on. Aro likes to make acquaintance with all the passing vampires."

"I don't eat what you do," I replied, reluctantly following him. "I don't kill humans."

"Oh, you're one of those."

I raised an eyebrow at the back of his head. "What's that supposed to mean?"

He picked up his pace as soon as we were out of sight of any humans that could possibly see us. "Nothing, nothing. We've just seen much of your kind, lately. Picky. Very particular about what you will and won't eat."

Edward.

Without further thought, I followed the vampire named Felix, intent on finding out more about Edward, and possibly take it upon myself to get revenge.

With slow and wary steps, I trudged several paces behind Felix. I still wasn't sure what the point of this scheme could possibly be, but I wasn't sure of anything anymore. I had to let my senses take over. And my head told me to be cautious…

We neared a dark spire, one that would have been invisible to the human eye. The column was of a dark, dusty color, blending in with the architecture of the rest of the square. As we neared, I could make out a small crevice, large enough to fit a human, or vampire, through without difficulty. I stopped in my tracks and looked around, keeping an eye on Felix, who didn't seem phased at my apprehension.

"Relax," he commented in a nonchalant manner. "There's nothing that should be able to scare you here."

There were plenty things that could have scared me. For one, the square wasn't exactly the most pleasant place I'd ever been through. But the ambience of the dark spire and hole sent warning signals up to my head. With a swift decision, I surprised myself by stepping toward the hole after a vanishing Felix.

I could hardly remember the rest. The darkness—if you could call it so with vampire senses—induced me into a robotic-like trance. I remember venturing into a dark, wet and damp sewer, walking aimlessly after Felix for what would have seemed like hours, and ending up at a door. I don't ever recollect walking through the portal and stepping into a lavishly furnished underground castle and being surrounded by what smelled like vampires. Each and every one of them. Ahead of me was an old and ancient man in long red robes. His skin was the palest I had ever seen on anyone; a pearly fluorescent.

"Ahh, you must be Bella. I've seen a lot about you," the old man said. He was rather old, even for a vampire. He looked as though he had gotten changed when he was in his sixties or so. His long white beard hung down the front of his cloak, and his eyes crinkled when he smiled. He held out his hand for me to shake and when I did, he furrowed his eyebrows, as if puzzled. "But of course," he said, mostly to himself.

"How do you know my name?" I asked, wary.

He smiled, his eyes wrinkling again. "It is my power," he said. "When I touch people, I can see all their previous thoughts."

Oh. So that's why he wanted to shake my hand.

"I cannot see yours, though. I ought to have seen that coming. I mean, he told me you were immune to his powers, but I didn't know if you'd be immune to mine as well," he explained.

I was grateful that he couldn't see what I was thinking, for I would probably be sentenced to death for all the ungrateful thoughts shot in his and Felix's direction. I felt nothing but fury for those in front of me.

"So you're here," he said suddenly, "for Edward."

I cringed at the name being said aloud. Only Jasper and Carlisle had the ability to say it in front of me. I wasn't used to others saying it so freely.

"He thought a lot about you," he said. "Which is, of course, how I knew who you were. You look different than he pictured, though, thanks to your transformation. It did you well, as all do."

I was kind of put off by his remarks. I had never heard anyone talk so loosely about someone who they killed. It seemed unethical; how could he do that? Did he really kill people that often? Anger bubbled into my chest and I averted my eyes to the ground, watching my feet shuffle around mindlessly. I felt really uncomfortable here. Part of me wanted to go somewhere and curl up into a ball, disappearing as I used to in Denali. The other part of me wanted to tear his head off his shoulders and mount it on a pole.

"So you're friends of the Denali's, as well," he said in an attempt to be peaceful.

I nodded. He opened his mouth to speak again, but I cut him off. "Listen," I said, "I didn't plan on coming here. In fact, I think it's a bad idea that I'm even standing here. I'm trying," I swallowed, clenching my fists, "as hard as I can not to get angry. And I don't know much of anything about you, let alone what you've been through, but I can tell you it's hard to stand in front of the people who killed the love of your life with a smile on your face.

"He made a mistake," I reasoned, "There was no need to kill him. It was all a misunderstanding that led to an accident. There was nothing he could have done to prevent the situation. You'd have had to know that. It's not fair," I said, taking a deep breath in an attempt to control the angry tears from welling up in my eyes. I would not let him see me cry—or whatever it is vampires do.

Aro raised an eyebrow at me before exchanging an undecipherable glance with Felix.

"But Edward—" Felix tried to interrupt, but Aro cut him off.

"Silence, Felix," he ordered. "Now, you already know we did not kill him."

"Sending someone else to do your dirty work is the same, if not worse, as doing it yourself. It just proves that you're a coward," I snarled at him.

"I see," he said slowly, as if no one had ever talked to him like that. "Marcus," he said in the same tone of voice. I was confused for a moment before another vampire entered through the door.

"Yes?" he asked.

"Show Bella, here, around. Introduce her to everyone. And then show her to her room," Aro demanded. I didn't bother protesting. I submitted by staying here. I needed to find out more about Edward.

"The one that's—"

"Yes, that one," he said.

Marcus's brows furrowed, but he nodded in acquiescence.

The rest was a haze.

I trotted forth, this time behind Marcus, watching intently each and every red eye glancing in my direction. There were at least twenty of them, each one utterly beautiful, save for the blood-shot pupils. They looked royal, as they had a right to be here. I did not.

I purposefully diverted my gaze from the crowd, keeping my eyes focused on the tour ahead of me. A soft groan echoed off the walls and I turned once again to the sound. A short, almost angelic-like vampire stood a ways from the curious crowd. And unlike the rest, whose sharp gazes reflected a sort of entertained and bemused expression, this girl was anything but smug and excited. Her gesturing stance and piercing glare oddly reminded me of Victoria, and I immediately tensed up.

"Jane, calm," soothed a nearby vampire, who resembled James. I was becoming more and more uncomfortable and wished dearly that the tour would just start.

"You, Demetri, should worry about yourself, and not hold my shoulder so." She shrugged off Demetri's lingering hand and averted her hard stare back towards me. "Besides," she chanted, all the while looking straight into my eyes, "you and I know very well how well I can ruffle some feathers. Pain is merely an illusion anyway…"

I stood there, trying to decipher those weird sentences when Jane tensed and immediately frowned in my direction. My puzzled expression seemed to only anger her more.

What was I doing?

"Impossible. I can't let this happen," she whispered, a sense of awe and fury in her words. She began to shake, as if trying to convince herself something was only the imagination. I was utterly confused. "Its fine," crooned Jane, "I've hurt her in ways she doesn't even realize."

Demetri spoke up, "It doesn't work?"

"Of course it doesn't! Why else would I be complaining, you fool?!" She groaned once more and shot daggers through her eyes. I shuddered. "I'll just have to discuss something with Alec." With a smile on her face and a graceful bounce in her step, I was left alone. And so confused.

"Let's start the tour, shall we?" Marcus directed behind me to a hallway that was dimly lit.

Tall and grand spires filled the walls and large paintings hung on large frames above them. Elegant vases occupied various corners, and the colors red and gold were the only shades occupying the hall. Esme would have been extremely pleased, I told myself. I immediately shut myself up to prevent any more wounds to reopen.

After that, there wasn't much to see. There were simply too many described doors and rooms surrounding the halls that I lost track. Marcus continued to drown on in a bored and tired manner, which in turn only made me bored and tired.

I chose not to listen until I heard the words "your room." With a sigh of relief, I glanced at the direction to which he was pointing at, and began my trudge over to the door. Halfway, I heard Marcus speak in his most energetic voice yet.

"I would ask you not to be curious and seek other rooms," he said, looking at the various doors beside mine, "It would be quite a shame for you to run into something," he looked at me with a mischievous glint in his eye, "or someone, that you never thought you'd find here."

He turned around and left, leaving me as confused as I was relieved to be alone.

Maybe it was the fact that I was, in fact, alone again. Or maybe it was that I could now curl into myself as I had been hoping earlier. Either way, as I walked down the hall toward my room, I felt strangely at ease. Happy, almost. No, not almost. I was happy. But I couldn't quite put my finger on why. But I felt strangely elated for the first time in years. So much so that there was a slight spring in my step.

It was weird, being happy after being miserable for so long. I never really understood when people had said that they felt like a weight had been lifted off their shoulders until now. I honestly felt lighter. I felt like it was impossible for anyone to upset me. I felt like I was home for the first time in over a year. I felt safe. I was with people that, though I felt nothing but hatred for them, were like me; they were destroyers. They did as I did. And for the first time, I felt as though I fit in.

I got to the room he had pointed out to me and opened one of the what seemed like hundreds of doors in the hall, I was nothing less than euphoric. Taking a deep waft of my new room, a smile stretched impossibly further across my face. I was home.

IMPORTANT A/N. Please read: Told you it was a filler. And please, don't go assuming things after reading this chapter. There're more misleading quotes than there are foreshadowing quotes. And the foreshadowing quotes are very, very subtle. We wouldn't just go out there and say something. So don't assume. :)

Anyway, all of the following will be posted next Tuesday: Chapter 13 (the final chapter), an insight into the sequel, the sequel title, as well as the sequel release date.

I'VE GOT A DEAL FOR YOU! Okay. If you get us up to 100 reviews by midnight Thursday night/Friday morning, the, we'll post the final chapter on Friday night. The epilogue/insight to the sequel, sequel title, and sequel release date will still be posted next Tuesday, but really, the chapter is the most important of them all. :)

First five to review get the sequel title, if you haven't gotten it already. All reviewers get a preview of the final chapter. If you haven't ever reviewed before, I suggest reviewing this chapter, if only for the preview. It'll be worth it. Promise. :)

Okay, I've said enough. Sorry for the long AN. I had a lot to say. Haha. :)

Until Tuesday,
-cALLIEfornia BENches