Chapter 16

I was uninterested in what anybody had to say. Carlisle expressed his concern that I'd regret Aro's death, despite my current feelings towards him. But I had to assure him and everyone else that I made my decision. I looked to Alice, who solemnly nodded her head in confirmation, acknowledged that I would be okay with Aro's fall. He was no more to me.

"Bella, who are you? You're not acting liking yourself."

"Edward, myself? I got in this mess by being myself. I was so desperate to everything I could to make sure that, you, your family, Charlie, and the entire town of Forks was safe. I became Aro's chief assassin, his princess, all so everyone could move on with their lives."

"Wait what does he call you?" Carlisle interested in the conversation again.

At first, I was confused by his request. What had I said? "His assassin?"

"No not that. The other thing. He calls you his princess?"

"Yeah. I remind him of his daughter. Why? Is that significant?"

"It is. It goes back to when he was living in Romania. The Volturi weren't always the ruling power over vampires. That role belonged to a trio of Romanians, Marius, Stefan, and Vladimir. It is suspected that there was a dispute that involved Aro's daughter. No one is quite sure what happened, but the only thing anybody has been told is that Marius didn't survive. Aro and the two he calls his brothers, killed him. Vladimir and Stefan fled their castle while Aro, Marcus, and Caius returned to Italy."

"He's told me this story." I said recalling the first evening that Aro had opened up to me. How could I not see even then that I was being used as his pawn?

"Well, what I'm sure he hasn't told you is, that there once was a vampire, Roca, who was a very powerful seer. Much stronger than Alice but he had his flaws nonetheless. For instance, Alice could see the result of you becoming a vampire, and how. Roca on the other hand would have just seen you as a vampire. Time, place, or decisions don't effect Roca." My expression must have matched my head because I was suddenly very confused.

"Okay, Alice can see the who, how and why of the future. Roca can see only the what. He doesn't see that one got to point D by going through B and C. He just sees that person at point D. More like predetermined destiny. Or what many call prophesy."

"Okay. I think I get it now. But what does that have to do with him calling me princess?"

"Well, Roca was a man from a small village that was nearby to Syracuse. He prophesied a great deal of things, and many rulers used him for entertainment. Until one day when the great general, Aro, had a party. Roca came and upon meeting Aro gave a prophecy so chilling, that all of Syracuse shunned for the rest of his life. That night, Roca prophesied that Syracuse will fall, and on that day Aro would fall at the hands of his daughter. The community was shocked by his gift, especially since Aro's daughter was only four at the time. However, the next day, relations between Rome and Sicily broke down and Syracuse was involved in the war, and nobody gave that prophesy another thought. After three years, Syracuse was in a losing battle and maybe something clicked, Aro saw his chance. He knew his daughter was in studies, and ran to her, plunging a sword through her heart. To his fortune, a soldier had just killed her tutor, Archimedes, and Aro killed the soldier, blaming Ava's death on him. The opposing officer, was Marcus, who through his prior friendship with Aro, trusted his friend's account. Soon after a series of events, Aro became a vampire and remembered the hermit Roca. Aro found the caves were Roca lived, and changed him. Roca's first words as a vampire were, 'You will still die by your daughter's hands.' Unsure of his meaning, Aro was still infuriated with Roca and tore him to pieces. But he did not dispose of him, Roca is still alive, in fact, he lives in Volterra, in the castle."

"Carlisle, how do you know all this?" Edward asked. I was still processing the story that Carlisle had just finished telling us. I knew that Carlisle would never lie to me, it wasn't in his nature. But believing Carlisle meant that Aro's true nature was nowhere what I thought it to be.

"I've spoken to Roca. I was interested in the stories of the vampire prophet and one day, one of the wives brought me to the tower. Aro keeps the pieces locked in crates but Roca's head is intact, and he's still able to speak. It was actually Roca who gave me the idea to start my own coven in the Americas."

"Wait. The tower?" I pondered, no wonder I hated going anywhere near there. Carlisle just confirmed that Aro used it for torture.

"Bella, stop thinking about the tower. It's of no importance. Right now I'm concerned at the fact that Aro hasn't killed you. If you remind him of your daughter, why didn't he kill you when you were human." I raised an eyebrow at his words, just as he realized what he had said. "I meant, it would have been easier to dispose of you as a human rather than a newborn vampire. Why take the risk?"

"I actually knew what you meant. I wondered that too. But one thing about Aro is that he relies greatly on power, and not just his. He trusts that whether I found out as a vampire wouldn't really matter. He has the entire guard to fight for him. Edward, you saw him in the dream, he was more fascinated with the strength of my shield as a human than he was in any resemblance to his daughter. He may have not even made the connection till after I was a vampire."

Edward and Carlisle thought about everything that was said. Edward was pinching his nose and I thought over to him, 'Don't think too hard, love.' I saw a crooked smile break out from his worry. God, how did I go without that smile?

Esme reentered the room and broke the tension. "I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Alice, Edward, you have school in thirty minutes, so I suggest that you both run upstairs and change your clothes. Bella? Would you like to do some gardening with me today?" I nodded my head, grateful for something to do since I had to stay out of the public for obvious reasons. The main one being my "abduction" was national news. Who knew that Forks, Washington could be so huge in the nation?

Jasper and Emmett ran for the Xbox and started placing bets on some shooting game they were going to be playing. Carlisle grabbed his things and retreated to his study.

I started to follow Esme to the backyard when I heard my name being called and I turned my head to Rosalie.

"Bella? Can I speak with you for a moment?" It sounded like there was a slight sob to her voice, so of course I wondered what was wrong. I looked to Esme who only nodded her head once, and I went outside with Rose. We ran a few miles out of range, I assumed because she wanted this conversation completely private. "I just wanted to say thank you."

"Thank you? For what?" I said really confused.

"Well for one, saving me and Emmett. Edward told me that you warned him that we were in trouble on the plane. I thought that by speaking with you, maybe you'd forgive and come back to Edward. Come back home."

"Rose, you don't have to explain any-"

"Yes I do. So please let me finish." I closed my mouth and gave her a slight smile to continue. "I realized that I was a bitch and I thought the first step in correcting that was to bring you home. I've never doubted that you were meant for Edward. Anyone could see the change that you brought in him. But to me, you already had everything. You had a family, a true family, but most importantly you were human. You could do things that I could never do. I was jealous, and it very nearly cost me a friend." She smiled and opened her arms to me. I couldn't believe that Rosalie was jealous of me. "Another thing I wanted to thank you for is becoming a vampire. I know it was what you had initially wanted, to be with Edward, but you ended up doing it to save my entire family. To me, that's the most important thing."

I gave Rose a kiss on the cheek, and we walked back towards the house in silence. When we got there, Alice and Edward had already left for school, and Esme was waiting for me to help her garden. I couldn't wait for school to be over.

"You've already brought my family back together again. I'm not ashamed to call us a family again." I looked at Esme, shocked that those were the words that had come out of her mouth to pull me out of my thoughts. Seeing the surprise on my face, she continued, "Don't get me wrong, I've loved every single one of them through the good, bad, and ugly. But it was too pitiful to refer to us as a family, we were just people that lived together. I for one took leaving you especially hard, I didn't want to leave you behind, you were a daughter to me and I had hoped that someday you'd be my daughter-in-law."

"Esme, I know what you mean. You don't need to explain anything to me. I will always love you and everybody else. Even when you guys left, I loved you. Nothing was ever going to change that." I said to reassure her. "Had I been left human, and you guys returned, I probably would have forgiven all of you and continued where we left off."

Esme gave me a hug, dry sobbing that she had her daughter back.

We continued with the gardening, planting a couple of cherry blossom trees, and removing any weeds. We worked at a human pace because Esme enjoyed her gardening. She explained that nothing relaxed her more.

Before I knew it, Edward and Alice were due home, and I'd get some alone time with Edward. As soon as he got out of his car, Edward scooped me up and we ran towards the meadow.

The sun was breaking the clouds and trees and our skin was sparkling in the sunlight. Laying in the perfect circle of soft grass, we stared into each others eyes and were satisfied with each other's company.

"I'm really glad you've given me a second chance Bella. I know I haven't really deserved it." Edward said, breaking the silence that wasn't at all uncomfortable.

I looked back into his eyes and wished he would get it right. It was me who was lucky that I got a second chance with him. But I knew that he would just call me stupid, so I just nodded my head and smiled.

"What do you think will happen next?" I asked him. Every fiber in my body was screaming the Volturi, and no one seemed concerned that we were against an army of trained masters of their craft.

"I don't know." Edward said thoughtfully. Raising his head so that one arm was propping him up, he placed his right hand on my stomach. "You're the dream whiz. You tell me."

I tried my best to imitate his crooked smile as I closed my eyes. When I opened them. "That will work."

A/N: Thank you for all of your reviews and messages!! They mean so much, and I can't believe I have so many readers!! This chapter took a while for me to upload because I thought I saved on my jump drive, when actually I saved it to the hard drive of my work computer. So I had to wait till I had a chance to get into the building to get it. Anyways, again you guys are wonderful!!