A/N: *waves* Hi Guys! Welcome back!

First let me get all my thank you's out of the way. *clears throat*

First and foremost, I must thank my team. Walkingwithgiants, and Twilly for their pre-reading expertise! MyHeroin01 for her spectacular beta skills.

Thanks to the girls over at The Fictionators Caren and Kassiah! You guys do a great job!

Also, TH was featured as 'New Fic of the Week' over at Indieficpimp! *throws confetti* Thank you ALL and I have to tell you that I'm TOTALLY flattered! Love and kisses to you!

Thank you guys (readers) for the continued support, alerts, favorites and reviews! It means so much! I apologize for not being able to respond to reviews this week. RL kicked my ass! That won't happen that often!

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight... blah, blah, blah. So on and So on. *snort*

Enjoy and see me at the bottom! *winks*

"You want me to do what!?" I exclaimed, my eyes darted around the table from face to face. Each solemn expression told me exactly what I needed to know.

Assassin=Murderer.

Aro leaned forward in his seat, resting his elbows on the table as steepled his fingers underneath his chin. "Edward..." he paused in contemplation before continuing, "There is an order in this world. The light, the undecided, and the darkness. Without all three tiers, there would be chaos."

I felt my eyebrows furrow in confusion as he continued. "Without darkness, there is no light. How would you discern one without the other? Not only that, but there is the undecided. At some point there will be an event, an event that will decide which fork in the road to take. What we do here is help that decision to be made."

My brow dipped down to the point of discomfort as I contemplated exactly what he must have meant. I felt the tingling of something in the back of my mind. Something, I don't know, familiar? Like I had possibly heard it all somewhere before?

"Don't hold your thoughts to yourself, please indulge me." He waved his hand before he sat back, crossing his leg over the other ankle.

"So, are you trying to insinuate that 'fate' isn't an intangible force? Instead fate is here in the flesh, and it is controlled by human hand?"

"Exactly." He concluded with a blinding smile.

My gaze dropped to my hands in my lap as I contemplated his 'theory'. My subconscious was screaming at me, pushing my rational side to the forefront. All in all, this was just a way to candy coat murder. But what if, on the off chance, he was right?

Well, why this particular guy?

What has he done to make him such a bad person?

How am I more qualified to to take him down than a trained assassin?

I swallowed thickly, thinking back over the shit hand I was dealt in life. I had already been stripped of anything that had an inkling of meaning. Family. So-called friends. Money. Love.

Love.

My vision blurred in anger at the mere thought of the emotion. I had a certain strawberry-blonde to thank for that.

What do I have to lose?

It was with that thought that I lifted my gaze once more to Aro. "What exactly do I have to do?"

Aro's smile widened infinitesimally, "Train." He said simply, as if it was the answer to all my questions. My confusion must have been apparent in my expression because he chuckled quietly before continuing, "You have a certain, hmmm, capability. It's something you must exercise for maximum strength, much like your arms and legs."

I snorted incredulously, "I take it you're not talking about the fact that I can type 112 words per minute. That's about all I have."

His lips curled into a dark smile, "No son, that's not what I meant. Your mate will explain more of this 'training' to you."

I tensed in my seat staring at him in alarm, "Did you just say...mate?"

One solemn nod was his only response.

"What the hell do you mean mate!? What the fuck are you breeding around here!?"

I slowly followed his line of sight, until I met the amused gaze of my captor. She scoffed indignantly, "It's not what you think. Let me tell you, it's only mechanical."

My head snapped in Aro's direction in irritation, "Is that supposed to make it better!?"

Aro scrubbed his hand down his face in annoyance, leveling Bella with a glare hot enough to melt pure copper. "What she means by mechanical is simply that you two balance. Let me explain it like this, has anyone ever told you that math is a definite? Either it works, or it doesn't, right?" I nodded silently as he continued, "What does one divided by one equal?"

"One." I answered in unison with Bella.

"Exactly. Her ability covers the shortcomings of yours and vice versa. When you two begin working and training together, it'll all make perfect sense."

"Come on pretty boy, we have some things to settle." Bella snapped, all the while sending a death glare toward her superior.

I vaguely registered the devious smirks and smiles from the rest of the party in attendance. Once again, we made our way to the main hallway, me hot on her heels.

"What 'things' do we have to settle?" I asked, reluctantly.

"First, I to have you eliminated, then I..."

"What!?"

She threw her hands up in exasperation,"That means you are wiped clean from existence. No government records, dental records, medical records...get the point? You. Don't. Exist."

Oh...Oh!

"Listen, if I'd wanted to kill you, you would have died in that convenience store on aisle two with the potato chips."

I nodded dumbly, as she continued to tick off her mental itinerary, "After I have your files wiped cleaned, I need to take you to the catacombs to show you your room. Then, we head to the kitchen and get you some food! You're practically wasting away!"

My head dropped in shame, as I really just took in my appearance. In the past three months I had lost roughly thirty pounds. Factor in stress and not being able to afford to indulge in 'groceries' and you have a foolproof diet plan. The Ramen Noodle diet apparently wasn't maintaining my normal 180 pounds. My once average build was down to the spindly form of an awkward teenager.

"I haven't really had the means to eat properly." I stated quietly, humiliation creeping into my tone.

She halted her steps abruptly peering over her shoulder at me. Her eyes softened just a bit and she nodded in understanding, completely dropping the subject. I followed her down through a few more hallways until we stepped into a room that looked like the spaceship from Star Trek.

There were monitors everywhere.

In the very center of the kidney shaped tech board, was a tiny little thing, with a head full of wild black spikes. She glanced over her shoulder appraising me once with a pair of slate grey eyes. Her eyes snapped to Bella, giving her a little grin.

"What do we have here? Is this your soulmate?" The little imp asked, all the while trying to smother her giggles.

"Oh yes, the regular old love birds." Bella deadpanned.

This miniature person, whoever she was, threw her head back and laughed, "Whatever, at least he's cute. You could've been mated with Caius for fuck's sake."

They both visibly cringed as she turned to me and smiled, "I'm Alice, Allie for short."

"Edward." I said quietly with a nod.

"So, what brings you by my domain, Bee?" She inquired, pulling her glasses from the top of her head down to the bridge of her nose.

"I need a full elimination."

Allie nodded once, wagging her head over the far left side of the room, "Step right up!" She pointed to a flat black pad, no bigger than a shoebox, "Place both of your hands palm down, press firmly, and be very still, okay?"

I nodded as she clicked away at an attached keyboard. A red laser beam slowly scanned the length of each hand. All three of us watched the screen as my credentials flashed at lightning speed. Diplomas, social security card, birth certificate, and so on.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end as the panic crept through my body. This was real. This was actually happening.

As my life literally flashed before my eyes, I realized had reached the point of no return.

So what are you thinking so far? Has anything become 'clearer' for you?

I noticed a lot of you have been pondering what Bella's M.O. is. So with that being said, we'll be taking a peek inside of Bella's head next chapter!

You can follow me MzKKCullen on twitter for sneak peaks, teasers and random fuckery. *smiles*

Also the rec of the week this week is: Chop and Change by KrazyK85! FFN totally fucked the idea of putting links in the documents so yeah... just search it. LOL!

Thanks for reading! Leave me some love, and I will see you next tuesday!

xoxoxoxoxoxo

KK