A/N – I'm trying something different this time. After writing all my lovely Cullen women I'm going over to the dark side to give the Volturi a try! I thought I'd have a look at Jane, and her story of change and joining the Volturi, which sounds rather interesting.

However, a few little historical notes first! In the guide, Jane and Alec were said to have been from England and joined the Volturi "by 800AD", after an attempt to have them burned as witches.

This is a really sketchy time in history and not a lot is known about it. The Romans had long left Britain, and the Anglo-Saxons were the dominant power. England itself did not match the boundaries of today, and was broken up into several different kingdoms and sub-kingdoms. In the hundred years between 700AD and 800AD Christianity spread throughout Britain, replacing the old pagan gods of the Saxons. This was done without full scale war but there would certainly have been periods of tension between Christians and Pagans during the gradual changeover.

Early Christianity in Anglo-Saxon Britain was not overly concerned with witchcraft. In fact some early Christians said that belief in witches was 'unchristian' as it attributed too much power to Satan. So this was not a time in history where witch hunts were happening and, incidentally, even when witch hunts did happen later on, witches in England were hung or drowned rather than burned.

But since I'm writing a story rather than an historical treatise, I can mess about with the facts as well as things unknown and make it all suit my purposes! So this isn't exactly historically accurate, but it's close enough.

The other historical issue that I'm messing with here is language. There is no way Alec and Jane would be speaking the same language as the Volturi, but for the sake of the story everyone is talking in a common language, and I'm using the word 'witch' as it's what we'll all be familiar with in this context.

There's also going to have to be a few OCs in this story too. I tend to avoid them if possible, but most of the Volturi that we know from the books just weren't around at this point in time!

As always, these characters are Stephenie Meyer's creation and I'm just borrowing them to play with. Questions, comments and suggestions are always welcome (and quite frankly, might be needed here…how do I go from being a Rosalie-girl to messing around with JANE?)

Chapter 1 – The Finding

Exodus 22:18 Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.

Aro was bored. It was inevitable, in a life as long as his had been, that there would be times of inactivity and placid peace – boring peace! – but nevertheless Aro was restless.

He glanced around the library. Across from him sat Marcus, a book open in front of him but his eyes staring beyond the page into the fog of his own memories. Didyme, Marcus' wife and Aro's own sister, and all the misery and heartache Marcus had felt since her death. Such a tragic loss, Aro thought. Necessary of course, but tragic all the same…and Marcus had turned out to be such a disappointment! Of course he should be sad, Aro thought magnanimously, but there was no need for this endless rumination on what he had lost. After all, surely they had enough to do to keep control of the vampire world?

Caius was writing, relaxed and calm. He had been spending time with Corin again, Aro deduced, taking advantage of her talent for inducing contentment. He'd been visiting her more often lately, Aro thought with a faint frown. Perhaps too often – Corin's talent could become like an addiction and it wasn't clear how much exposure it took. While Aro preferred the more amiable and easily led Caius to the sadistic, angry Caius, he knew he needed at least one effective ruler at his side.

Hearing the noise in the hallway of someone approaching, Aro raised his head. It was Felix, a recent addition to the Guard, useful for his enormous strength and skill at fighting. And below his footsteps Aro could hear lighter steps, ones he had not heard in some time. His face lighting up with pleasure Aro clasped his hands together.

"Friends, it's Philippe returning to us!"

As Marcus and Caius looked up, Felix rapped heavily on the door and then opened it at Aro's command.

"A vampire named Philippe," he announced. "He said you would want to see him." There was a look of uncertainty in Felix's face as he faced the Three across the room. He was very new, and his new masters could be somewhat capricious.

But this time Aro smiled down at him benevolently. "Of course Felix. Philippe is a very old friend! Thank you for showing him in, and now you may go."

Felix disappeared, leaving behind the vampire who had accompanied him.

Philippe was tall and burly, his long fair hair braided away from his face into a windswept tangle at the back, and he looked like nothing more or less than the Norse gods of his ancestors. He was dressed in a long tunic and wore a wooden cross hanging around his neck, and Aro's mouth quirked up into a smile as he took him in.

"A priest, Philippe?" he asked in amusement.

Philippe laughed, far more relaxed in the presence of The Three than Felix had been. After all, Philippe had known them much longer and his usefulness to the Volturi would be hard to replace. Strong, powerful vampires like Felix were easy to come across, but what Philippe was able to do…

"An excellent disguise for travelling about the countryside," he said cheerfully. "No one suspects a man of the cloth! A sermon here and there, the occasional baptism, helping a few souls cross to the afterlife…very simple. And of course, one gains much information like this."

Aro fought to keep his face neutral. Of course, Philippe could guess how much Aro wanted what only Philippe was able to provide, but it wouldn't do to seem overeager.

"You bring me news then?"

"Yes." Philippe's light heartedness vanished, and he looked at Aro intently. "From England. They're only children, twins…"

"Twins?" Aro frowned. "We've had tales of twins before, you know how those superstitions go, and it's always been nothing…"

"Not this time."

The certainty in Philippe's voice made even Marcus sit up and pay attention.

"A boy and a girl. I heard tell of them and it made me prick up my ears. The tales were things I've heard before, of the children being able to ill wish those who cross them or bring good luck if they are so inclined. Common stories, especially in some of these godforsaken, isolated villagers." Philippe hesitated for a moment. "I felt it might be something different this time. The stories about them had travelled, and such tales are usually a local affair. The children themselves are very young, barely eight years old…I thought there must be something going on for the villagers to be holding two infants in such frightened awe!"

"So you saw them?" Aro prompted. "And?"

"I think we should watch them. Closely…they may be just what we need."

"Are you sure?" Aro asked. "Truly sure? Because you've been wrong in the past, Philippe…"

"I have never seen anything like it," Philippe said quietly. "I cannot predict what may manifest, but I would gamble my life on both of them becoming something extraordinary when they are turned."

He held out his hands and Aro took them, and for a long moment there was silence as Aro took Philippe's thoughts and memories of his time away. And although his face betrayed nothing, he felt his spirit lift and fly as he saw what Philippe had given him. He was so very certain, and how very beautiful it might be! Aro thought rapturously. Not for the first time Aro marvelled at his good fortune in turning Philippe and bringing him into his fold.

Aro rarely turned humans to vampires himself. He was content to keep vampire numbers small, and he wasn't particularly interested in the extra obligations of being a creator. But there were always exceptions, and Philippe had been perhaps the most fortunate of all exceptions.

As a human Philippe had been an abbot and he was a fierce and vocal preacher and warrior for Christ. Philippe had a knack for befriending men who were able to assist him in his climb to power, either through their own works or their connections, and despite his youth he had been appointed abbot of one of the larger and more prosperous monasteries.

While Aro had no particular quarrel with the church, he did have a perverse delight in occasionally turning men of God into monsters and seeing how quickly all their beliefs crumbled in the face of the supernatural darkness they found themselves in. Philippe, with his loud and determined preaching and his blazing belief, was just the type that Aro found the most entertaining. Philippe was also astonishingly attractive, and Aro had never seen the point in turning anyone who was homely…if you would have to look upon someone for eternity, wouldn't you want them to be as beautiful as possible? So Aro took the beautiful human Philippe and bit him, and waited for him to rise.

In one sense Philippe was a disappointment. He adjusted to his vampirism extremely quickly, despite the religious convictions of his human life. The complete upheaval of all he had lived and believed didn't seem to bother him at all, much to Aro's chagrin.

But then he discovered what Philippe could do, and all disappointment was subsumed by Aro's victorious delight in the talent he'd collected without even realising it.

Philippe's talent was to see the potential in a human for what they might become in their vampire life. He became an integral part of the Guard as he became Aro's 'finder', searching out humans who carried around them an aura of power that only Philippe's vampire eyes were able to see. Humans that could be bitten and made vampire, and who would hopefully manifest talents that the Volturi Guard could make use of.

It was a nebulous gift. Philippe could not predict what form the talent might take, and there had been times where he was altogether wrong. Aro chafed at the mistakes but put up with them because there was no one else who could do what Philippe did. And with Corin and Charmion's gifts becoming so essential to the smooth and successful running of the Volturi, Aro wanted other talents at his command. So Philippe travelled, exploring the world in search of humans that might become the kind of vampires that Aro wanted.

And now he had come home, and his mind carried visions of the twins.

There really was no doubt as Aro saw them in Philippe's memory. Scrawny, dirty children, with blue eyes and flaxen hair under the grime, so unappealing…except for the aura that Philippe had seen and that Aro now saw. An aura surrounding them that was so strong it glowed, a sense of potential so strong that it made Aro tingle.

"Oh my," he said quietly. "Oh my."