-Chapter 21, Ryan: Silver Eyes and Volturi Spies-

I ran my thumb over the engraving on the surface of the pocket watch, clicking open the clasp and peering at the immaculate clockwork inside. It was a thing of beauty, really; almost as perfect as the knife strapped to my waist. I flipped the watch closed again and adjusted it in my hand as I looked at the last creation my sister ever designed.

The casing was a glossy gold, and I had little doubt it was the real deal. Etched into the front cover was the outline of a hummingbird's profile, simplistic though the artistry was. I sighed and placed the timepiece in my pocket, heading downstairs to help keep an eye on our uninvited guests.

Two red-eyed vampires stood in the living area, which was also crowded with several other members of the Cullens' extended family. The first one, Heidi, was tall for a female – nearly my height – and had long, mahogany hair that was similar to Bella's locks. Her beauty was accentuated nearly as much as Rosalie's, though the sinister red of her irises subtracted from it.

The second, Renata, was much shorter – only a few inches taller than Alice – and had jet-black hair. She was frail and timid looking, as opposed to the first vampire's statuesque, curvaceous frame. I wasn't fooled by her unaggressive stance, though; these were members of the Volturi.

Or, they had been members of the Volturi. The two of them had spun quite the tale upon their predicted arrival of a takeover from within the Volturi and of entire covens being wiped out. It seemed too fantastic to be true, but Edward had vouched for their thoughts and Jasper for their genuine emotions. I was still slightly skeptical.

I looked away from the ex-Volturi guard members and eyed the rest of the room. Emmett, Rosalie, Garrett, and Kate were gathered together near Heidi and Renata – not so subtly watching our guests. I could hear the soft whispers of Jasper speaking to someone off in the forest that bordered the house; most likely Alice, since she wasn't here.

Carlisle's and Eleazar's voices carried from the office on the floor above as they continued to reach out to any covens they could contact over the phone or online. We had only learned the Irish coven had been destroyed a few days ago; Alice hadn't seen the attack happen, though. That was probably why she was out of the house right now, since one of her psychic blocks was currently eating in the kitchen.

I walked into the kitchen and leaned against the counter, watching Jake devour several sandwiches. He glanced up upon my entry and nodded, unable to speak with all the food slopping around inside his mouth; I nodded back and waited for him to finish eating.

Jake and I had formed a weak friendship over Emily's death, strangely enough. He had what I thought to be an unhealthy hero-worship thing going on with my sister for what she did for Billy, though Edward told me Jake had actually considered her a legitimate friend. Renesmee was also a fan of Emily's, which made it easier for Jake to like her, though I wasn't sure if that was because of my sister's powers or because the family had shielded Renesmee from Emily's darker nature.

"Where's Nessie at?" I asked Jake, who swallowed before he answered.

"She went hunting with her parents," Jake cleared his throat and chugged down the rest of his soda, letting out a satisfied sigh as he crushed the empty can and tossed his trash in the waste can. "Esme went, too. All this craziness popping up – Carlisle said it wasn't safe to go out alone." I nodded.

"Do you think they're telling the truth?" I asked, even though I knew the subjects of my question could hear every word I said. "Do you think Aro really lost control of the Volturi?" Jake shrugged.

"I don't know," he shook his head. "I can't see what the advantage would be in coming here if it wasn't true, but it's kind of hard to believe they were taken over by a single vampire."

I heard Carlisle sigh and hang up his phone, his footsteps carrying him downstairs where the others seemed to stop talking as he made his entrance. Jake followed me out of the kitchen, both of us eager to hear anything Carlisle had learned.

Alice and Jasper came in from outside, taking a seat on the other side of Emmett and Rosalie. Esme, Edward, Bella, and Renesmee darted in after them, all taking their places among the empty seats in the populated room. Renesmee looked to be about ten years old now, physically, even though she had only just had her birthday a couple months ago. She ran over to Jake and me once she saw her wolf.

"Peter confirmed the destruction of the Mexican coven," Carlisle spoke. "He and Charlotte heard rumors that Amun's coven was also destroyed from a passing nomad. I can't contact the Amazons, but it's not completely uncommon for them to be away from civilization for extended periods of time." He sighed and sat down in one of the chairs.

"Well?" Emmett called to Heidi and Renata. "Time to be useful. Were you behind this?" Carlisle gave Emmett a glance but didn't say anything.

"We knew there were plans to destroy the Egyptian coven," Heidi answered, looking at Carlisle as she spoke. "A larger team was sent to destroy the Mexican coven, since several of the guard were destroyed while in the South. We escaped a little over a month after that team disappeared as well, so we don't know anything more."

"So, what, the Mexican coven and the Volturi guard killed each other in battle?" Tanya asked the ex-Volturi, who shrugged in response.

"Like she said," Renata added. "We don't know. We came straight here once we left Italy."

"And they just let you go?" Jasper eyed them with suspicion. "Just like that, you were able to get away?"

"Demetri was part of the second team sent out to Central America," Heidi countered. "He never came back and wouldn't pick up his phone. It was an opportunity that we took."

"That doesn't explain how you were able to escape," Carlisle shook his head. "Chelsea would have bound you to them; you never would have even wanted to leave."

"Chelsea is in pieces," Renata blanched. "She, Corin, Adam, and any other guard member who was a threat to Nadia was ripped apart so they couldn't use their powers on her."

"But Nadia, as I understand it, can use the gifts of others while they are within her range," Eleazar pondered aloud. "Surely she had been using Chelsea's gift on the guard to bind everyone to her, as Chelsea did for Aro."

"She did," Heidi nodded, brushing a tendril of hair out of her face. "But she was…distracted. Not only was Demetri in the last team to go after the Mexican coven. Alec and Jane were, as well. All of them seem to have disappeared." Nearly everyone's eyes bugged out of their head at that. The witch twins were gone?

"Are they…" Bella spoke. "Jane's dead?" The two red-eyed vampires shrugged again.

"We don't know, but we assume so," Heidi said. "Jane and Alec never required Chelsea's bindings; they were completely devoted to Aro on their own. If they were still alive, they would have returned – if only for him."

"Dude," Emmett muttered. "What the hell could take out those two? Not to mention Demetri?"

"Hmm," Jasper hummed aloud. Edward perked up and eyed his brother.

"You could be right," Edward said to Jasper, then looked to Heidi and Renata. "Have you ever heard of a silver-eyed vampire?" Both vampires gave him a strange look.

"There is no such thing," Heidi said with confidence. "Why?"

"We've heard rumors of a vampire with silver eyes roaming the bottom half of North America, killing off other vampires," Edward explained. "Peter and Charlotte came across a newborn mother and a hybrid child who told them such a vampire destroyed several guard members, as well as the other newborns that were with the guard."

"A single vampire took out Alec and Jane?" Renata scoffed. "How? Not even an army of newborns could beat them."

"What if the vampire was gifted?" Bella questioned. "I mean…my shield could stop both of their powers, so it's not beyond the realm of possibility that there could be another with a gift like mine. Right?"

"Well yeah; to take on those dicks you pretty much have to have a power," Emmett sneered. "But shouldn't we be worried more about this Nadia bitch? Whoever silver-eyes is, it's not bothering us any." Carlisle and most of the others agreed, myself included.

"Alice, have you seen anything?" Carlisle asked. Alice nodded her head and took in a breath.

"Yes," she answered with a frown. "Zafrina and Senna are alive, but I cannot find Kachiri's future." I looked away for a moment. We all knew what it meant when she was unable to see a person's future all too well. "They are…blurry, though; it was difficult to locate them at first.

"There's…" Alice hesitated, squinting at nothing. "I think Demetri's with them, but he's blurry as well." She shook her head and sighed. "I can't get much more than that; there's something big that I'm missing, but I can't see around whatever is blocking me."

"What about Alec and Jane?" I asked. "If Demetri's alive, there's a good chance one or both of them are as well, right?" Alice shook her head.

"No," she replied. "Their futures are gone, not blurry; they're dead, as far as I can tell."

Renesmee laughed as she floated through the air and I smiled along with her, suspended several stories off the ground. I revolved her around my body, keeping track of her volume even as she passed behind me. This was part of Emily's training she had put me through. It wasn't much work at all, but the trick was to constantly use my ability – use it so much and so often, it becomes second nature.

I rose in altitude as Renesmee's body tumbled around next to me, still giggling. Jake watched from the ground with Embry and Seth. I closed my eyes but kept concentration on the objects around me as I remembered the last time she and I had been together with the wolves and Renesmee for a training exercise.

The rocks I was levitating shook as they turned around me, barely holding afloat in the air. I gritted my teeth and spread my fingers in some effort to maintain control, but it was beyond me, still. My body didn't want to let go and let my mind do the work – that's what my sister had said to do.

"It doesn't matter how heavy the object or how fast it is traveling – if you have the strength of will and solid concentration, you can lift it."

I snarled at nothing in particular as the rocks clamored to the ground simultaneously. Emily started laughing at me and I snapped, lunging at my sister, intent on ripping into her throat. I moved faster than she could see, but I still found myself completely disoriented as I was suddenly held floating in place.

Emily rolled her eyes at me and made a flicking motion with her fingers. Like a shot, I was blasted backward and smashed into tree after tree as I finally slowed to a halt. I blurred to my feet and darted back to the clearing we were training in, keeping the wolves and Renesmee within my sight as I glared at my sister. She wagged her eyebrows at me and motioned me forward, clearly reading my rage and egging me on.

I obliged.

My mind grabbed her body in a firm hold, lifting her up off the ground. I started to smirk at her until I felt my own feet coming off the ground, dangling helplessly beneath me. Emily laughed again and floated over to me. I pushed with my ability, trying to repel her, but she kept on coming, only slightly slowing under my force.

She raised her hand in a claw-like gesture, dropping her forearm ninety degrees. Abruptly, I was slammed into the ground, leaving at least a foot of a full body indention in the soft forest floor.

"Bitch," I muttered, spitting mud out of my mouth.

"Watch the language, Ryan," Emily taunted me. "There's a demon baby present." The statement was completely hateful, but the way she said it sounded more like a friendly jest. I picked myself up and shook the debris off me, giving Emily a solid look that was completely dampened by our audience's laughter.

"You got your ass handed to you by your human sister," Quill snorted, laughing with Embry.

"I'll never get over that," Jake cracked, smiling just as widely as Nessie was. Renesmee put her hand to Jake's face for a moment; silently communicating with him. "No, I don't think any of the Cullens could; without her powers, though, I could take her." Emily scoffed and I frowned.

"What?" I asked.

"Jacob thinks he could beat me in a fight if I didn't use my powers," Emily answered before Jake could, giving him an appraised look. "I think those are fighting words, Black."

"Dude," Embry breathed. "We have to see this!" Quill nodded, standing up.

"Let's go back to the Cullen's house," Quill suggested over his shoulder, already starting in that direction. "We've got to place bets on this."

It was a bit of a clusterfuck once we arrived back at the house, with Emily and Jacob sizing each other up as they silently faced off across from each other in the back yard. The wolves gathered on Jake's side – even Leah came over to watch, though it looked as though she looked merely curious.

"Right, so what are the rules?" Quill spoke to no one.

"Emily can't use her powers in the fight," Seth answered. "Or her knife, right?" At the mention of the infamous knife, most eyes darted to Emily's hip. She sighed and rolled her eyes, unsheathing it and shooting it into a tree about a hundred meters to her right. The tree vibrated with the force of the hit, but the knife held firm embedded deeply in the bark.

"I'll only use the powers I can't turn off," Emily corrected. "And in return, you have to stay on two legs. Fair enough?" Jake nodded with a grin on his face and cracked his knuckles menacingly.

"Dude, what's going on?" Emmett blurred over to us from the tree line. His clothes were torn and he had faint spatters of blood crusted over the front of his shirt – obviously he had just returned from a hunting trip.

"Jake's about to get his ass kicked by Emily," I answered with a grin. Jacob huffed at my complete confidence in my sister – even without her more fun abilities – but I knew all too well how menacing she could be in a fight.

"A thousand on Ambrose," Emmett boomed immediately.

"I really don't think they have that sort of cash, Emmett," Jasper said from beside Alice. They had come outside after we had arrived.

"Fine, fine," Emmett sighed, as though not being able to bet would make the fight less interesting – and maybe it would, for him. He meandered over to me and spoke lowly, so the others couldn't hear. "She can beat him without her powers, right? I don't want to be betting on the wrong horse." I gave him a strange look, wondering why he cared if there was no money at stake, but nodded hesitantly.

"Emily's a good fighter and her learning curve is basically a vertical line," I whispered back, considering the odds of the fight. "Jake's best chance at winning is to beat her as fast as possible, so she can't learn and adapt. He will definitely lose if he tries to wear her out." Emmett grinned and rubbed his hands together, moving back to where he left Rosalie.

The fight began quickly, without a clear sign to start. Jacob struck first – or tried to. Emily was fast, so she was easily able to duck the backhand that Jake swiped at her with. Emily didn't return fire; she backed away and kept her arms raised, watching as Jake recovered and shifted his feet.

Jake started bouncing on his toes, like so many boxers seem to do before a fight, and he blew a breath out of his mouth as he moved in for another go. His biceps bunched as he unleashed a barrage of clumsy punches, putting his full weight behind each one. Emily was able to dodge most of them, taking the hits with the backs of her arms when she wasn't able to move out of the way in time.

Emily lunged away from the swinging meat fists of doom, shaking her arms out and trying to hide the wince that was written across her face. I gritted my teeth at the bruises forming on her arms, forcing the growl down as a part of my mind tried to convince me to lunge at Jake in retaliation for harming my sister.

My sister nodded to herself as she got back in front of Jake, neatly dodging each blow more successfully than the last time. The back and forth – Jake punch, Emily dodge – continued for almost twenty seconds. Jake's fists didn't slow down, and he didn't seem to be tiring yet, but Emily seemed to be getting faster. I knew the mind reading had something to do with her evasiveness, but it was also her own power that was beginning to push the fight into her favor.

I never really understood it, exactly. Emily said it was kind of like living life with a heads up display, constantly measuring and calculating life as she lived it. I supposed that was what was happening here; she wasn't moving faster, she was learning how Jake fought, even if he didn't realize he had a fighting style.

Finally, after Jake unsuccessfully threw another hook at Emily, she decided to hit back. She dodged to the side and pulled his right arm out in front of him with her hand, delivering an uppercut to the side of his body, underneath his armpit. Jake howled in pain at the calculated strike and swung his other arm around, breaking Emily's hold. She ducked and avoided the attack, hitting his other side lower down by his hip.

Jake struck out wildly, knocking my sister off balance and rolling her onto her back. Jake charged forward, but Emily swept his feet out from under him with her legs, rolling away and jumping to her feet. She was posed in a crouch, waiting for her opponent to get to his feet – which took twice as long as it did Emily.

The shape shifter seemed wary of Emily now, holding off on his 'brute force' attack plan he had been using. Emily huffed and charged Jacob instead, making the giant's eyes go wide in both surprise and fear. He raised his arms to block instead of attack, and Emily feinted a strike to Jake's face, forcing his hands to raise to defend himself.

My sister struck out with her other hand, hitting the center of his chest with an audible thud. Jacob wheezed and clutched his chest, seeming to have difficulty breathing normally. Emily's next strike was fluid as she hit lower on his abdomen, driving her fist into his bare stomach and bowing him over. She jumped back several feet and waited as Jake hacked and gagged, vomiting violently onto the grass.

"Fuck," Jacob moaned, laying down on the ground in defeat.

I floated down to the ground, slowly levitating Renesmee as well. There was some sort of commotion going on inside, and I wanted to find out what was happening. Nessie grabbed my hand and pulled me to the house, apparently more eager to see what was up than I was. Once we got inside, she started toward Jake, Bella, and Edward – who were back now – before she turned back to me.

"Thanks for letting me fly, Uncle Ryan," Nessie grinned. I nodded back with a smile.

"No problem."

Renesmee darted over to her parents and I took my place against the wall, waiting for someone to explain what was going on. Alice sat next to Jasper – practically in his lap – as she rubbed her temples, clearly attempting to induce a vision. Seth and Jacob were subtly vibrating, restraining themselves from shifting, and the others had looks of foreboding on their faces.

"What's going on?" I spoke up, my curiosity beating out my patience. Carlisle sighed and tossed me his cell phone, which I easily caught and flipped open.

On the text message display, read two sentences and…an emoticon.

Newborn attack on Quileute tribe soon. They're using hybrids. :)

There was no return number attached; it merely displayed unknown. I tossed the phone back to Carlisle and felt a frown stretch my mouth downward. I looked to the others in the room, but they didn't seem to know anything more than I did.

"What the hell?" I scoffed. "Is that for real?"

"I don't know!" Alice hissed, throwing her arms up. "The entire tribe is a blur, since there are so many wolves there. There's something there, but I don't know if it's an attack or not. This is so frustrating!" Alice let out a low growl and put her head in her hands.

"We can't just leave it to chance, though!" Bella supplied, clutching her husband's hand tightly. "What if it is actually going to happen?"

"We don't even know who sent that text," Jasper drawled. "If it is legitimate, then the individual who sent it is likely involved in the attack."

"It makes no difference," Carlisle sighed. "Like Bella said, we cannot take the chance that this might not be a real warning. We owe the wolves much for what they have done for us."

"But we'd be doing exactly what the vampire who sent that text expects us to do," Edward said. "It could very well be an ambush."

"We will go with you," Tanya said, her coven nodding along with her. "It is in our best interests to stick together until this issue with the Volturi is resolved, and there is a greater safety with greater numbers."

Carlisle looked around the room, searching for anyone who disagreed – none did. He sighed and nodded, running a hand through his blond hair as he glanced at Jake.

"Jacob," Carlisle called. "Would you shift and warn Sam about this? Let him know we will be coming back to Forks." Jacob nodded and strode out of the room; Carlisle addressed the rest of us. "Pack the essentials; the sooner we depart, the better."

End notes: Oh, wow. Quite a break from updates, eh? Things are starting to heat up, and soon Emily will meet up with Ryan and the other Cullens.

And now, a mini-response to the anonymous reviewer I couldn't PM.

"You forgot to make Emily take Benjamin's power so she could control the
elements, then she wouldn't have had too buy a lighter. Since metal is part of
the earth and the earth is one of the elements that power allows the weilder
to control, would she then be able to control divinium? And maybe you could
set a vampire on fire from the inside out, that would be cool."

In my AU universe, Divinium is the strongest, most resilient thing in the universe. Its stability lends it the ability to block all special powers. Yes, Emily (and Ryan, for that matter) can manipulate the surface of a Divinium object, allowing it to be moved through space. They cannot, however, manipulate anything the surface might contain. That means no matter how strong a power might be, there will be no Divinium-bending.

And setting a vampire on fire is something Emily can do now, thanks to her Pyrokinetic ability she acquired. No internal fires, though. Fire needs oxygen to burn, and there isn't any inside a vampire's body. I suppose it could be done if she ignited someone's lungs, but mostly it's just flamethrower action going on.

Thanks for the review (and also, thanks for reading; but mostly thanks for the review).