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A/N: This story is rated M for "My goodness, what has HAPPENED to our young lovers?" As usual, if you're not over 18, please don't read. Thanks!

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Chapter 18: The Broken Code

As Edward sped past the lake on his way back to the house, his hands gripped the steering wheel with a tightness born of frustration. It wasn't enough that after all these years of wondering he had to find out that Bella truly had moved on without him. It wasn't enough that he had to hear her, see her, entwined with her new lover. It wasn't enough that he then made an ass of himself with Tanya, probably breaking that relationship beyond repair. No. His torment must continue. She had shown up at his office. She had tried to defile his only human friend. What would she do next? Would she kill Angela? Would she go that far?

That Bella could even target such an innocent sickened Edward to the core. And to use that voice on her, to try to seduce her into some sordid ménage a trois, it was beyond the pale. Edward wasn't sure which was worse: that Bella and her behemoth would try it or that Angela, a girl he had considered above such things, would respond. Walking into an office drenched in the scent of Angela's arousal had been awkward enough. Her thoughts after Bella and her protector had left had been more than he could stand. Unable to focus on anything with Angela's lust-filled brain conjuring up image after erotic image of the vampires who had just departed, Edward finally sent her home early. He had left soon after that, unable to think clearly himself.

As Edward turned off the highway he couldn't help but wonder if Bella had changed so much since they had known each other or if she had been this way all along and he had just been blinded by love. Had she always been so petty, so licentious? When he had known her almost a century before, she had seemed so smart, so exotic and so very enthralling. Had that all been an act? Or perhaps just a very human reaction in the face of such inhuman charm? Edward wasn't sure but he knew he didn't much care for the Bella he met today in his office. She had been cool and cruel and fake, and his heart longed for the Isabella he had once known.

The cloud-covered lake was soon lost behind him and he wound his car slowly along the residential street that led up to the house. He had rolled the windows down earlier, letting the fresh air coming off the water wash over him, hoping it would help to clear his head. He was less than a mile from the mansion when he caught the first, faint scent. Vampire. Edward slammed on the breaks so suddenly that he almost caused an accident. He quickly slid the Volvo toward the curb, as if he had intended to park all along and sat there, frozen as the two cars behind him vented their noisy anger and moved on.

Coming to his senses, Edward pulled back onto the street and sped home, no longer caring about avoiding the censorious eye of his fellow motorists. As he turned into their drive, three distinct scents assailed him. Two he knew immediately, having just smelled them a few hours before, but the last one, the most recent one, was the one that sent a thrill of terror down his spine.

Her scent was so fresh, he wasn't sure whether or not she was still about, but he ran into the house regardless, making a bee-line to his father's study. Carlisle lowered the file he was reading as Edward entered the room and one look at his son's face had him mentally gasping.

What is it, Edward? Has something happened? He stood and was next to Edward in a fraction of a second.

"Esme? Rose? Are they here? Are they safe?" The anxiety in Edward's voice brought the two women racing to Carlisle's study and Edward nearly wept with relief.

"Please, Edward," Carlisle grasped his son's arm as he saw foreboding flow into his wife's face. "Please, you're scaring us. What's happened, my son?" Edward looked at his father incredulously then realized he had stayed home today to work on his files.

"Others have been here, Carlisle." When his father's face just scrunched up in confusion he went on. "Bella and her…" he began to say mate and then corrected himself, although he wasn't able to keep the bitterness out of his voice, "protector. They've been in the woods outside."

Oh…came the uncomfortable chorus of three minds.

"No. It's not just them," he continued through gritted teeth. He stalked to the window across from Carlisle's desk and flung it open. The smell of the third vampire floated in on the breeze, faint but fresh. Carlisle's eyes locked onto Edward's.

Jane!

"Why would she be here?" Carlisle's thoughts turned immediately to his family, his concern for them paramount.

"Who is it, Carlisle?" Esme asked as she ran her hand up his arm in nervous gesture. "I don't know that scent. Do you?"

"Yes, darling," he murmured as he turned to her, placing his pale hand over hers. "It's Jane. She's one of the Volturi guard, a particular favorite of Aro's." Once the words left Carlisle's lips, Rose's eyes flashed to Edward with a baleful glare.

Is it because of you? She walked up to him, stopping mere inches away. "Is she here because of you?" Her voice was calm but her thoughts were not. Every story she had heard about the Volturi, especially their unannounced visits and the danger that portended, swirled in a fearful mix around her brain. "Is this a check-up call, because you went to Italy? Or…" Or is this something more serious?

"I don't know," Edward responded, trying to maintain a sense of calm. "Has anyone left the house today?" He looked around at his family as they all quickly shook their heads. That explained why he was the first to notice the scents from their unannounced visitors although he was kicking himself for being too distracted to notice them when he left that morning. He turned to his father, who was already formulating a plan.

"Do you really think calling Aro is a good idea? Maybe I should go out and take a look around first," Edward suggested but Carlisle shook his head.

"No, I don't like the idea of you going out alone looking for Jane. If she wanted to talk to us, we'd already have talked to her. There's something about this that doesn't feel right. I know it's not strictly correct for me to just pick up the phone and call Volterra but I'm sure I can rely on my friendship with Aro that far."

"Don't be so sure," Edward countered warily. "I heard his thoughts, remember? I don't think he was feigning his concern that you might be building a coven to challenge him, as ludicrous as that might seem to us."

Carlisle refused to believe his old friend seriously questioned his commitment to a peaceful life. "No. Errant thoughts aside, if Aro sent Jane to check up on us she wouldn't have come to the house and not let us know she was here. And if she was here to look in on us discreetly, she certainly wouldn't be so obvious as to leave her scent right outside my window." He shook his head. "Something isn't right about this, Edward. And I owe it to my friendship with Aro to at least ask him about this before I make assumptions."

Despite his father's refusal to see something more nefarious behind Jane's presence on their land, Edward couldn't stop the icy fear that was filling his chest.

"Fine. Call Aro, but I'm going out to take a look around." Edward headed for the door. He saw the look of unease on his mother's face through Rosalie's eyes, an unease that was intensified by the anxiety Rosalie felt herself, but he didn't let that stop him. Jane might hold a grudge against him, but if she was here on Volturi business, she wouldn't be allowed to go too far off her leash.

Outside, the sky was still a dark steel grey, still heavy with the late autumn clouds that had blanketed the city for days. Back in the house, Edward could hear Carlisle's speaking to someone on the phone, asking if it would at all be possible to speak to Aro, and explaining who he was. Edward wasn't convinced that contacting Aro was the best tactic, but he focused his attention on the matter at hand. He couldn't sense anyone on their property so he started to follow Jane's scent to see where she was hiding.

All three scents were strongest amongst the trees on the far end of the property. Even though Edward knew he needed to focus on Jane's scent his nose continued to follow Bella's. Even in his anger in his office, he had been nearly overwhelmed by how delicious she smelled. But then the scent of her protector had thrown him off. His scent had enhanced Bella's in ways that Edward found enticing and yet unsettling. Edward shook his head, trying to focus. He was standing among the trees that bordered their property. Jane's scent was particularly strong there.

If I don't pull myself together, she's going to drop down on top of me for Christ's sake!

No sooner had the thought entered his head when another's mind called out to him.

Did you miss me, Eddie?

Pain, more excruciating than anything he had ever experienced as a vampire rolled over Edward in wave upon crushing wave.

I know I've been dying to see you again. Her mental voice switched from snidely sweet to blackly hateful as she leapt from her perch above him, inundating him with another wave of pain. I don't have to hold back now; I can really let you feel what it's like to burn. Last time was a cakewalk compared to what I have in store for you.

As Edward crumpled under the weight of Jane's torment, he barely registered being picked up and flying away from his house. Jane made sure he was incapacitated throughout the entire journey. As Jane's torture burned through him, Edward had no way of knowing where he was being taken. His mind, normally able to focus on multiple things at once, was completely incapable of processing anything other than the agony he was in. When it stopped abruptly, Edward found himself sprawled out on a dank cement floor in a dark and musty room. His eyes fluttered open to see a tiny pair of black, lace-up, steel toed boots standing in front of him.

"Don't move or I'll do it again." Jane's voice was almost bored as she turned her back on him and walked toward a chair she had set up in the center of the room. The way the room was laid out reminded Edward of something, but he just couldn't quite place it in his hazy state. When Jane twisted around to sit on the ornate, gold-adorned piece, it finally clicked into place. It was a throne. This dark, desolate place was Jane's throne room. And, as he might have expected, it was but a hollow shell of the glory she sought. For a moment Edward felt very sad for the tiny child-monster before him. But only for a moment.

Jane's blood red eyes fell upon him again as she settled herself into the seat's tawny leather cushions. She tilted her head and Edward saw himself reflected in her thoughts: the way he lay limply upon the concrete, the wild disarray of his hair, the way the pain that had just passed was still etched upon his face. The sight brought her so much pleasure; Edward's face involuntarily grimaced at the evil thing he looked upon.

"Don't you sneer at me, you pathetic worm," Jane hissed as she leaned forward contemptuously. Then as a new image formed in her mind she sat back, tenting her hands before her as Aro had done in her presence so many times. "Yes, it's a fit analogy for you. Crawl to me, worm. Beg for my mercy." Her lips twisted into a crooked smile as she watched Edward's eyes widen at the insult and its implications. Her mind, so full of anger and hatred, was a horrible thing to hear. She was genuinely looking forward to Edward groveling before her, to feeling the power she imagined her Volturi masters must feel. She also was looking forward to him not following her commands and therefore inviting her to continue torturing him. But flickering behind these thoughts was sadness, almost too complex to be fully formulated. It had something to do with Aro and so much loss and betrayal was mixed in with her grief. The emotions, though hidden, were suffocating.

He had hesitated too long so Jane gave him a jolt, not nearly as strong as the pain she had inflicted earlier, more of a warning to hurry up. Still it flattened Edward out on the ground once more.

"Worm?" she asked pleasantly. I won't wait much longer. Crawl.

Edward knew it would make no difference. She would inflict the agony whether he complied or not. But even if she wouldn't, Edward would not debase himself that way. He had sunk lower than he ever imagined possible in the past few days. But he would not grovel. Rolling his shoulder gingerly off the floor, ready for the pain to resume at any second, Edward began to pull his body up into a low crouch. Finally he stood and turned his back on his captor, not deigning to look at her. He walked toward the door. Even though it was heavily boarded over, he was certain he could open it, assuming Jane permitted him to get that far. She did not.

"I said crawl," she howled in disbelieving fury as the pain exploded in Edward's brain making him buckle to his knees and fall forward. "How dare you defy me?" Pain. "I am in control here." Pain. "Don't you forget it!" The pain unfurled like a sinister flower, jerking its way into full bloom. Edward managed not to scream out, but just barely. It wasn't until Jane collected herself enough to focus on her purpose that she muted the pain enough for Edward to hear her thoughts again.

How could Bella ever love something as weak and foolish as you, she wondered with disgust. You don't even try to fight, do you? Are you a coward, worm? When Edward refused to reply, even though she had reduced the pain level to a point where he should be able to speak, Jane decided to change tactics.

She loved you though, you know… Into Edward's mind flowed Jane's memories of Bella just after she returned to Volterra from some task she had completed up north. Bella was curled up on a bed in one of Aro's private rooms. Laying there on her side, her arms wrapped tightly around her chest, Aro knelt next to her, alternating between beseeching her to speak to him and conversing in hushed tones to Corin, one of the guard who had empathy abilities and was doing her best to combat Bella's deeply depressed state. Jane recalled with immortal perfection the look of sheer agony as Corin would leech some of Bella's pain away from her, easing her through the mourning process.

She lay like that for two years, you know, Jane told him as she switched to another image, one of Bella crumpling before Aro in the throne room when she was first informed of Edward's death. For Jane, the memory was a pleasant one and her enjoyment of it was all the more jarring when juxtaposed to the grief it awakened in Edward's heart. Sensing that her memories were far more useful weapons than her talent, Jane showed Edward scene after scene: Bella just moments after turning him, distraught and begging Caius to go back for him; the look in Bella's eye as Aro's lie decimated her hopes that she would ever be reunited with Edward; the hollow way she looked for decades afterwards, even after she resumed her position in the Volturi ranks. Bella's pain had been a constant balm to Jane's bruised ego and she had cataloged many such moments of her rival's sadness. She used them now on Edward mercilessly.

As he was forced to see Bella's grief, to see from the eyes of her rival how she had mourned his loss, he knew her words the night he had found her again were true. She had wanted to be there when he awoke. She had wanted him for eternity. She was not the one who had lied but the one who had been lied to. And he had compounded her misery by refusing to believe her, by calling her a monster. She had loved him and he had thrown it all away because of his own foolishly bruised ego.

Finally, when Edward could stand no more and he cried out in anguish.

"Stop it, please," he begged. No matter her pride, no matter her protector, Edward could no longer stand the barrage of images all focused on the ever-present grief in Bella's eyes. Her pain, so intimately woven with the torture Jane wrought upon him as she reminisced, became his own. He realized now that he and Bella were inextricably linked. Her pain was his pain. But in turn, her joy could be his as well, if he were man enough to lay his heart out for her, to tell her the truth. There never had been and there never would be another woman for him. She had owned him from the moment he set eyes on her and she would for as long as he existed. Lies had kept them apart for too long, and if he survived Jane, he would make sure they were never apart again.

As he lay there, a twitching mass on the floor, the pain once more receded and he could see himself in Jane's eyes as she considered what to do with him. Part of her wanted to kill him, to put an end to any chance of Bella's happiness, but her desire to rub her power in Bella's face won out. In a fraction of an instant she was in front of him again, kicking him onto his back with the toe of her boot and then kneeling down to look him in the eye.

"If you move one inch, if you so much as twitch while I carry you back, I will burn you so badly you'll beg me to end you. Do you understand me?" Edward nodded warily then tensed as Jane hoisted him up over her shoulder and then leapt with him, up to the second floor and out the window. She swiftly made her way back to Edward's home, crafting the coming scene in her head along the way.

When they arrived, Jane stopped about halfway up the lawn and unceremoniously dumped Edward in the grass in front of his house.

"Carlisle, I know you're in there," Jane called out in a sweet, sing-song voice. "I can smell your fear." Her laughter trilled so innocently, tinkling like wind chimes in the evening breeze, before ending abruptly. She stood above him, smirking as his father ran out the front door.

Edward! Oh my dear Lord! "What have you done to him, Jane?" Carlisle's voice was confused and appalled. Edward lifted his head to try and catch his father's eye and Jane's eyes snapped down to him.

I told you, she mentally hissed. Not one inch. The fire flooded through him so forcefully he arched back as if electrocuted. He fell to the ground, twitching in the dirt and grass. Jane crouched down next to him, keeping her hands on his head, ready to twist it off at a moment's notice.

"Please no!" Esme's voice rang out into the darkening gloam. As the pain receded, Edward could see his mother being restrained by Rosalie as Carlisle held his hand up, silently begging them not to come any closer.

"Jane, please, why are you doing this?" Carlisle's voice was filled with a father's anguish. "What crime can Edward possibly be accused of for you to torture him like this? This is not Aro's way." As he spoke her master's name, Jane's smile twisted into a tormented rictus, then just as quickly smoothed into a sneer.

"Aro's ways are no longer mine," she informed him coldly. "Now listen to me and listen to me good. Unless you want to see me rip your precious Edward to pieces and reduce him to a pile of ashes, you're going to call Bella. Tell her to come to this house because you're worried about Edward. You're not going to tell her I'm here and you're not going to let her think there's any trouble, just that he's distraught over losing her and only she will be able to get through to him. Do you understand me?"

She's completely mad, Carlisle realized. He knew from his brief conversation with Aro that Jane would be no match for Bella. She could never hope to win against Bella's shield, it was one of the reasons Bella was such a prized member of the guard. But he also knew that their only hope lay in getting Bella there as Jane wanted so he nodded, playing along.

"Very good," Jane purred as Carlisle flipped open his cell and waited for Jane to provide the necessary numbers. Before she could speak them though, Jane's head whipped to the side and a low growl escaped her lips.

"Oh, that won't be necessary, Jane," Bella's voice rang out clear and strong. "I'm way ahead of you." In a blur of motion, Emmett came streaking toward them and Edward could hear Jane's frustration as her weapons bounced off him. Apparently Bella's shield was able to extend to covers others, Edward realized, and he noticed he could feel the air about him buzz as it reached out to protect him from Jane's power as well.

Emmett was flying toward them but Jane was faster. Before Edward could even turn his head to see what would happen next, she had fled, past the tree line and into the night beyond. Emmett raced after her, very much looking forward to catching the little runt and knocking some sense into her.

"Stop, Emmett," Bella called out. "Don't chase after her, that's exactly what she wants. My shield won't extend indefinitely and trust me; you don't want to fight Jane if you're not being protected by my shield. She's one sadistic bitch." Emmett turned to rejoin his sire. Suddenly he halted to stare at Edward's family gathered before the house. Bella, however, only had eyes for Edward.

"Edward," she spoke his name in a whisper. The hardness that had been in her eyes as she had spoken to him in his office earlier that day was replaced with anxious fear. She reached down for him, brushing an errant lock of his bronze hair off his brow. He took her fingers in his own and brought them reverently to his lips. He had survived and she was with him. The time for lies and confusion was over. Everything he had ever wanted was now before him, and he knew he would never willingly let her go. Hesitantly, she spoke again, "Edward? Are you ok?"

"I am now, Isabella."