Sorry for the delay guys.. I had a couple of choices as to where the story was headed and it was hard to choose.

I hope that you all can live with the choice I made - even though it is a bit corny ;)

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Enjoy :)

Sacrifice

As Edward, Jacob and I had come face to face with Nessie and the two kidnappers we had frozen to the spot.

A trap she had shouted. She looked so scared.

Then we had heard footsteps behind us. This could not be good.

I was almost afraid to turn around and look who it was. I squeezed Edward´s hand and pulled my shield out to protect him, Nessie and Jacob.

A hand was placed on Edwards shoulder and then he slowly turned around.

"Tanya," he said surprised.

I was relieved when I heard him call Tanya´s name but I was also as surprised as he was.

Edward looked intensely at Tanya for a minute. He was reading her mind. None of them spoke. It was driving me insane.

"Will anyone please tell me what´s going on?" I asked looking at a tense Tanya and Edward who had his brows pulled together. Nessie just stood there crying and the two vampires were glowing with joy.

"Apparently Simon there is trying to lure us in to a trap where the Volturi will catch us doing something unnatural for a human in public. And you know the sentence of that. That´s why he´s brought Nessie here," Edward answered.

I looked at Nessie. She had a bruise on each cheek and bruises on her arms as well. That lowlife had hit her. My sweet innocent girl. If it was the last thing I ever did I would surely make this Simon and Samantha pay.

"What are you doing here Tanya?" I asked still confused of her presence.

"Well when we came back to the hotel this morning and found out that you guys weren´t coming back and you were staying in Volterra we agreed to send some reinforcements. And I can see that we were right to do so," she answered.

"What happened?" Edward asked her and got the answer before she spoke it.

"Kate and I were looking for you when we heard Nessie´s screams and then out of the blue we ran into Felix and Demetri. I could smell Edward and the dog not far from us so we had to think and react immediately," Tanya explained.

"Where´s Kate?" I asked looking around.

"She´s ´entertaining´ Felix and Demetri as we speak," Tanya answered,"but she proberbly can´t hold on much longer."

"Tanya you shouldn´t have done this," Edward said. He looked down at Tanya with pain in his eyes. "You know what the price is. I can´t let you do this."

What was he talking about? What price? What was going on here?

"You know how I feel about you Edward," Tanya said as she lowered her face to the ground. "I have always loved you from the first time we meet, but you could never return that love. Now I have a chance to make sure that you are happy and safe with the woman you are truly meant to be with."

"You didn´t have to do this Tanya," Edward said pleading. "I can´t let you make this sacrifice."

"It´s the only way I know how," she said.

"And Kate?" Edward asked.

Tanya sighed and looked up at Edward.

"I think she´ll be all right. She´s just stalling," Tanya said nervously. She looked over her shoulders one more time.

"What are you talking about Tanya?" I asked. "What sacrifice are you making? What´s going on?"

"There really isn´t any time to explain," Tanya said. "You have to hurry out of here."

"I´m not leaving Nessie behind," I stated firmly.

"Of course not," Tanya said. "I would say that you have about 2 minutes to finish the male and you can leave the female to me."

Samantha growled and crouched and then Tanya did the same.

"When I say `GO` Nessie, you have to get out of the way," Edward said. "You climb on Jacob´s back. And Jacob you have to run fast. Stop for nothing."

Jacob nodded and so did Nessie.

Simon, Edward and I growled. We had not let ourselves out of the crouches so we were ready.

Edward jumped towards Simon and Simon let go of Nessie to follow his instincts and defend himself.

"GO!" Edward screamed.

Nessie ran to Jacob and climbed his back and he started running as fast as he could out of town.

Edward and Simon were on each other in the flash of an instant. Simon was no newborn and no easy target; it showed that he was a very skilled fighter.

It would take too long for Edward to finish him off on his own.

When I no longer could see Jacob or Nessie anywhere I jumped to Edward´s assistance. We had ripped him to pieces in less than 40 seconds and had set him in fire immediately.

"That was hardly satisfying," Edward groaned.

I felt the same way. This Simon had death coming, but he had a slow death coming. He didn´t deserve to have the easy way out like this. His death happened way too soon and way to humane.

Tanya and Samantha still hadn´t charged each other and I got ready to attack.

"No," Tanya hissed. "Run away. I will make sure this one pays. Run away. NOW!"

Edward took my hand and started running. He didn´t stop until he was at the parking lot by our car.

We got in the car and started driving as fast as we could back to the hotel.

"What was going on?" I asked Edward. "What did Tanya mean? And why did we just leave her alone like that?"

Edward sighed and just shook his head.

"Tell me Edward," I demanded.

"She sacrificed herself so that we could escape," he explained. There was a lot of pain in his eyes as he turned to look at me.

"There wasn´t time to finish both Simon and Samantha before Felix and Demetri would find us all in the town square."

I gasped. So Tanya wasn´t counting on getting out of there alive. She was going to make it seem like she was the only one compromising the secrets of the vampires.

"What about Kate?" I asked. Kate had just found happiness with Garret. She couldn´t just give that up now. She couldn´t just abandon Garret like that.

"She wasn´t doing anything out of the ordinary. She was simply just trying to flirt with Felix. She will proberbly be able to walk away from it," Edward answered.

"She´ll just leave Tanya to die then?" I asked. I could not believe that any of the Denali sisters would just let anything like that happen to their family. They would fight to the death to protect each other.

"She doesn´t know what Tanya has planned," Edward said. "Tanya´s first choice was to get us all out of there, but she realized that there wasn´t time and she made her choice."

"We can´t let her do that Edward. We can´t let her die," I was screaming in frustration. She didn´t have to die because of us – because of me.

"There´s not much we can do love," Edward said in a small voice. "She made her decision and pleaded with me to respect it. Trust me I didn´t want to leave her."

This was so not like Edward. He wouldn´t just give up like that. He would have sacrificed himself in order to keep anyone else safe. What was this all about?

"I don´t have to read your mind to know what you´re thinking," Edward said. He sounded very sad, defeated in a way. "Normally I would never leave anyone alone in a situation like that. But there´s something none of us knew about Tanya before. Something she hasn´t told anyone before."

"What is it?" I asked. I really hoped that it could bring some sense in to all this mess. I was glad that Edward had left the town square and we were now speeding away from the Volturi, but I couldn´t help but to feel like a coward for leaving Tanya behind like this.

"Tanya had more than just a crush on me. She loved me with every fiber of her being. A strong love, not as strong as the one we share, but close. She has tried many times in the past to convince me that I belonged by her side, but as you know she was unsuccessful."

I couldn´t breathe. I knew Tanya had a thing for Edward, but not that it was love. She always flirted with Edward, but she flirted with a lot of men. I felt so bad for her.

"She has come to terms with the fact that I will never, never, leave you. I will never want to be with anyone but you. And she accepted it, but has chosen that she does not wish to continue to be heartbroken for an eternity. She has chosen to provoke the Volturi in orders to be executed, she actually made up her mind about it years ago when she finally let go. We just handed her the perfect opportunity," Edward explained.

"The perfect opportunity?" I asked a little puzzled.

"Yes. She now not only gets what she has wanted the past couple of years, but she gets it while rescuing her one true love," Edward elaborated.

I sighed. Tanya had sacrificed herself because she could no longer continue. She had no wish to exist for an eternity anymore. But I would carry the guilt of her choice in my heart for all eternity.

"She truly is or was a remarkable person," I said in a small voice.

"Indeed she was," Edward answered. "I just hope she finds peace now."

We pulled up to the hotel and hurried to Carlisle and Esme´s room. Nessie and Jacob had already arrived and Nessie was hugging and kissing everybody.

"Nessie!" I let out with a sigh of relief.

She turned quickly and ran to my arms. Edward placed his arms around us and we stood like that for the longest time. I didn´t want to let her go, but we had some explaining to do.

Edward turned to face the rest of the family and opened his mouth to explain.

"Alice already told us what happened," Carlisle said and pain crossed his face. Carmen, Elezar and Garret didn´t look sad so my guess was that Alice hadn´t told everyone the whole truth.

"How did you get out of there unnoticed?" Garret finally broke the silence.

"I think that Edward should explain that when we´re all here," Alice said.

Yes it would be best if we waited until we were sure that at least Kate was safe. We didn´t want Garret to go through that kind of pain.

"Speaking of which," Carmen said, "didn´t you run into Kate and Tanya?"

I looked up at Edward. I didn´t know what to say.

"Yes and no," Edward answered.

"What does that mean?" Garret asked puzzled.

Before Edward had the chance to explain any further the door was opened.

Kate entered and I felt a huge stone lifted from my heart. Kate was safe.

Kate ran to Garret with a huge smile on her face and placed a kiss on each of his cheeks. She turned around to face the rest of us.

Her smile faded as she had scanned the room four times.

"Where´s Tanya?" she asked in a high pitched voice.

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