I´m so sorry - this took a lot longer than planned. I had this cute little plan with this story and then I made the mistake of asking for my husband´s opinion.

He wanted a more detailed fight scene - he thought there was enough fluff to go around... (MEN!!! ;) )

So this is my attempt on a more detailed fight scene - and there´s more to come in chapter 26...

Enjoy :)

Checkmate

We ran as fast as we could without looking back. We were headed to confront the ancient ones so we could not afford to be thinking back. They may have been cowards but they were not stupid. And they were not without skills.

There were five of us and five of them. Number wise it would be even. Only they had the advantage of holding what we were after as hostage. We had to fight them without Charlie being hurt. A human stuck in the middle of a vampire showdown, not the most fortunate place to be.

We ran for what felt like ages. How far had they gone anyway?

I started to panic. Had we even got the direction right? They could have moved and taken another path. Why hadn´t I paid more attention to Charlie in the field? Revenge had clouded my vision and now this might cost Charlie his mortality or his life. I was to blame. I stopped running and my family did the same. I couldn´t find Charlie´s scent anywhere.

"Bella?" Carlisle said.

It felt as though the trees were spinning around me and I couldn´t focus.

"Something´s wrong," I whispered. I knew they were all able to hear me.

Carlisle, Esme, Rose and I turned to Alice for help. Her eyes glanced over for a second.

"This way," she said and started running. We all followed her without question. After about 5 minutes she came to a stop and she gasped.

There in front of us was Charlie. He was lying on the forest floor all alone. I couldn´t see if he was alive, dead or changing. I ran as fast as I could to his side.

"Dad," I cried out. He didn´t react. "No please, dad. Come on dad!"

"Carlisle! Help him, please," I sobbed.

Carlisle was by my side in an instant checking Charlie´s vitals.

"He´s alive, but just barely. He´s unconscious caused by a blow to the head," Carlisle stated after his examination.

We had found Charlie alive. That was the goal, but it just didn´t feel right. Why leave him here with just a blow to the head?

"This is too easy," I whispered. "Something´s wrong."

I had the feeling that we had walked right in their trap. But how could I not?

"Well well well," a voice rang behind us. We all turned around slowly to face Caius, Aro, Marcus, Heidi and Renata.

"It would seem that the sheep have abandoned their herd," Caius said sarcastically.

"You should talk," Rose blurted out.

Since Carlisle had already confirmed that Charlie was still alive I got to my feet and crouched protectively in front of him. They would not take him again, not as long as I was alive.

Alice, Rosalie and Esme copied my actions. Carlisle was still kneeling beside Charlie.

"Awww. How sweet," Heidi mocked.

I knew that Heidi was a hunter and had special skills when it came to combat. Cowards or not both Aro, Caius and Marcus must be skilled fighters too. I doubted that they have gotten to where they were without some form of fight skill. And then there was the in denying fact of Renata´s shield. Our speculations were about to be answered, could Renata´s shield block mine?

"I thought you were all about family, Carlisle?" Aro asked with a smile on his lips. "How is it that you can leave your sons to die back there for a mere human?"

"You wouldn´t understand what the word family meant even if it came to bite you in the behind," Alice spat. This was very insulting coming from Alice, she was never one to be rude or cruel but now she had reached her limit.

Aro simply smiled at the little pixie in front of him.

"You should have joined me when you had the chance, Alice. This just seems like such a waste of talent," Aro stated calmly.

"Actually it´s the other way around," Alice replied with a smug smile. "You could have done so many good things in this life, but you chose another path. And now you stand before the end of that path."

Aro´s face froze. He of all people knew of Alice´s gift – he also knew that nothing was set in stone before the decisions were made. Alice had seen his downfall, now he had to find out which decision to change.

Alice giggled.

"No," she smiled at Aro innocently. "Not that one either."

Aro growled in frustration. He was really letting his guard down today and showing off his weak sides.

"You can´t win," Aro stated angrily.

"Never bet against Alice," a voice called from behind Aro´s group.

Alice smiled sweetly at the voice and looked Aro in the eyes.

"Thank you for joining us, Jasper," she said. "You´re right on time."

"I wouldn´t want to be anywhere else darlin´, " he answered.

For the second time today everything happened too fast for any humans to see. In a matter of nanoseconds individual battles were forming.

I off course had the task of fighting Renata. Her gift against mine. This could very well make or break our chances of winning. If I were to succeed in shielding my family from Renata´s shield then we would actually stand a chance.

I jumped towards Renata and was instantly relieved. She couldn´t distract me, therefore she couldn´t distract anyone else protected by my shield.

Aro jumped Jasper while Alice tried to participate in the fight. As usual Jasper just maneuvered around her to keep her safe. This time around Aro would not be able to flee, this time around he had to get down and dirty like the rest of us.

Esme was circling Marcus, but it didn´t really seem like a fight was going to happen. Marcus just didn´t seem to care that much. It seemed that he would welcome death if it came his way, maybe he just didn´t think it was worth it.

Carlisle would be fighting Caius. That was hardly an even match. The peace loving patriarch against the power loving masochist. Carlisle wasn´t without skill though and this was his family being threatened, but this time he was in way over his head and we all knew it.

Rosalie was showing true girl power in her battle against Heidi. She had always hated that bitch because of her affection on men. And Heidi wasn´t even that pretty, according to Rosalie anyway.

Renata had not expected to fight, like Jane and Alec she was used to rely on her power. It amazed me that the Volturi, the great rulers of the vampire world could have been so naive. They knew my power; they had to have known what I would do. I groaned in frustration that I once again got stuck with one of their non skilled fighters. I wanted to test my fighting abilities on someone other than my brothers and loved ones – I wanted to participate more.

I could see the panic in Renata´s eyes as the battle began; she tried to avoid any attempts I had on hitting her. If I had not learned all of those different fighting techniques from Jasper, Rosalie and Alice we could have gone on like this for hours. It was obvious that Renata´s training had been limited to the defensive part, because all she did was block my hits. She didn´t swing at me or try to rip off any limps. I was glad that I never got tired; I could go on forever like this. Finally I got a punch in and she flew back into a tree. I ran to her, she was going down.

Jasper and Aro were circling each other measuring each other up. Jasper was the only one out of all of us that would stand a chance against Aro. Carlisle had told stories about his time with Aro and some of the stories would be of Aro training some of his favorite guard members. Jasper had seen enough in this lifetime to not underestimate Aro. He would study his technique and use it against him.

Aro stopped circling him and once again he jumped towards Jasper. Jasper saw it right away and moved 2 feet away. Aro flew straight into a tree but got to his feet in no time. He turned around and growled. Alice let out a little giggle and was beaming, she was so proud of her husband. Aro ran towards Jasper and Jasper mirrored his actions. They met each other halfway; a loud crash went through the woods at the collision. A lot of pulling, kicking and punching followed. The match was even.

Esme and Marcus had stopped circling. Marcus just stood there and watched as his brothers fought, his expression never changed. Esme was still in her crouch ready to defend herself or her family. She was not going to hurt Marcus as long as he didn´t try anything but she would never let her guard down. As indifferent as he may have come off as, he was still a member of the ancient ones and a highly respected leader. Indifference could have been a trick as well.

Caius had wasted no time on circling or sizing up. He had jumped Carlisle the minute I had jumped Renata. Carlisle was ready for that and fought back bravely. Caius had the upper hand right from the beginning, he knew Carlisle hated to fight and he knew that in a one-on-one fight between the two, he would without a doubt win. Carlisle knew that too but he would never let anyone else fight alone against Caius. The plan was to stall for time and for help. At some point we had hoped that one of the rest of us could join him and the battle would be more even.

Rosalie was eager to start the fight against Heidi so she also jumped straight away. Heidi was the hunter and therefore she was used to fight. She was also used to avoid blows. Rosalie jumped her time and time again and Heidi averted all her attempts. Rosalie was getting very frustrated, patience was never a virtue that Rosalie held, a fact that Emmet learned on a daily basis. Heidi was merely testing Rosalie´s patience and waiting for her to make her first mistake, to let her frustrations make her weak. Rosalie was however not one to lose focus, she would get frustrated but that would only make her more eager to fight and to win.

She turned the tables around by pretending she had given up in frustration and the second Heidi attacked, Rosalie moved around her holding her arms tightly up her back. She was pressing them harder backwards until Heidi cried out in pain.

Carlisle did the same as Renata, he blocked the attacks and maneuvered his way around Caius so that he couldn´t get to him. For the longest time nothing else happened and then suddenly Carlisle got hit, he flew backwards through the woods until he hit a tree. His body slammed against the tree trunk and he slowly glided down. When he reached the ground he didn´t get up. Caius started to laugh mockingly.

Esme had noticed Carlisle´s limb body on the ground by a tree a few feet away and she froze to the spot. She had let her guard down and Marcus now had the perfect opportunity to take her out. Only Marcus never moved. He kept his eyes on the ongoing fight among the other members of my family and his guard. Esme didn´t notice that Caius came up behind her and placed his hands at her neck.

"First I take out the queen and then the king is open," he whispered in her ear but he knew we would all hear.

I saw from the corner of my eyes that Carlisle got to his feet and crouched down. He was ready to protect his queen.

Caius squeezed his hands tight around Esme´s neck and kicked her hard in the back. She was now laying on the ground her face down and she was not moving.

"Checkmate," Caius said in a vicious voice.

I´ll try to hurry with the next chapter... Please don´t hate me for ending it here...

Everything will be revealed in the next chapter and then there´s only 2-3 fluffy ones left until I let this baby go...

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