A/N: Hope you all had a happy and peaceful holiday, whatever holiday you celebrate, and I wish you all a healthy and joyous New Year! Thanks for sticking with me! I'm estimating two chapters and an epi to go!

~Edward~

Jasper's thoughts had me in a panic the entire flight. I had never felt so helpless in my entire life. If I had thought for even a second that what he was considering was a remote possibility, I never would have agreed to her getting on that plane. The wheels had barely hit the runway when Jasper pulled the door off and jumped out, with me hot on his heels. Not that it did us a damn bit of good. She wasn't here. She had never been here. And now she could be literally anywhere in the world, with two lunatics and a mad scientist, all of whom were madly in love with her.

Emphasis on the word 'mad'.

"What's wrong?" Maria ran up to us, the rest of our party following closely behind. It occurred to me she could have had something to do with it, and I turned, ready to rip her head off, but her thoughts were genuine. She was confused and concerned. Her brow furrowed for a moment as she watched Jasper sniffing the air like a bloodhound before her face lit up in understanding.

"Oh my God. Bella's not here. None of them are! They've kidnapped her! What are we gonna do?"

"Let's start with the pilot. I'm willing to bet he's in on it," Rafael suggested.

"Good idea, except there he goes." Emmett pointed to our plane, which was taking off over our heads, the broken door still dangling precariously. "Too bad vamps don't require cabin pressure."

"Let's get off the tarmac before we draw unnecessary attention to ourselves." Jasper had to help Adrian calm down enough to walk, but his thoughts were more like someone on the verge of a nervous breakdown. We headed into an unoccupied airplane hangar reserved for private jets.

Rafael and Maria stayed with us, while the other compound employees disappeared one by one. A few were determined to find where the compound was, believing there had to be a logical explanation. Others decided that joining the resistance might not have been such a great idea after all, and set goals on returning to their previous lives. Either way, they were of no help to us.

"Where are we, anyway?" Emmett asked. "It's freaking freezing. Alaska, maybe?"

"More than likely."

"Should we head for Denali?"

"No, don't!" Maria yelled, then looked a little sheepish when everyone stopped and turned to her. "They might have done this simply because they wanted Bella for themselves, and this was an easy way to eliminate their competition. Or maybe they know you're really working for the Volturi, in which case Denali is the first place they'd send their goons to search for you. You and your friends would be sitting ducks."

"Wait a minute, what do you mean by 'really working for the Volturi'?" Jasper grabbed her by the elbow and turned her to face him.

"Oh, come on Major, I know they say love is blind, but I'm not stupid. I care about Bella, and I know she did something to make me feel that way, and she did it to stop the Romanians. Honestly, I'm okay with that. I just wish she'd have been upfront about it. She could have convinced me I was following the wrong people without dousing me with whatever funky voodoo her powers are that made me fall in love with her.

But I do love her, and I love you, and, well, I don't love Edward, I just want to fuck his brains out once or twice, but that's neither here nor there. The point is, I want to help. I know you have no reason to trust me, but you can trust me." Jasper's thoughts revealed the complete sincerity in her emotions, and her thoughts supported that. It would seem we had gained an unlikely ally.

"Is all that true? Bella can make people fall in love with her? That's what happened to Francesco, isn't it? And me!" I nodded gravely.

"She didn't mean to. She's been learning to control it. Doesn't always work, clearly." Rafael's anger at being enchanted was understandable, I supposed, but ill timed at best. I couldn't help but growl at him.

"She's been kidnapped by two, possibly three, criminally insane vampires. Putting aside the reasons for your love for Bella, you can't deny that you do, and as such, I would think you'd be more concerned with her disappearance."

"Of course, you're right. I can deal with... this..." Rafael waved his hands in front of him in an all-encompassing gesture, "later. What's the plan?"

"Well, first let's try and narrow down where to look, then we'll have to come up with a game plan on how to search. As much as I'd like to split up and canvas the globe faster, I think it's foolhardy to think they won't be waiting for us when we get there, wherever 'there' is, and going alone is a death sentence. We'll have to stick together."

"I agree with Jasper," Maria said. "In love or not, they're dangerous, and if they know what Bella can do, they will view her as the ultimate weapon of mass destruction. They will put her in a gilded cage and expect her to make armies for them. It would be suicide to try and rescue her alone."

"Maria, you have no idea where they might have gone?"

Maria shook her head. "It would appear that they consider me less critical to their success than I had previously thought. Either that, or they considered me competition for Bella's affections, who knows." Maria shrugged.

"Alright, let's look at this logically. Wait here a sec," Jasper disappeared and returned a minute later with a map of the United States. He quickly spread it out on the table. "I think we should search the U.S. first and here's why. They put a lot of time and money into this chain of surrogate recruitment centers, and they're not going to want to abandon those."

"The fact that Dr. Lee is with them adds credence to that theory," Maria concurred.

"The compound is most probably going to be near one of them. The largest facilities are in New York, Chicago, Cleveland, Salt Lake City, and Los Angeles. I doubt they 're in sunny L.A., so I suggest we try there last. New York, Chicago and Cleveland are bordered by water and densely packed suburbs, so finding a spot of land large enough to suit their purposes without being conspicuous would be difficult. I think we should start in Salt Lake City." Jasper nodded his head sharply, as if in strong agreement with himself.

"Sounds like as good a place to start as any," Emmett said. "Let's get crackin', I got some Romanian butt to kick for taking my little sis."

"We need to make a phone call first. It's not going to be just us from here on out. The gauntlet has been thrown with Bella's kidnapping. The war has begun."

~Dr. Lee~

Stefan and Vladimir were like kids in a candy shop, watching through the window and waiting patiently for our dear Isabella to board the plane. I was much more patient. Soon, she would be ours and ours alone, to both worship and command.

Isabella, with her tantalizing abilities, would be the Queen Bee to our hive, with thousands of drones eager to do her bidding, which would of course be our bidding. They, like we, would love and adore her, not hesitating to change their moral code to follow her. Happily, they would fight for her. Kill for her. Die for her.

She was perfect.

Her smile was radiant as she boarded the plane with one last wave to our former generals. Pity to lose them, and Maria, but they held her favor and we couldn't allow them to be competition for Isabella's attention or affections.

She would be quite busy with us from now on.

Vladimir, Stefan and I had come to an arrangement after I had solved the mystery of her hold on us. We would each have her, share her between us. We would shelter her from the rest of the world, except when she was performing her duties towards the cause. She would have anything her heart desired. By setting aside our jealousies, we could each bask in her love and partake of her sweet body without endangering the future for our people.

It would be difficult, to be sure. Disagreements had already taken place over who would have her first, and when. Naturally, as the one who discovered her talent, I felt it was my just reward to be the first to take her, and I would have done it the moment we were in the air. But Vladimir and Stefan diplomatically reminded me that I worked for them, and would have to wait.

They wanted to take her together, and despite the creepiness of it, it didn't surprise me. Their choice, however, required a little more space than the plane afforded, so the decision was made that while we could, shall we say, introduce the idea to Isabella on the plane, let her warm up to the idea that she had unwittingly traded her two lovers for three vastly superior ones, she would not be consummating her new relationship with us until we were safely ensconced in the new compound.

Isabella's smile faded as she looked around the plane, stumbling a bit as we taxied down the runway.

"What's...I don't...ummm...Stefan?" Clearly, she had fallen for his ruse.

"I'm sorry, my..."

"...dearest one..."

"It pained us to..."

"...deceive you..."

"Come sit down..."

"...and have a rest..."

"...while we explain..."

"...everything."

I did not think, as the twins did, that she would see the wisdom in our actions as they explained everything, and once again, I was right. Horror crossed over her features and she threw herself at the window. I was barely able to catch her around the waist and subdue her on the floor before she flew through the glass.

She thrashed deliciously beneath me as I straddled her, pinning her down. I couldn't resist thrusting against her once, desperate for the smallest amount of friction. I bent down to kiss her and she turned her head to the side, spewing profanities at me. Sexy little spitfire. I tilted my head sideways and gently sucked her bottom lip between my own, closing my eyes as I savored the sensation. Vlad and Stefan each took me by an arm and pulled me off of her with a warning look.

"Relax, Isabella..."

"We love you..."

"...and will allow no harm..."

"...to come to you..."

"...but please..."

"...do not try to escape..."

"...or resist us..."

Isabella sat up but stayed on the floor, bringing her knees to her chest and wrapping an arm around her legs. She began rocking back and forth, mumbling, "I can't believe this."

"Why not, dearest one?" I asked her, genuinely curious at her surprise. "This is what you wanted, isn't it? Us to love you? It is why you enchanted us so. Do not be shocked that you got what you asked for. We are in love with you, but now we need you to give us what we ask for in return. You must help us begin a new era for vampirekind, and then you will help us rule the world. The four of us will be together, forever, in every way possible."

Isabella's eyes got wide as understanding sunk in.

The rest of the flight was remarkably silent. Bella eventually saw it fit to sit in a chair instead of on the floor, but she refused to make eye contact with any of us. While I expected some resistance, her withdrawal concerned me. What would she think when we killed her former comrades, those miserable wretches in the Volturi? The final showdown was about to begin and carnage is an unavoidable circumstance of war.

We reached the compound without further incident, but unfortunately for me, Vlad and Stefan decided to give her some time to herself to get settled in and adjusted. They didn't want to force her into being intimate with them before she was ready. Unfortunately, that meant I would have to wait as well. I hated waiting. So far, it had been two weeks, and my patience was growing thin.

Isabella was under constant guard, for her own protection, and refused to leave her suite, not even to feed. I had even attempted to deliver a meal to her rooms, but she turned her nose up at the young woman without a second glance. Shame. I would have loved to watch her sink her teeth into that sweet morsel's neck.

It wasn't as if there was no progress at all. Vladimir and Stefan had somehow convinced her to enchant most of our army. I am not sure how they accomplished it. She even gave a pep talk to the troops, and although she did not come across as particularly enthusiastic, none of her lemmings seemed to notice the difference.

For my part, I chose to occupy my time putting the finishing touches on the new laboratory facility. I also took over Edward's duties completing the recruitment centers, whose websites were already receiving a remarkable number of hits. Finding suitable test subjects was not going to be an issue. I couldn't wait to resume my experiments full force.

I was standing just outside the compound gates, enjoying the Midwestern vista and daydreaming about making love to Isabella out on the plains, when I saw them. Vampires, thousands of them, marching over the horizon.

Volturi.

With Edward and Jasper at the helm.

I rushed inside and let the twins know the gauntlet has been thrown and the field has been chosen. Calmly, they sounded the alarm and paged for Isabella to be brought to them. She needed to see, to understand. And then, she needed to watch them die.