We all gathered around in the ballroom, I looked around, and was so shocked. How could humanity be oblivious to the existence of Vampires? Look at all of us? And this is but one gathering, not every vampire in existence is here, there are many who are just too off the grid, nomads who avoid all contact with others of their kind, and the Volturi coven of course. These people here represented the older (well for the most part, me not counting) who had forged relationships. We even got a last minute visitor. Several of the southern covens came. Leaving the territories they had fought over for so many years.

We found out this was the doing of Maria, the vampire who made Jasper. When she arrived with the southern covens, they announced they were at truce, and Maria asked to speak with Alice. Maria gave her condolences on her loss, and told Alice how hurt she was when Jasper left her, but she had known for some time Jasper would leave, that he was unhappy, and she regrets not doing anything to ever help him.

She was surprised to find out Alice had a new mate, it was rather soon, but when she found out the circumstances she was more understanding. To any outsider it looked like we had both lost our mates in the same event, and turned to each other for comfort only but it wasn't like that.

Carlisle stepped out in the middle of the ballroom, and spoke. "Thank you all for coming. It is very nice to see old friends again, and to meet so many new friends. I know many of you have heard the rumors and some have been told by various family members what happened, so to avoid any confusion we brought everyone here to discuss what happened, and how we as a race go forward. I know this gathering as large as it is will not escape the notice of the Volturi, but my calls to Aro go unanswered, I still consider him a friend, and would like to resolve the tension between us. I think most here would agree that we all benefit by having the Volturi enforcing the rules, as our continued existence it made easier by most of humanity being blissfully unaware of our existence. So I would like to turn the floor over to other coven leaders to voice their concerns and ideas. Any helpful ideas would be appreciated."

He turned to the coven leaders on his right, wouldn't you know Count Dracula one and two. Creeptacular is how Emmett describes them.

Vladimir and Stefan Stepped forward. They had this odd way of speaking, they would alternate speaking one of them finishing the sentences of the other, but they did not cut each other off, rather it was like they were reading from a script. They voiced their opinion that the Volturi had to be eliminated. There were several rolled eyes at this announcement, since everyone knew that is their whole reason for existing. One of the southern vampires stepped forward.

Yes, all very well and good. I also have good reason for hating the Volturi, I lost many I counted as friends when the Volturi came and decimated the southern covens. All because their belief that we represented a threat to the masquerade. However, my hatred aside, what would you see replace them? There are none in this room who believe we do not need some form of governance, which is why the Volturi have been unchallenged for so long. And none of us want the bother of doing it.

We spent the next two days and nights discussing what our alternatives were from Vladimir, and Stefan's declariation that they would resume leadership, (which we all knew would result in humanity finding out about all of us immediately) to other suggestions from anarchy and the various regions electing a council. Until it was finally decided that a small delegation would travel to Voltura and speak to Aro, Marcus, and Caius in person. So that something could be worked out.

Carlisle would travel with Elizar, Maria, Alice, Myself, and 5 of the nomads. We decided to leave right away. Carlisle called and informed the Volturi that we were coming to talk, and requested an audience with Aro, Marcus, and Caius, and as many of the guard as they wanted there. He assured the person he spoke to that this was not an attack and he just wanted to talk, and re-establish the status quo.

When we arrived in Voltura it was a little after midnight. As we approached the castle, a large contingent of the guard came out to meet us. Jane spoke. "Aro does not wish to see you all. You should just leave"

Carlisle shook his head. "No, a long time ago Aro promised me a favor. I am now calling that favor in. Simply put, I want an audience."

A vampire in the back spoke "Come on Jane, maybe it's true, maybe they can help?"

Jane spun around "Shut up you fool!" and the vampire who spoke out of turn fell to the ground writhing and screaming as Jane used her gift. I extended my shield to stop it, and shield that vampire. Jane then spun and looked at me. "Fine! You all want to stick your nose in, come see what your Jasper did!"

We followed Jane, and were flanked by the rest of the guard. Because of the close quarters in the long hallway, I was not able to fully shield my family, and hoped the guard would not chose now to attack. Jane swung the throne-room doors open and we all gasped. Sitting in their thrones whithered, and looking catatonic, were Aro, Marcus, and Caius. There were also several other guard members sitting in various places around the throne room similarly affected.

Carlisle turned to Jane "What happened? Exactly?"

Jane looked stricken, "Well from the video, when Jasper was executed along side Edward Jasper let out a wail that was the saddest sound I ever heard, and everyone just kind of collapsed as the burned. We are guessing that Jasper let out a wave of sadness that has crippled everyone who was in the room. Others in the castle at the time also felt it, but because of the range, or whatever we able to recover, but we have not been able to rouse anyone in this room, they have all not fed for weeks, we have brought them humans and opened arteries right in front of their mouths and pressed them to their mouths but nothing, just nothing."

Alice looked very sad next to me but got a vision. She got a sad half smile, then spoke. "I can help them. But because they took my mate it comes at a price."

Jane looked at her. "Anything, they cannot last much longer, if they will not eat they will wither to the point where they might not recover, trapped forever in an undying whithered state, I cannot imagine there is anything Aro would not grant to be freed from his prison."

Alice walked to the thrones "Aro, what happened is you felt Jaspers anguish over leaving me, not only his sadness at losing me, but how he felt, how he knew I would feel, this was not an attack, this was just him losing control of his gift, and expressing his emotion. But I can tell you this, I forgive you. I have found love a second time against all odds. I have a new mate, Bella Swan Cullen. I was close to her when she was human, and now as a vampire we both lost someone close to us in this event. She was in love with Edward, it is because of her that Edward came here. In the first place. I sent Jasper to stop him, but he was not in time and you destroyed him also thinking this was an attack on you. Well it wasn't. So you need to feed, and my price for forgiving you, and sharing my news about how I have found love again, so that you can find some joy in this tragedy is that you must form a council and put measures in place so that any condemned vampire or coven is given a fair hearing, so this can never happen again!"

The first time Alice said she forgave them they suddenly turned to look right at her, obviously coming out of their trance. After Alice finished speaking Aro said "Agreed Alice Cullen." He turned to Jane "We need to eat now Jane."

As several Humans were brought into the throne room. We all dashed out, but Alice and Carlisle stayed behind.

After several hours Alice came out. "Well baby, it looks like we are going to be here a while. Carlisle, and Maria are going to be on the new council along with Several of our friends so we are going to stay here for a while."

I embraced her "Alice, you are amazing. I love you so much, after what happened, for you to forgive them, and help the same ones who took Jasper from you, from us, I hope I learn your compassion some day, I do not think if it was me in your shoes and it was you I lost that I could forgive ever."

"Well, I am totally awesome, what can I say?" she smirked.

My jaw dropped. "Why you little stinker!" I kissed her then, stifling her giggles.

I knew we were going to be alright then. A very tense stand off, we were all still sad over our losses, but we knew life would go on, we would forever miss Jasper and Edward, but we would also remember the good times we had with them, and that would temper our grief.

Epilogue:

It has been several years now, and the council was well received around the world amongst the various covens. Vladimir and Stefan have each taken a seat on the council from time to time. I think they finally saw reason, and admitted that the day to day restrictions of ruling were a bother, and they have much more power and freedom now that the Volturi took over ruling they were actually done a favor.

Caius is still a hothead, wanting to kill everyone for every minor infraction, but the council has made it much more fair, and those vampires who simply made mistakes were pardoned, there were a few who just refused to live within the rules and had to be destroyed, but those few sad cases were the exception.

Alice and I have been around the world several times, and I have learned to love shopping too. Although Alice was devious, she got me to love shopping by giving me rewards after every trip, and the longer and more grueling the shopping the bigger the reward. All I will say about the rewards is wow, does Alice know how to please a woman!

A/N: Well, I hope you enjoyed my story, thank you tho those who review, and those who favorite my stories. I am glad you liked them!