I know it's been forever and a half, but it's finally done!

Hope you like it. ^.^

*Raises up champagne glass* "Here's to the Epilogue and to last time you guys will see this:"

Lights! Camera! …Read!


His face glowed in the soft sunlight and his eyes danced with love. We held hands and were impatiently waiting until we could make it official. Emmett was purposefully delaying us.

"Will you Edward Anthony Masen Cullen, take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife? Will you love and cherish her in sickness and in health–" Emmett looked up from the bible again. "Wait a minute, we can't get sick."

"Emmett!" Rosalie hissed from the front row.

"But Rosie, these vows don't make any sense for vampires!" he countered.

She glared at him until he sighed in defeat and looked back down at the bible.

Edward's mouth twitched. His was having a really hard time trying not to laugh.

Emmett had been stopping every verse or so, claiming that traditional vows were outdated for our kind.

Hey Emmett – Emmett raised an eyebrow at me to acknowledge that he was listening. – Maybe you should uh, re-vamp the vows a little then?

He grinned widely. I'll do my best, little sis. He closed the bible and stood up taller.

"Do you Edward, take Bella to be your bride, your friend, your mate, companion, your lover –" He paused again for dramatics and wiggled his eyebrows at us. It caused me to lose control and I let out a hearty laugh.

Rosalie coughed and Emmett stood tall again to continue.

"Will you honor her and cherish her? Will you take care of her and protect her… even though we all know she could kick any of our asses if she wanted." Muffled laughter rang throughout the clearing. "No matter what happens from here on out, will you stand by her side for all the days of your life? Think about this carefully though, 'cause seriously forever is a really really long time…"

Carlisle stepped forward and quickly whispered in Emmett's ear too quiet for any of us to hear. Emmett sighed and nodded before he continued.

"Edward, do you promise to love and respect her for the rest of your existence? Do you take Bella to be you wife?"

"I do." He replied quickly.

I couldn't help it; I threw myself at him and kissed him deeply. It wasn't until I heard Emmett's wolf whistle that I realized what I had done. I bit my lip and hesitantly pulled away.

Emmett bellowed and put his hand on my shoulder.

"As amusing as that was, you still have to wait until AFTER the vows for that!" he laughed. If I could, I would have blushed.

I backed away a little more to resist temptation and motioned Emmett to continue.

"Bella," Emmett started. He grinned and paused dramatically again. The seconds passed and he still hadn't said anything, his grin grew just like my impatience was.

I was about to yell at him for purposely stalling but before I could, his eyes shifted towards Edward. Emmett slightly flinched away.

I looked back at Edward in confusion. My favorite smile greeted me and he pulled up my left hand to his lips, kissing my ring.

Emmett cleared his throat and finally started again.

"Bella," I turned back my attention to the ceremony and tried not to get too lost in Edward's golden eyes. "Same questions."

"I do." I choked out.

"Rings!" Alice chirped from somewhere right behind me. She stepped forward with a small plush lavender pillow that held two similar wedding bands. I picked up Edward's and he mine. We then slipped the rings on for each other. I was nearly bouncing up and down in anticipation.

"Fine! Fine. I won't make you wait any longer… I now pronounce you: Mr. and Mrs. Edward Masen – Cullen!"

I faintly heard our family and friend's loud cheers. I could only see my Edward in this moment. He leaned closer and placed his hand at the back of my neck.

I love you

I grinned and closed the distance, our first kiss as husband and wife.

Vampire memory or not, I will never forget that day. It was one of my most beautiful memories. It felt like only yesterday we had gotten married, though it had been quite a few decades since then.

We had our ceremony in our meadow after revising our treaty with the wolves. In honor of us helping them save Seth, the treaty was rewritten, giving us the freedom to come back to Forks when ever we wanted. Jacob even lets us go to La Push as well now, though we must have someone from the pack present any time we are. The treaty with the wolves had never been better. We remain loyal to each other to this day and still plan on doing many great things together in the future.

"Are you ready yet, love?

Lost in my memories, I had distracted myself from the task at hand.

"Not really."

Edward walked swiftly towards me and wrapped his arms around my waist, successfully pulling me to his chest. I was standing in front of the vanity so I had a good view of our reflections. Edward and I hadn't aged at all, of course, but since his transformation his features had definitely changed for the better. His auburn hair was a bit longer than before. His body was much thinner, though his muscles were more defined. His eyes were a crystal clear topaz color, so full of love and compassion, so much like his father's

It was Edward who became my rock throughout the years. I don't think I could have handled the last handful of years without him.

"You look deep in thought. What's on you're mind?"

His beautiful crooked grin appeared on his lips as I opened my mind to him, letting him relive our honeymoon in England with me.

We stood there for a few minutes reminiscing. I could have lost myself for hours if I had the time. But time was cutting short.

He kissed the top of my head and spun me around. "Have I ever told you how amazing you are, Bella?"

"Plenty of times, Edward. I think you might over use the phrase." I laughed.

"I only use it because it's true, my love." Edward pulled me close and kissed me full on the lips. As he pulled away he whispered against my cheek. "Bella, you made all of this possible. Now we just have to cross our fingers and hope everything turns out alright."

I nodded in agreement.

Hope was the only thing we had right now. Not even Alice's visions or my own could tell us the outcome of our decisions. There were too many possibilities, too many people, and still too many decisions to be made.

"How much time do we have?" I asked.

"We have about half an hour left. Marcus is already waiting for us in the lobby. He's been pretty anxious according to Jasper. Dad's down there with them too."

"I better finish getting ready then." I hesitantly left his warm arms and made my way to the bed where the outfit Alice picked out was spread.

It was simple and conservative, at least as conservative as Alice could get away with. It was a knee-length black dress and a white half jacket that went over it. I dressed quickly and turned around to look at myself in the full length mirror.

"Alice sure knows exactly what to dress me in, doesn't she?" I smiled. It fitted and looked perfect.

"Yes, you look exquisite, as always. But don't let her hear you say that, or she'll want to dress you more often, which means more shopping." He laughed.

"Hah! More than she already does?" I scoffed. "Impossible."

"Nothing's impossible!"

I turned towards the door and my chipper baby sister skipped into the room. She was wearing a cute pale pink business skirt suit.

"Just 'cute'?" She stood with her hands at her hips. "I believe 'cute' is a huge understatement!" She lifted one hand and fanned herself. "Ithink I look fabulous."

I rolled my eyes and Edward chuckled at her antics.

I moved towards the vanity again to grab my brush, but Alice's hand stopped me.

"Let me do it, I know the perfect style to go with your outfit!" She sang.

I sighed and sat down in my lush chair. I'd learned long ago that there was no use in trying to fight off Alice.

When it came to fashion, she knew best.

"I'll be downstairs in the lobby. See you in a few." Edward kissed me softly and let his hand caress my cheek. His touch left behind a trace of familiar heat beneath my skin.

Alice, to my annoyance, sent him on his way before I could tell her to leave us alone for a few more minutes.

She didn't speak while she pulled and picked at my hair, which gave me more time alone with my thoughts. With twenty minutes to spare we began our descent to the lobby. As we got closer it became a lot harder to ignore the loud buzzing of voices. I put up a soundproof shield throughout the room to lessen the noise as we walked in.

By now everyone was gathered in the large waiting room across from the entrance to the castle.

Marcus sat across from Carlisle at one end while Jasper, Esme and Edward stood at the other. Alice walked over to Jasper's side and I walked over to sit by Carlisle.

"So is everything ready?" I asked.

"Everything's set. They're anxiously waiting our cue." Marcus answered.

Then we waited…

I felt relieved to be rid of Aro and Caius' rule, yet angered that they couldn't have suffered more for their treachery.

The fire danced to great height.

The room was filled with small fires and thick smoke.

The fires would have to be put out if not the whole castle along with everyone in it would be burned to dust.

I recalled a power and let water swirl around the room safely extinguishing the fires around me. The smoke thickened and I could feel it clogging my lungs. Although I didn't need to breathe, the feeling of my blackened lungs was very uncomfortable.

Behind me, Marcus sat at his throne still staring at the ground. I ignored him for the time being and scanned the room quickly looking for Edward.

I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw him standing by Emmett as they watched the flames in front of them lick around the last remains of what I assumed to the Volturi's unfortunate vampires. I ran to him at full speed. He caught me in his arms and held me tight. I could hear him breathing in my scent and kissing the top of my head.

"Bella, I'm so sor– " he began.

"Shh…it's ok. We can talk about it later."

The sadness and sincerity was evident by the way his face contorted in pain. When everything was sorted out, we would talk about everything that happened.

I took another look throughout the room. To the left of us, three large wolves were throwing more pieces into the fire. Jasper and Alice were huddled together, whispering at a frantic pace. Garrett held Kate in his arms, her face hidden by his chest. Benji was looking around for body parts, and brought them over to Bridget and Bethany. Bridget would use her gift to help ease them back together.

"Did anyone…?" I could barely ask.

Emmett and Edward shared a weary look.

Paul was thrown across the room…his spine snapped, it was quick. Leah was injured. She was trying to help him…

I hugged myself tighter to Edward.

Irina and Tanya didn't make it.

Oh God, poor Kate…two sisters gone. I couldn't even begin to imagine what she was going through.

Jasper's a mess but he keeps insisting he's fine. Laurent cut him up pretty bad… Demetri got the worst of it when he was blindsided by Heidi. Apparently Heidi had a grudge against him; she came out of no where and attacked him. His arm was severed. Alice came just in time before she was able to finish him off…

"I'm gonna go see if Rose is doing better..." Emmett said before he dashed away to the furthest corner of the room. Rosalie was sitting in the corner with her arms wrapped around her stomach.

What happened to Rose?

Edward grimaced. When Alec numbed you, Rosalie threw herself at Alec. He thrashed violently in her grip, and right before she was able to pin him down and bite him, he tore a handful of flesh from her side. Bridget was able to heal her already, but Rosalie's mostly just traumatized from the feeling of it. It's bringing back some of her more unpleasant human memories.

My heart ached for my new sister. I knew her story well. I could see why that certain injury would affect her that way. I wanted to see if she was alright, but from the looks of it, she barely even wanted Emmett to be by her. She kept backing away from his touch. I hoped she would be alright.

"We should check on the others." Edward suggested.

I nodded and searched the room to see if anyone was injured that I could help.

Off to the right, Carlisle was bent over a white wolf. Jacob, in wolf form, was lying beside the white one. I strode to them with Edward in tow, to see what was wrong.

"How's Leah doing, Dad?"

"She seems to be doing much better now. I'm no vet, but her leg is broken as far as I could tell. I told her not to change back, just in case, so that the break wouldn't get any worse."

"Let me try and help." I let my hands hover over her paw. When the glow from my hands vanished Leah jumped up on all fours and spun around quickly in a circle. Jacob whimpered and nudged my side.

Thank you.

We spent the next hour or so going around and doing as much as we could with the injured and with the cleaning.

We had managed to get all the smoke out without causing suspicion. The smell of vampire ashes was still rich in the air, but only a vampire would know it's meaning if they came across it.

Through that whole time, I noticed, Marcus had still not moved from his throne. No one had made any moves to go anywhere near him either. Most of them were weary about him, not sure if they could trust him. But I trusted him.

I made my decision and walked towards him. Edward moved to follow me but I held my hand up to stop him.

As I moved across the room I could feel everyone's curious eyes on me. The room was entirely silence, not even a breath could be heard. When I finally reached the up-most step before the thrones, I stopped. Marcus didn't move, didn't breathe.

"Marcus?"

His head snapped at attention. He looked up at me with wide, tortured eyes. A moment later, he stood up abruptly.

There were gasps and shuffling of feet behind me.

Without a word, Marcus turned on the spot and walked towards the door behind the thrones that led into the private meeting rooms.

I glanced back for a second and nodded at Edward to let him know everything was fine. With that, I followed Marcus out.

I followed him through the corridors leading out to the main grounds. He was silent all the way out to the gardens. A shiver ran through my body, we had ended up in the center of the garden's labyrinth where Didyme's fountain stood, her sanctuary, her death place.

I was slightly startled when Marcus finally spoke. His back was to me as he faced the fountain.

"She was the most loving, caring, and self-sacrificing creature I have ever met. She always put everyone else's happiness before hers. For the last thousand odd years I had learned to close myself off from everyone, even myself. I had made myself numb for so long, I had mastered it. I didn't want to think of what I had lost…" His fists clenched and shook as he spoke. "And in the course of a few hours, my defensives have all crumbled." Marcus fell to his knees with a loud thud. I gasped and took a step forward. I wanted to rush to his side and comfort him, but I had no idea how to do so.

"I've never wanted to end my life more than I do at this moment." His arms rose to grasp the stone ledge of the fountain.

"I feel like I've lost her all over again." He breathed in barely a whisper. For a moment there was silence. I was at a loss for words. I searched for the words that could possibly comfort him, but still couldn't find them.

"I have avenged her murder, yet I feel so greatly unsatisfied. She deserved much more than this." His hands gripped the stone harder causing it to crumble beneath his fingers.

I had started a war with the Volturi and never even thought of the effect it would have on Marcus. When I found the truth about Didyme, I didn't want to be the one to tell him. He didn't deserve all this grief. He had already suffered so much for so long. And now I had caused him so much pain to relive her death.

"She will have more." I found myself saying as I crossed the distance to where he lay. "I'll make sure of it." I kneeled beside him and my hand went to his hands. At my touch, he loosened his grip on the fountain. He looked up to meet my eyes and my heart broke for him even more as I looked deep into his. He looked so lost, so broken. "With Aro gone we will rebuild and better ourselves. We will live free of greed and abuse of power. We will live, really live, not just exist anymore, Marcus. When we accomplish that; that's when it will feel right. She'll look down on us, and she will be proud."

And for the first time since I had known Marcus, his mouth pulled into a smile.

"You remind me so much of Didyme." He slightly grimaced at the name, but the smile stayed on his lips.

He lifted his hand to my cheek and lightly caressed it.

"Thank you." He breathed. He pulled his hand away quickly.

"For what?" I asked confused.

"For giving me the truth, for reminding me that there is still good left in this world."

I smiled.

"I think you might be right." He mused. "She said I would find peace one day. She said I just needed a push in the right direction and everything would fall in to place."

We sat in silence for a few minutes. I assumed his letter from Didyme had said those things to him. I admit, I was extremely curious as to what she told him in that letter. But I would never dare asking him about it, it would be too private for me to know the contents of it. Instead of pondering on the letter, I switched to thinking of everything that had happened in the last hour. I couldn't help but feel that it was all worth it.

My family was together again, the Volturi had fallen, and Marcus seemed to have started to find his own peace of mind.

The man that knelt before me was a completely different man than who he was an hour ago.

I held hope that I would get to know the real Marcus now, the one that Didyme had fallen in love with.

And that was the man who sat before me now.

In the beginning it was hard for him to break out of his shell. Eventually he learned to live his life once again.

Marcus had become a brother of sorts to me. He was nothing like Aro and Caius had made him out to be.

I sometimes wondered how he was able to stand by their side for so long. He told me later that he just didn't have the motivation to leave or do anything else for that matter. He also believed Chelsea played a big part in it too. She must have played on his depression and held onto his loyalty to Didyme's only living family, to Aro, and strengthened those ties to keep him with the Volturi.

For the most part Marcus seemed happy now. There were times he would go off by himself into the gardens, and I knew where he would be. Once or twice I had passed by the labyrinth and heard his soft whispers as he spoke to Didyme. I try not to disturb his privacy, but I couldn't help but over hear him once.

"For you, my Didyme, I live for you. Give me strength."

And strength she must have given him, Marcus had never gone back to how he was. Every day you could see the change in him, and it was only getting better.

It was him that made the best suggestions in new ways to keep order in the vampire world.

We had all gathered many times since then to construct our new laws. We had all argued day in and day out about some of them.

Mostly the arguments were about vampire diets. I suggested we find a way to convert all existing vampires to diet the way we did, as vegetarians. Marcus, surprisingly, had no problem with it. It was Carlisle that felt it was their own choice to choose their diet. I thought it was absurd. We needed to be civilized, not cannibals. We were all split down the middle. Edward was the one to offer a compromise.

We would only outlaw murder, not the consumption of human blood.

We did away with the previous rule of leaving all humans out of the loop when it came to vampires. Over the years we allowed certain trustworthy humans to know our secret. Some of them were willing to help us. Eventually we would set up several secret donation centers where human donors would allow themselves to be fed upon by our kind, unharmed.

Most of our kind were not particularly happy about not being able to kill their human meals anymore, but little by little it was done away with. There were times that some would slip of course. We offered help to any of them that had control issues. We would house many that needed the help, for how ever long it took. With all of our gifts, and patience, we were able to convert them easily.

An issue that came up later was weather we would allow our kind to turn humans into vampires. Again we came to a split decision but came into agreement soon after. We allowed their transformations under two conditions. The first condition being that the one to be transformed know exactly what they're getting into, they must be well informed. Secondly, they must agree to stay in our castle for the first of their newborn years so that we could watch over their bloodlust. We found all found this to be reasonable and quite effective.

Our first few years we spent going throughout the world and making sure that all of our kind knew the truth of what happened with the Volturi; that Aro and Caius were dead and we would be replacing them. We agreed amongst ourselves that Marcus, Edward, Alice, and I would be the new representatives. We didn't know what to call ourselves, though; we didn't want to just be known as the 'new Volturi'. Eventually, once our story got around, the vampire population began to recognize us as the 'Guardians' or simply 'Law-Keepers'.

"Five minutes to go!" Alice beamed.

"How could you be so excited, Alice? It's not like you know what's going to happen. What if this goes horribly wrong?" I frowned.

"It won't!" she pouted. "Just because I haven't seen the outcome yet, doesn't mean I believe that it will turn out bad. I can just feel that it's the right path."

"So you're the empath now?" I joked.

She poked her tongue out at me and I shook my head at her. For a girl nearing three hundred now, she sure acted like she was still five.

"So…has Jake called back yet?" I asked.

"Yeah, he says they're getting ready for their interview in the States as we speak. They'll be giving them the news over there at the same time." Edward answered.

"And what about the Denali's?"

"They'll be going about fifteen minutes after us, in Tokyo."

"Sounds like this is it then, huh?" I smiled. "Now or never."

We all stood up in sync and walked over to the entrance doors. I lowered my shield and the loud voices could be heard once again from the other side. I took deep breathes to calm my nerves.

Alice bounced over to Marcus' left, and I stood to his right. Edward walked over to my side and took my hand in his.

The double doors in front of us opened letting in a draft.

It was St. Marcus' day and the streets in front of the castle were filled with cheering people in all shades of red clothing. They gathered around the large fountain in the front square. In front of them stood a single podium with video camera's pointed directly at it. The day was beautiful, cool and bright. There were no clouds in sight.

"It's time." Alice grinned. She held onto Marcus' hand and he held out his other to me. I took his hand and took one more deep breath.

Together we took the first step out in to the light.

Spots of reds, greens, violets, and blues were everywhere.

There was a chorus of sharp intakes of breath and then…

Silence.

Complete silence.

No one screamed.

No one moved.

They were frozen in place.

Shocked. Bewildered. Curious…

Edward gave my hand a gentle squeeze, giving me all the courage I desperately needed.

With one last shaky breath, I broke away from our joined hands and lay them on top of the podium.

I smiled as I easily remembered the speech we had prepared.

Yes, it was definitely time.

Alright, there you have it! I hope you guys are satisfied with my ending.

It might not be exactly what you were expecting, but I hope it was ok enough. =)

I know there were some things I didn't address here, but if you have any questions, don't be afraid to ask.


I want to give a huge THANK YOU to everyone who has reviewed, and to everyone who has been with me since the very beginning. You guys have been patient with me with how long it's taken me, thank you for that. This story wouldn't have been this long if it wasn't for all of your support and advice. I hope you guys enjoyed my story and hope you guys keep reading my stuff!

In other news: My new one-shot is almost done. It's sort of a 'song-fic' I guess. I should have it up quite soon. As for Domino Effect, I'm trying really hard to get out of my rut. I know exactly where I want my story to go, but it's really difficult to actually write it out. I've also begun to plan out a new story that is completely out of my element. I might post it on another account first though and see how it goes. Lets just say there will be quite a bit of "Rated M" material and I'm rather nervous about it. (But I still really really want to write it!) We'll see how that goes though. *cough* if anyone would like to give me advice on how to write good smut, let me in on your secrets ;) *cough* Hah, Oddly enough I had a weird ass dream about this storyline, and now I can't get this story out of my damn demented head! lol

I will also be working on more outtakes for Another Chance. I'll be taking down the outtakes story that I have up and just add it to the end of 'Another Chance.'

Hopefully I can motivate myself, (along with your help) to get all these things done in much less time than it has taken me the last handful of weeks. I've just been going through some rough times in life, so it's taken away from my writing. I love to write so I want to throw myself back into it again, like before. Then I can get my updating back up to schedule. =)

Anyways,

Thanks again guys!

Until next time,

Jan