Chapter 22: The Voice of Reason

Tension radiated from every edge of the table. Alice sat quietly entranced. Her eyes were dull and foggy allowing her mind's eye to be used for sight. Jasper had her arm and my father had moved to her side. I watched and waited, observing David's calm demeanor. Some thing about him unnerved me. Maybe it was the clothing that didn't quite match the body, or maybe it was the mind that was wise beyond the years of his external appearance. All in all, it didn't fit, he was too many things all at once. My train of though derailed as Alice startled back to reality.

"Its Aro, he is growing impatient with our friend. They are trying to decide what to do with him," she said, worry seeping into her beauty.

"Then it was not a vision from Marius," David stated more than asked. What a wonderful and terrible gift I thought to myself.

"Indeed, young one. The ability to know the thoughts of others is a quite a burden," David said as his eyes lingered on my father.

"No," Alice said, "No communication from Marius. It was just a flutter of different outcomes intermingling in Aro's thoughts. He is seriously considering leaving Marius to the sun for as long as it takes to destroy him, but something is stopping him. The future keeps switching to a blurred vision... A picture of Aro, only it is not Aro, something has changed. I don't know, it's not very strong. The vision of Marius charred to ashes in the light of the sun is much more potent. I'm afraid that we don't have much more than a month or two before he makes a final decision."

An ominous air presided in the room. "We have precious, little time," Carlisle said. "Its time that we discussed possible courses of action."

Jacob broke in, "Not to rain on the parade, but why exactly do we feel the need to save Marius?"

I scoffed at him, "You're kidding, right? Did you miss that whole part where if Marius dies, Maharet takes out the Volturi?"

"Well, no, but I don't really understand why that matters. No Volturi sounds like a good thing to me," Jacob said, his cheeks flushed a little at my harshness.

David was the one to answer, his voice was understanding and compassionate, "Jacob, my young friend, I am afraid it is more complicated than that. What I was trying to explain about the primal fount, I'm afraid is why destroying the Volturi matters. If we can be certain that the original branch of the species lies with the Romanian coven or outside of the Volturi, then we will have no problem exterminating them. And I doubt that we could really convince Maharet otherwise, if this is the case. They have chosen their fate; however, I fear that we will not be so lucky. And I'm sure that you are not really willing to risk the lives of those sitting around this table on the chance that Aro or one of the others in the original member of this species."

Jacob's eyes fell to the floor, all he could muster was a muffled, "Oh, I guess not."

"So," Carlisle interjected, "that leaves us with the task of coming up with a suitable plan. Before I state my opinion, I would like to hear everyone else's thoughts on the matter. Alice, you are most closely tied with both species at this point, what is on your mind?"

Alice's pixie-like features shined as she spoke, "Well..." she said thinking aloud, "I don't see how letting them destroy Marius will do any of us any good. So I am certain that he must be saved from Aro. I am concerned about how we are going to do it. Marius has relayed Aro's fear of us to me, but I don't know how willing I am to have a replay of the Nessie trail. It was very dangerous and we are lucky to have escaped with our lives. I don't like the idea of facing them again, especially not on their own turf, even with Bella's shield. Aro has undoubtedly made arrangements to bring stronger vampires into his ranks, either by force or by creating new members. He won't have wasted much time feeling defenseless."

"Ha, bring it on," Emmett growled enthusiastically. Rosalie rolled her eyes shoving Emmett with her shoulder.

Alice smiled faintly at him and continued, "We also need to spend some time working on this whole primal fount issue. We need to know who it is. If we can rule out Aro, Cauis and Marcus, maybe we can just have Maharet destroy them and the others that we know were made after them. That would save us the trouble of having to do battle ourselves. David," she said, "is that feasible?"

"Perhaps," he replied, "Maharet is a very reasonable creature, but can be temperamental. She will need to understand the situation and agree that some of your are worth saving. When you have existed for as long as she has, these kinds of things are little more than flies to be swatted. She has only granted this period of investigation because of her love of Marius. She may grow impatient and if we can't gather enough information and they destroy Marius..." he trailed off, "Let's just put it this way, it will be out of our hands."

I saw my mother's frame shutter slightly and felt her shield pulsing around us. My dad's hand fell swiftly over hers, "Let's not let it get to that point," she said through tightly clenched teeth.

"Jasper?" Carlisle said, "What are your thoughts?"

Jasper's head bowed slightly, "I of coarse agree with Alice, we must save the ancient one, but I do not fear the danger of the Volturi, perhaps a small group of us could gain entrance and fight our way out without having to endanger everyone," his eyes fell protectively over Alice.

Jake nodded in approval, "I'm sure that the pack would be up for some vampire slaying," flicks of fire flashed in his dark eyes.

"Jasper, be reasonable. I'm not going through this with you again," Alice said haphazardly. "It's all or nothing, we are in this together."

"I quite agree," Carlisle said, "We are strongest when we are together and I don't want to run the risk of the Volturi planning a counter attack and being able to catch us off guard and separated from one another. Edward?"

My father's golden eyes flashed over his family, a slight look of defeat shifted in his expression, "I have a wife to protect, as well as my daughter, who is herself, with child. I have little choice in the matter. I cannot let my family look death in the face at the hands of the Volturi any more than I can sit back and let an ancient wipe us all out with the destruction of one," he shook his head sadly, his bronze hair capturing gleams of light. "I will use my gift and find the primal fount, even if means going into the belly of the Volturi by myself or searching every immortal mind on the face of planet. It is my only option."

David seemed surprised at this response. His eyebrows arched angelically and his expression glowed with support, "Quite right, Edward," he said respectfully. "Maybe we should be spending our time on this fact alone. Marius can fend for himself for now and we will be able to eventually rescue him, but our prime concern for the moment should be with locating the source."

"Rosalie," Carlise said, "what are your thoughts?"

She hesitated, obviously hating to say it, "I agree with Edward."

"Ah man!" Emmett said looking quite like a child who had just been denied a trip to an amusement park, "I knew you were gunna say that. Edward, you suck."

Esme shook her head a twinkling laugh escaped her lips, "Oh Emmett, what are we going to do with you?" He just shrugged with disappointment. "Carlise," Esme said, "I want to protect our family and we also have a new member coming along to consider. I do not wish to endanger anyone more than necessary. Nessie needs rest and certainly cannot be tracing half way around the world looking for a fight. There must be something that we are missing with this, some one we can talk to who can give us some more insight into this whole thing."

Carlisle only nodded in acknowledgement, "Bella?"

My mother's face was conflicted, "Although I agree with not wanting to split up for safety reasons, we have the element of surprise on our side at this point and we should use it to our advantage. The Volturi has no idea that we know about the other species that they are seeking to destroy. Maybe we should spend some time investigating why it is they are so afraid of them and why they don't want us to know about them. That could lead us to some useful information. Edward and I could make a short trip to Italy to see what turns up..."

"Oh, no," my father interrupted, "you are not going anywhere, Nessie needs you right now more than I do and the two of us may be too conspicuous."

"Oh and you being in Italy without your wife is not? Maybe you have forgotten what happened last time you went to see the Volturi alone, well I haven't and I will not allow you back in that place again without me!" she shot back at him with a sharp glare. He looked away from her, seething with heat.

"Come now," Carlise said calmly, "nothing has been decided at this point. Let us keep our heads and work this out together." They both nodded, but my mom's arms remained crossed against her chest and my father's face was tormented with guilt. "Jacob?"
"Hey, what about me?" Emmett interrupted with a pout.

Rose smacked him, "Let me guess, you think that we should head strait to Italy tonight, take them by surprise, kill them all, hey if we're gunna all die anyway, we might as well do it fighting," she said mocking his tone.

Emmett mirrored my mother's position, "And Alice is supposed to be the psychic one," he grumbled.

"Anything else to add, Emmett?" Carlisle said patiently.

"No," Emmett said stubbornly, "Only that you guys take all the fun out of everything."

"Well then, Jacob, your thoughts?" Carlisle continued.

Jacob was rubbing his hands nervously together and staring intently at the swirling patterns of the wooden table. He didn't lift his eyes when he spoke, "I think that I should go with Edward. The rest of the pact can stay here and help keep guard, but we need to figure out who the primal fountain, or whatever its called is."

"Jake, no!" I said, "You can't leave me now, I need you."

"Aw, Ness, don't make this any harder for me than it has to be, you know I don't want to leave you." His eyes finally met mine and he ran his hot hand over my cheek. "We have to figure this out because, because," he stammered, "well, just because!" His cheeks burst scarlet and his hands twitched. He fought hard to push the phase back down. He had to stand up and walk to the door to compose himself. I sat wide eyed staring back at all the eyes that were piercing into me.

"Nessie?" Carlisle said gently.

"I don't know," I almost screamed, the scalding tears rushed down my cheeks and splashed on the surface of the table speckling it with blood. I felt the rage swelling inside of me, the fear of losing my dad, Jake any member of my family and most of all the terrible thought of all of us dying for the faults of others. The injustice was more than I could take. My fists balled up into little hammers of furry, my blood galloped angrily through my veins and suddenly a cool wave of calmness crashed over me. I looked to Jasper, but he was hastily involved in conversation with Alice. A feeling of serenity sprung into my me, swirls of blues and mild yellows mixed lazily on the color pallet of my mind. My tension released and a soothing iciness propagated from somewhere deep inside of me. I closed my eyes letting the watery tranquility wash over me cleansing me of my fear and anxiety. My voice spoke without willing it to do so, "It will all be okay, you will all see. I will be there soon."

I opened my eyes and they were all staring at me, "What do you mean?" Jake asked, clearly shaken, "You are already here." His eyes widened and my mother's hands flew over her mouth with a gasp. Only Alice looked calm, smiling at me with her heavenly beam of understanding.