0. . .oO•.o. A Promise Unknowingly Kept .o.•Oo. . .0

Warning: This story will contain mild content, themes, and language which some may find offensive. If you have questions let me know.

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owner, Stephenie Meyer. The original characters and plot are the property of the me - the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

A/N: Sorry, sorry, sorry. I know it's been a while since I last updated; here's Chapter Nine

0. . .oO•.o. A Promise Unknowingly Kept .o.•Oo. . .0

CHAPTER 9 - Knowledge is Known

•~Annabelle Cullen~•

- 83 years later (Massachusetts, America, 1890) –

After travelling around Norway with Arla and Niklas to a new area every decade or so in search of a different home and more resources to keep our cover story, we decided that a change of scenery was what we needed most of all. This is how we ended up in the state of Massachusetts in America. Aro offered me a home by the coastline here which is isolated from civilization for about 30 miles.

It was while we were out hunting that they came for my help. Arla and Niklas were hunting separately from me when they suddenly were racing towards me.

"Annie!" They both yelled together, causing my ears to hurt. Oh, and I told that they could call me by my original nickname now they are who they are.

"Argh! What are you trying to do, make me deaf?!" I hated it when they did that, especially simultaneously, "Why the hell were you yelling anyway?" They better have a bloody good reason too.

Niklas took the lead in answering, "We were just taking down and feeding on a mountain lion – which was very by the way – about 20 miles northwest of here when seven vampires approached us in the most unusual manor asking who we were. So, normal reaction, we bloody freaked out and rushed back here to you..." For the love of...Aro! Always thinks it's hilarious to scare people doesn't he.

Pushing my shield out to detect where they were, it hit the seven vampires after just 300 metres. "You can come out now; no need to eavesdrop on us," I called out into the distance. Arla and Niklas wiped their heads in my direction looking sceptical.

At that moment seven cloaked figures emerged from the trees and made towards us. As usual, Aro was the first to greet me, "Ah, Annie, it has been too long. How is your home here by the coastline doing for you?" he asked.

I walked towards him and gave him a hug. "Hello to you too, Aro, it has been a while. The house is simply wonderful, thank you." I replied with a smile and went on to quickly greet the others with a warming embrace.

"Who are your friends, Annie?" Jane asked while looking them over as if to see if she approves or not.

Turning my head to see Arla and Niklas' eyes popping out of their skulls and jaws dropped. "This is Arla and Niklas Freawine. They were the reason I returned to Norway; they were dying from the plague outbreak," Returning my gaze back to the others, understanding filled Aro's eyes, followed shortly by the rest of the Volturi. "They should by now realise who you are, but...the most I've told them about you guys is that you are vampire royalty. This was done only for their safety until they could see you in person." Glancing again to my side stood a pair of confused twin vampires.

"Well, we can't have that now, can we? You two up for a little story of our dear Annie here?" Caius asked with a mischievous glint in his eye and his evil smirk on his lips appeared which successfully intimidated them both. I chuckled while shaking my head as both Arla and Niklas flinched at his question. Always one for scaring people he is.

It was just over an hour before my fellow family had finished explaining about themselves and my involvement with them to the twins. They were left stunned and speechless by how I'd managed to keep it a secret from them after all these years, especially by the mere fact of how important and powerful I can be to the vampire world.

"Wow, Annie, you sure know how to drop a bolt from the blue on us, don't you," Arla stated with a laugh.

"Yeah, I guess, but from what you've been told you can now understand why I had to keep it from you," I said with a small smile.

"We do." They both agreed firmly. "Besides, it's not like you lied to us. You just cleverly brushed over that particular chapter of your existence." Okay that I had to laugh at which set everyone else off with their own giggles too.

When it died down, Aro directed a question at me with some importance to my coven. "Annie, do you sense anything from them at all?" With a quick glance in Arla and Niklas' direction then back to Aro, I nodded. His eyes lit up, "What do you think they will be?"

"Hmm...I'm not sure yet. It's only become apparent in the last decade or so, and has been getting stronger since. I think they will surface soon though," Pausing to think about how to word this, "With Arla it is something to do with mentally shifting molecules from one place to another..."

"Interesting...hmm...the way you are describing her ability inclines me to think that she'll be able to move herself to someplace she desires, therefore perhaps teleportation," Marcus suggested to Aro and I.

Aro nodded slowly, pondering on the idea, "Yes it could be. It seems to match Annie's description to quite an extent. What about Niklas?" Now Niklas was more difficult to explain.

"It's something to do with splitting, changing or creating more of his own cellular structure for some sort of protection. Somewhat like that I think, but all the same as they are biological siblings and even better, twins, their abilities I presume shall also take form with similarities."

Demetri seemed to have a thought on this, "That sounds a lot like self-replication, Annie. The 'splitting' and 'changing' of one's body mass or perhaps doubling body mass, which would be 'creating', to get copies of you. Only thing is that if it was to turn out to be the first option, the duplicates would get weaker and weaker the more there are. But if it turns out to be the second if we go along with this theory, his duplicates would be of equal strength, therefore providing brilliant offence and defence when needed.

Giving this something thought Aro made his own comment on the possibility. "So this gift of his could either prove to be very helpful on one end of the scale if he was to replicate exact clones of himself, but also at the same time there is the possibility of it not providing the necessary protection to hold off any potential attacks to the coven." I could see the twinkle in his eyes from the hope a possibilities if it were to be the first option.

"Excuse us for wondering, not that we were listening with the enhanced hearing and all, but what on earth are you lot talking about?" That earned Niklas a few chuckles when he voiced his question while underplaying the sarcasm.

"We do apologise, my dears, but you see Annie here...well using her shields she can sense abilities within a person – just vampires though – to see whether they have one and detects when it is starting to surface for us to see," Aro paused for a moment for them to register the new information before continuing. "As you have heard from our discussion, Annie believes that you both have extra talents but they just haven't become known to you yet...they will though so don't you go worrying about them until they do." He finished with a reassuring look to end his explanation. All Arla and Niklas did was nod in understanding and left it at that.

Suddenly a thought re-entered my head, "Aro? What was your original reason for coming to me?"

"Oh yes, well my child, it has come to the Volturi's attention that in the southern areas of America, several newborn – vampire – armies have been created to fight in domination over territory for the likes of food and land." Who would be as brainless and idiotic as to risk the complete exposure of our kind...and this is a vampire's work, which is supposed to be relatively intelligent. Now I was angry.

Felix, Jane, Demetri and Alec all noticed my rage growing, "Annie? Your might want to calm down just a touch, baby girl." He stated with a weary grin; that was Felix for you. He always thought of me as his little sister. At that I nodded and blew an unnecessary but calming breath.

"Better? Okay...we have successfully taken out all of the smaller armies as well as their leaders. But one still remains. We've had Demetri, Felix, Jane and Alec all keep watch on her every move so we know what she is up to. The problem is that she seems to have collected some gifted vampires along the way and it would be too risky to go up against them without you with us, " Aro stopped as if to say 'Any questions?' to me.

"What do we know about her so far?" I need as much information as possible. And that is where they launch into telling me all their knowledge on the matter at hand. First off, the leader is a dark-haired vampire named Maria and that she has a second in command that she appears to be controlling him somewhat like a puppet. They also told me that they discovered that she disposes of the newborns after just one year as their strength starts wane – unless they have a gift to her advantage. It was horrible! Turning countless how many humans into vampires only to kill them when she no longer needed them. She is being completely barbaric to her own bloody kind!

The last thing that they learnt and informed me of was that three vampires where secretly making plans to flee from Maria as soon as the opportunity is given to them and we all agreed to allow them their freedom as they behave more civilised than the others and would be able to survive on their own without causing a disturbance. The three vampires were a mated pair – who go by the names Peter and Charlotte – and the a third who was in fact the second in command vampire, known to be Major Jasper Whitlock.

This needed to end...and it's going to end now!

A/N:

What did you like about this chapter?

Annabelle knows Jasper! Let me know your thoughts on this.

Comments to Reviews from Chapter Eight:

- Guest20 - Thank you, here it is anyway...sorry for the delay though.

- 0.0-MIDNIGHTROSE-0.0 - First of all, thank you so much for all of your reviews, they mean a lot. The chapters finally here too and as for the reunion, it will be at least five more chapters, just so I can develop the story a little more.

- lis3011 - Thank you, good to know.