Hello again. :)

As I promised, here is the second part of the battle. Hope you enjoy it.

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-TG


Chapter 23- The Battle Part 2

Alice POV

I was horrified at Jasper's terrible luck, and secretly thought that maybe Maria had done it on purpose; set up my Jasper exactly where the Volturi would be entering. Then I would remember that Jasper and I were the only ones who knew that the Volturi were coming today to stop the battle. Still, I held it against Maria. I didn't know why Jasper had frozen up like he was suddenly petrified when we had to get away immediately, but I just grabbed his hand and began running. I thought it was sweet that he had been so excited to see me—don't get me wrong, I was just as excited to see the man I loved after ten days of being away from him. But we didn't have time for touching, heart-felt reunions. We had too much that we needed to be prepared for. There was an army of newborn vampires that could kill us if they realized I wasn't dead, and an even more dangerous group of vampires that- according to my various visions -would be exactly where we had been standing moments ago in only minutes. I remained absolutely quiet as we sprinted through the thick mass of trees, knowing that if I were to say anything too loudly or do anything that would make a sound, the army would be able to hear. So many things could possibly go wrong today that I had too many visions replaying in my head to count. They seemed like warnings to me: If you do this, you'll die this way; if you do that, you'll die that way; But only if you do everything completely and absolutely perfectly will you survive today. One mistake could ruin everything. It hardly seemed fair.

Jasper squeezed my hand a little, and I instantly relaxed under his calming power. I imagined that he was concerned with my incessant worrying, but knew he couldn't say anything to me and risk being heard by someone other than me. After a little searching, I found that spot from my vision. The location was perfect for observing the fight without being seen. We were covered by a thick layer of brush, but could still see through the layer out onto the field. If we were quiet, we wouldn't be heard, and as long as the scene in front of us was loud enough, we would be able to hear them. I crouched down beneath the cover, and pulled Jasper down with me. We were finally sitting in the designated safe area from my vision, so I began to genuinely relax. Jasper settled in to the spot in front of me, nodding in approval at my choice of location.

Finally, I could enjoy seeing him again. "Hi." I whispered with a smile.

He chuckled, and whispered "Hello" in response. I was happy that he had caught on to the atmosphere and knew that he needed to stay practically silent. I smiled and brushed the side of his cheek with my hand. He leaned in a little towards me, and I met him there before he went any farther. I kissed him gently, happy that I could finally do that after too long of a time going without him. Kissing him was like coming up for fresh air after being held under water too long, though I realized that that probably wasn't a good comparison considering that I didn't need to breathe. Well, kissing him was like finding an alternative to human blood after starving myself for two weeks straight. There's a good comparison, I thought. At least I could say I remembered what that felt like.

I had been monitoring the possibilities of today over and over again during my time in the meadow, trying to make sure that I was prepared to do whatever I could to make sure the vision of us succeeding today would happen, and the vision of us dying a horrible death did not happen. When I wasn't looking for a change in the future, I was hunting. I was hunting so much that I was fairly certain that all animals within ten miles of the meadow had taken the hint from their little animal friends that had died by my hand and ran far, far away. It made finding prey rather frustrating, because I didn't dare stray too far from the meadow in fear of encountering humans. I shuttered at the possibility, and tried to think of my animal hunting experience instead. I never seemed to be really satisfied, per say, but at least I wasn't lying on the ground useless from the unrelenting thirst like I had been during my weeks of starvation. I could get used to this lifestyle, I had decided. I had to get used to this. I wouldn't let myself revert to how I was supposed to be.

Not wanting to think about that dismal subject anymore, I turned back to my Jasper. I always enjoyed thinking about that. Our faces were still only inches apart, and he smiled at me. For a moment, I forgot everything else. I didn't register where we were, and I didn't register any problems in the world. Unfortunately, we did have problems. That's why we were interrupted from our little fantasy world as Maria's piercing growl seemed to split the air around us. I hadn't realized it, but in that moment of bliss the Volturi had very silently entered the battlefield. I realized this was probably the moment where Maria realized that Jasper had tricked her. I saw her through the leaves that surrounded us, and her eyes darted around the forest behind the ten gray-hooded vampires in front of her as if looking for a running figure or the beginnings of an enormous fire. But nothing was there in the woods, and nothing would be there, because Jasper was over here safely with me. This was the point where she was putting together all the pieces that told her this plan was all a plot to rid the world of this army. A part of me wanted to cheer in triumph, but I quickly quieted that part of me, knowing that this battle was only just beginning. Jasper and I looked on, both of us remaining deadly silent and still.

The majority of the army didn't realize what was happening, and I suspected that Maria, Nettie, and Lucy had never told them about the Volturi and what they meant. A few of the soldiers began to shift nervously and step back a few steps as if they were about to run for it. The other soldiers didn't really look nervous. I imagined that if I hadn't seen the vicious, fatal Volturi in my visions, and I hadn't heard how terrifying they really were from Jasper I wouldn't have been afraid of the Volturi either. There were twice as many newborns as gray, cloaked figures. Most of those figures were very large, formidable looking vampires, but a few of them didn't look threatening at all. Two in particular, a boy and a girl by the shape of their bodies, were practically as short as I was. Surely, in the ignorant soldiers' eyes, they would be able to take this enemy easily. But Maria, Nettie, Lucy, a few of the soldiers, Jasper, and I knew better. We knew the number of Volturi members didn't really matter in the end, because their fighters had been doing this job for hundreds or even thousands of years. Even the little cloaked figures were dangerous, because they most likely had a formidable gift that would tip the scales heavily in the Volturi's favor. Jasper had once told me that the Volturi only accepts very gifted vampires into their guard, and I could guess that the short little girl vampire was none other than that terrifying girl from my vision—the one that had made me writhe in pain just by looking at me. Yes; the vampires who knew what was going on definitely knew that there was no hope for them.

"Maria, you are accused with disturbing the peace and causing chaos within our race by creating an army of newborn vampires. You and your entire army are sentenced to immediate execution for your crimes." While the leader of the group spoke in a booming, authoritative voice, I had seen that the air in between the two groups of vampires seemed to alter—to warp in odd places, almost like the effect of intense heat rising through the air. When he was finished speaking, the entire army erupted into snarls and growls. Many of the soldiers started to run, but, before they could get very far, they all froze. It was as if someone had pushed pause only on the soldiers, Nettie, and Lucy. All of their eyes glazed over unseeingly and they began to flop around on the ground like fish out of water. Something about watching all twenty-two vampires appear so vulnerable and useless was intensely wrong. I had never seen a vampire look so completely mutilated, their bodies twisting in odd directions as if they had no control over their own limbs anymore. I knew that who ever was causing this abomination to occur was beyond powerful, and it only sobered me more to see the legendary power of the Volturi guard in action. The only person who hadn't been affected by the power was Maria, and now she sprung forward toward the Volturi as if she hadn't realized that her army was no longer following her. She growled as she pounced towards the perfectly motionless cloaked figures. Half way between the two groups of bodies, Maria fell to the ground, her body twisting and writhing unnaturally and her face warped into a mask of pain. It appeared like she was being burned alive by some invisible flame. I recalled this sight briefly from my first vision of the Volturi; the sadistic little girl who could cause searing pain just by looking at you. When Jasper told me that the Volturi only accepts very powerful vampires, he had not been kidding. Just these two tiny vampires could incapacitate an entire army of seemingly uncontrollable newborn vampires.

When all of the vampires were no longer moving at their own will, the guard, all except the two powerful little vampires, moved forward in synchronization. Quickly and efficiently they began their execution. I was completely dumb-struck; I needed to look away, but I couldn't. I couldn't stand to watch as these powerful vampires tore apart these mutilated, vulnerable bodies, but I couldn't make myself look away or even blink for that matter. I was frozen in place, unable to avert my eyes from the horrid scene. The sound reached me before my mind knew what was happening. The atrocious sound of metal being shredded and bent in wrong directions pierced the air, and then I realized that the bodies of the soldiers were being impaired before my eyes. Body parts flew in haphazard directions, or so it seemed. In reality, the direction of the guards throwing was very precise, and soon enough there were two huge piles of shredded bodies in the middle of the field. I felt as sick as a vampire could feel as I watched the body parts pile on top of each other, some still moving, some eyes still blinking on decapitated heads. I could feel Jasper looking at me, probably worrying about me, but I couldn't look away. I couldn't look at him and tell him that I was perfectly fine, because I was definitely not fine—far from it actually. My body shook with sobs that couldn't really help release the tension in my body, the growing tension of unwavering guilt and mourning. I had caused this. This massacre was completely and utterly my fault, and now there was no turning back. I wished deeply that I could turn back the hands of time and put myself in their places, to experience the painful, degrading death that I deserved and they had not. But it was far too late to regret my decisions.

As if in a daze, I stumbled forward on to my hands, grinding the sticks into saw dust beneath my palms. The sound filled the silence around us deafeningly, now that the sound of tearing metal was finished. Very briefly, the vision of what was about to happen flashed before my eyes before it actually happened, though I was too engaged in the current scene to notice. The very small, but distinguishable sound caught the attention of the nearest Volturi member; the little sadistic girl with the horrible power. For a moment, her focus was taken away from the still writhing body of Maria, who was the only vampire who hadn't been torn apart yet. In that second of distraction, Maria jumped up and began running in our direction at the exact same time. I didn't know if she knew that we were waiting in the exact direction that she was running towards, but I knew that she was approaching at an incredible speed, even for a vampire, and that she was being trailed by an equally fast member of the Volturi guard. I could feel Jasper start to panic next to me, jolting up and pulling on my arm to drag me away from the approaching vampires, but I couldn't move. I seemed to be paralyzed. When the Volturi member caught up with Maria and wrestled her to the ground beneath him, it seemed like they were only inches away. So close that I could reach out and touch Maria's face if I wanted to. But I didn't want to. I wanted to get away. I wanted to run for miles until I was very far away from this place, but I couldn't move. Just as the Volturi member leaned over to shred Maria's neck with is teeth, Maria looked up, meeting my gaze. For a second, I could feel all of her dread, and I could see death in her eyes. In that moment, everything Maria was feeling was conveyed to me, and I wasn't even the empath. The last emotion that registered in her deep, blood- red eyes was shock. She saw me staring at her stupidly, and fury seemed to rip through her from the inside. She mouthed my name in disbelief before the shredding metal sound pierced the air once more and her head rolled over to me, frozen in that same shocked expression.

The Volturi guard tore the rest of Maria's body and threw it on top of the second pile just as it was set aflame by another member of the Volturi guard. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion as the Volturi guard in front of us turned around, while Jasper was desperately tugging my arm in the other direction. Just as I regained use of my limbs, the guard met my gaze. I didn't wait to see if he would follow us, I just began to run. I knew how fast this guard was, for I had just seen him take down Maria even at the fastest pace I had ever seen her sprint. I knew that Jasper and I had no chance of out running him. I thought for a moment that maybe he wouldn't follow us. Maybe he would let the observers of their massacre go free. But the approaching pad of foot steps resounding behind me told me differently. Jasper ran as fast as he possible could, towing me behind so I would run faster. Though it seemed like we were running faster and faster, the footsteps behind me grew louder as the attacker grew dangerously closer. I knew that I was only counting down the seconds to my own death. I could feel that emotion that I had seen in Maria's eyes just before she had been impaled, except this feeling was all mine, though it could have been Jasper's as well if he was accidentally spreading it towards me. It seemed like we were running for the longest time, but it had really only been a few seconds when we saw the rocky outcrop up ahead. I could see it through the line of trees on our right that we were surrounded by this massive, structure that was far too sheer to attempt to climb. We had reached a dead end. How horribly ironic that statement was.

Realizing this as well, Jasper reeled around to face the on coming attacker. He pulled my arm roughly until I was safely behind him, and braced his self for the impact. When the guard appeared out of the dark shadow of the trees, he was running at full force towards us, though he hadn't expected Jasper to be standing there, waiting for him. When the attacker reached us, his dangerous teeth and claws bared, Jasper dodged his blow and grabbed him around the torso, flinging him over our heads until he was throttling towards the rocky surface of the cliff. The sound of the two hard surfaces colliding was like a sonic boom, and I had the odd sensation to cover my ears, protecting my eardrums from the earth-shattering noise. I didn't realize that my ears didn't need protection, as much as the rest of me did.

The guard righted himself immediately, falling from where he had made contact with the wall to immediately spring back into a crouch. Jasper began running first, but the guard was soon to follow. I wanted to hold Jasper back, to not let him fight, but I knew that that move could be fatal to both of us. It was either we fight this vampire and die, or we don't fight and die. I wanted to cry. Jasper had been right all along: there was no way to win. No matter what, we would die. I watched the two vampires clash directly in between where they each had been previously standing. Jasper made the first lunge, but the guard dodged it. The way they moved around each other was very, very familiar from watching the army spar and practice incessantly, but there was also something very different about watching this. Unlike watching the Volturi disassemble the army, this was an even fight—I could see that in the way the guard held an annoyed expression, as if he wasn't expecting such a good soldier. Unlike watching the newborns spar, they were both skilled at what they were doing, both having trained for years and years just for this moment. Unlike watching the more experience vampires practice, this was real. These blows were not meant to pass by the skin just millimeters from contact; they were meant to kill. The guard was trying to kill my Jasper, and Jasper was trying to kill the guard.

I had no idea what to do but watch. I felt completely useless as I saw the blows get closer and closer to real contact. I shook my head in frustration, wishing I could kill the guard myself and save the one person who mattered the most to me. I knew I would only get in the way if I tried to fight, but I was itching to do something. One claw raked so close past Jasper's chest that the jacket and shirt he wore tore beneath the guard's hand. Jasper seemed to notice this, and he scrambled to make up for the advantage his opponent had gained. I wanted to do something. I needed to do something desperately to help Jasper. Just then, the guard lunged forward, and his teeth fell onto Jasper's shoulder. I could hear the tearing off flesh beneath his bite. Jasper cried out in pain, and I didn't want to look at the marred shoulder to see just how damaged it was. I was too angry to function at the time. A film of red covered my eyes as fury seeped through me, and I wasn't longing to do something anymore; I was doing something. No one on this Earth would hurt my Jasper again, if I had anything to do with it. I had absolutely no training. I had no idea how to fight, but at that moment I didn't need years of training to take action. I sprung on the vampire, attaching to his back like a parasite while clawing at his neck with my nails and teeth. I wrapped my arm around his neck, letting the newborn strength I had been adamantly holding back flow through my muscles as I pulled upwards on the vampires neck. I could feel the flesh tearing beneath me as I tugged on his head. He thrashed around wildly to try and knock me off, but I was unmovable. He bit my arm to try and remove it from his neck, and I could feel the venom seeping into the wound. The bite scorched with pain, but it didn't make me release my grip.

Finally, taking advantage of the distraction, Jasper lunged forward. After a few seconds of thrashing his claws at the vampire's torso, the body split in half beneath me. I jumped off his back before his top half fell to the ground. I landed on the top half of the body, still beyond furious. Straddling the torso, I twisted the head until it finally came completely off. At least I could say that I finished what I started. I tore the limbs from the torso after that, piling my collection of body parts into a pile. Jasper did the same with the bottom half, but when he met my gaze his eyes sent a flurry of emotions. He looked almost... hurt. I knew he was in pain, because I could feel the same pain in my forearm, but this was a different, deeper pain. I imagined that he didn't like seeing me take on the guard like I did, risking myself to save him. I didn't care though, I had helped kill him. Also in Jasper's eyes was shock, obviously from my outburst of anger. He looked over the decapitated body as if thinking deeply about something.

After a few seconds, he glanced around as if expecting someone else to show up. "Come. We must go. They might be looking for him."

I shook my head, nervously. "What about the fire? He won't be dead until we set the pieces on fire" I babbled as if I didn't know that he knew this fact already.

"We can't! We don't have fire! I have nothing to light-" Suddenly his hand fell to his pocket, where I could see that something was hidden. He quickly pulled out a large silver object. He motioned for me to stand back and quickly lit the pile of body parts, the flesh igniting as if it were paper. I didn't know where he got the huge lighter, and I wasn't about to ask. If we weren't scrambling to save our lives, I might have acknowledged how awfully convenient this situation was. "Ok. Let's go now, we have to hurry. We can't stop until we're on the other side of the city. We'll discuss what to do there."

I nodded, following as he darted off in a different direction than the one we had come from. As we ran, the anger ebbed from me, replaced by a very different feeling. I realized quickly and hopefully that both Jasper and I had been wrong at some point; maybe we didn't have to die. Maybe alone we wouldn't have been able to survive, but together we fought off all the odds that had been stacked against us. I mean, looking at us, we were fine. Jasper held his shoulder as he ran; holding the arm together as it healed, and the torn flesh on my forearm immediately began to reconnect its self. I could already begin to see the beginning of a crescent-shaped scar that would match the many that were already covering Jasper. So we had a few scars? It didn't matter at all now, because We. Were. Alive.

"Jasper?" I whispered, breaking the silence as we ran.

"Yes?" He murmured back, still a hint of that pain lingering in his eyes.

"We're alive, Jasper. I told you we could make it." I smiled, and my happiness must have influenced him a bit. A shadow of a smile threatened at the corner of his lips; a ghost of happiness on his otherwise pensive, pained expression.

"Yes, I suppose we are. At least we aren't dead yet." His voice was grim, but at least face looked a bit more hopeful.

Always the glass half empty. I thought. I shook my head at him a little. Jasper was always the pessimist. I added. Though that was the good thing about being psychic; looking at the sudden vision of the future, I knew that what he said was wrong. We were alive, and we would remain so for as far as I could see.


Just one chapter left! I'll be posting it sometime in the next few days, so be watching out for it. Tell me what you thought of the chapter?

-TG