*Disclaimer* Hi, Everyone!

I know it's been a while, but here's the next chapter !! We're at the most exciting part of the book finally, and there's going to be some big changes to the story...just saying! But you won't know about all of them just yet...most come later but some'll be here and there...alright, i'm rambling!

Okay, so read this and review por favor! Ahh! I love this part of the book!


There So Is Not A Funeral!

I knew what he was thinking. He thought Ava could somehow change her voice to make it sound like she was me. Plus I was practically pleading with him to believe me, something which Ava does when she really is using her power hard. "No, Edward! It's not Ava, it's me, Bella, Sarah! Edward, please." I leaned against the wall, and slowly slid down until I was sitting on the floor sobbing. "Edward, please listen to me. Please don't go to Italy."

It was no use and I knew it. But the fact that he heard me and didn't believe me, and my throbbing ankle, made me keep going until a pair of pale manicured hands pried the phone away from me. "Come on, Bella, let's go. It'll be okay, I promise." Alice kept her voice as soothing as possible, trying to make this all seem like no big deal. But, of course, it was. "Up we go." She pulled me up with one arm as Jacob moved to help me up on the other side.

"You saw everything?" I asked her, not bothering to wipe away the tears that I still had left over apparently.

"Yeah, nice balance, by the way. I'm gonna go get the car ready, kay? Five minutes?" Military strategy, engaged.

"Less than. Ava already packed me, I just need to throw a couple of extra things in there, and get an ice pack for my ankle. What exactly is he doing? Is he okay?"

"Pfft! That idiot took off like a bat out of hell a few minutes ago! If we move fast enough, we might beat him there." She was smiling, but I could see the panic in her eyes. She looked at her watch for about the third time in the past minute. "Maybe we should move just a bit faster just in case." She was about to bolt out of the door without talking to Jacob at all, but then she turned around with a disdainful look at Jake. "And bring some air freshener for God's sake!"

"What? Why?" I was already hobbling around to the laundry room to grab random clothes that may or may not actually be mine. I had the Febreeze in my hand, but I wasn't actually thinking that straight. Or watching how closely Alice and Jacob were glaring at each other.

"You smell awful. Ugh, it you and your darn pack of mutts!" She finally turned on Jacob and poked him back with those sharp nails. I know from experience those things could probably break through cement, and she just kept goading Jacob back further until they were almost in a different room from me. Well, at least I figured out why she wanted the Febreeze. "You know if it wasn't for me, you two would never have become friends! And now all of this is your fault because you have some sort of inability to talk to a vampire on the phone!"

Jacob turned on her and started poking her with his…not so sharp nails. But the pushing was still effective in pissing Alice off even more. "Hey! At least I wasn't the one who left Bella here all alone without any sort of protection from the other bloodsucker who wants to kill Bella because of you!"

"Well I would have been able to see her if you dogs wouldn't have been chasing her around in circles for months! We could have stopped her by now if you hadn't interfered!"

"Bella would be dead by now if we hadn't interfered!" He roared back at her. Uh-oh, this is getting ugly. Hmm, should I let them continue arguing while I get my things together? Well, one on side, they may just keep arguing and not suddenly start physically fighting until I'm ready to go. On the other hand, he might phase in my living room.

"Calm down, Jacob Black. You don't want to do that so close to her."

Which, I'm pretty sure would be bad if I left it that way once Alice and I are gone. On the up side, if I die trying to get to Edward in Italy, they wouldn't really be mad at me about a little trifle that the furniture is torn up. They were really going at it, but neither were getting anywhere in the argument. So, in theory, I could go in there, try to break up a fight between two crazy strong immortals, probably get my ass kicked, and end up late in time to save Edward.

"I don't think I'll have any problem keeping my focus!"

Yeah, let's just let them continue. I went up the stairs as fast as my ankle would allow me, which was not as fast as I would have hoped. But luckily, the loud voice in my head screaming Edward! every time I took a step kept me going at a fairly fast moving pace.

I could still hear Alice and Jacob yelling at one another when I made it up to my room. Actually, just listening to them was breaking some of the dramatic tension in the house. Well, at least it was for me. It's a good thing our neighbors are spaced out far enough that they don't call Uncle Charlie to arrest the other people in our house.

Okay, so clothes, check. Pills for my swollen ankle, check. Good running Chuck Taylors, check. Passport, check. Turtleneck for meeting Volturi, check. Okay, I think I've got everything that I really need to take. Now where the heck did I put New Moon and my Twilight DVD for Jake?!? Not good!

The yelling stopped downstairs for a second before I heard someone's heavy footsteps coming upstairs. I figured it was Jacob coming to plead his case with me, but I was surprised to see Seth bounding into my room with his usual happy smile gone. Oh, yeah today we were commemorating his dad. Good reason for him to be upset, I guess.

"Bella, do you need a—" He stopped short when he saw the open duffel bag with all of my clothes inside. Crap it! Crap it!

"Seth, I can explain—"

"No, I don't want to hear it. Where are you going, Bella?" I tried to explain, but he cut me off again. What's up with him? Did he lose his boyfriend today? No, I think not! "No, you know what, I don't really wanna hear you say 'nothing' or 'nowhere' again when I ask you a question. I thought you were going to go to the memorial. You know how much it means to our family, which I thought you were a part of."

Oh God. Shoulders shaking, snarling, and I'm pretty sure he's radiating heat. "Seth, just calm down." I held my hands out, looking more like a zookeeper than his cousin. "Look, I'm sorry. I know I've been kind of out of it lately, and I sort of ignored you, but that's going to change as soon as I leave. I'll be back soon, though, I promise."

"You know, you leaving might be great for all of us!" Oh, crap, I'm way too late. He's going to phase right in front of me.

Okay, now's a good time to interrupt him and Alice. "JACOB! HELP ME!" Holy mother of God! I need to get out of here. Like now. "JAKE! HELP WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED ANYTIME NOW!" I ran past a still trembling Seth down the stairs.

I had slung my duffel over my shoulder before I bolted down the stairs, and when Jacob finally came running up to me, it sort of slammed the air right out of him. Whoopsie! "Oh!...Bella, what's wrong? What's the duffel bag for?" He doubled over, but he was able to pant out a bunch of questions.

I was panting pretty hard myself mainly because there was a brand-new werewolf phasing in my bedroom! "Seth…he's upstairs….phasing…Edward…Italy! But, no, Seth, he's upstairs and he may or may not have already phased in my bedroom! And I can't seem to find the book and movie that I was going to give you! And I have to go. Go help Seth!" I pushed him up the stairs before he could object to me leaving.

"Alice? Where'd you go?" Oh God! What if Jacob dragged her outside and ripped her apart?!? "Oh my God, Alice are you still alive?!? ALICE!"

Suddenly I was whipped around to two faces of livid vampires. "Shut up, Bella! Do you want everyone in the entire town to think there's some sort of mass murder going on around here?" Alice asked me. Ava was right next to her with her arms crossed like a five year old. "Car's ready, let's go. Ava, tell Angel that he has to get to Seattle in the next few days just to see when Victoria might be around. And you need to negotiate the treaty with the wolves just in case Edward's mishap with them makes the want to start a war or something. Plus, I just sort of bitched Jacob out so they probably aren't very happy with me either."

"Okay, check for the Angel things, but there's no way in hell that I'm missing out on Italy! Alice, what if you guys need help getting out of there? You can't honestly tell me—"

"You're staying here." I couldn't have her coming with us! The Volturi would want her for her power as soon as she walked in the room! "Besides, I need someone to turn in all of my college applications. And make sure that Uncle Charlie and Sue don't worry about me too much, plus write a fake note from me so they know where they are."

"But I—" Pouty child!

"No, you aren't coming! You know the Volturi will want you way too much for their own good, and someone might get hurt if they try to come after you. Meaning one of them because I would probably kick their asses if they took my best friend away from me. Besides, Alice and I can take care of ourselves. And I can get Edward without any trouble from the Volturi, I even have a plan cooked up already!" I tried to smile as convincingly as I could because, honestly, I've got nothing. I mean, Aro is going to see all the stuff about the book in Edward's head, which could spell death to all sorts of people across the world! But I'm not going to think about that now, I have to make it look like I have everything under control.

"You're such a liar, but I'll let that slide. Alright, I'll stay but I won't be happy about it." She started pouting again, which Alice and I took as our cue to leave.

"Don't forget to turn in my applications!" I stuck one in there for Dartmouth just to see if I could get in without Edward's help. Who knows, it might happen! I noticed my book and movie were laying on the couch in the living room as I passed by. I hadn't heard anything from Seth or Jacob upstairs except what could only be described as the shuffling of paws on a wooden floor once or twice. But then there was nothing, which makes me think Jake might have pushed Seth out of my window.

I grabbed the book and movie and set them both out on the porch with a post-it note with Jacob's name on it. He better find them before it rains, or I will be supremely pissed. I did the same thing I had done with my Twilight book in my New Moon one, adding a lot about how great a friend Jacob was and how mad I was at Edward. But even the most idiotic person in the world could tell that I was still head over heels for Edward. Plus, that idiotic person would probably pick up on the fact that I loved Jacob too, just not in the same way I did Edward.

I waved at Ava one last time before I stuck my things in the trunk of Carlisle's Mercedes and made my way to the passenger seat. I hadn't noticed the car outside my house before, though. Jacob's ugly-as-all-hell Rabbit was parked about a block away with two of the wolves sitting in there. Those buttheads! Had they followed me and Jake here? Ugh, if they wanted a war I would give them one just with me!

God, if I weren't in a hurry, I would totally grab a dog leash somewhere and walk all of them! "Hang on a sec, Alice. I'll be right back." I jogged over to their car before she could object. Embry was the one in the driver's seat and rolled down the window as slowly as possible when I knocked. "Alright, listen to me you two and you can carry this message onto Sam too: Alice, Elizabeth, and Angel are the three Cullens in town right now. I'm leaving with Alice right now to go to Italy, but we'll be back in a few days at which time all of the Cullens will be back. For good. And, Edward was the one that was with me on the cliff, and I'm sorry he broke the treaty, he was just trying to protect me. I know that means war and all, but if any of you hurt one of my friends, this is the part where you really need to listen, I will personally make sure that you will be sent to the vet's office to be neutered, got it?"

Under normal circumstances, I'm sure one of them would have started arguing with me or something, but I guess the stress and anxiety in my voice made them shut up. Good thing, too, because I would have asked Ava to make sure that they did take a trip to a veterinarian. Both of them nodded and didn't say anything, so I ran back to the car just as Alice started it up. "That was probably the funniest thing I think I've ever heard you say, Bella. Let's go."

"Wait! Bella!" Jacob's voice broke through the roar of the engine. I saw him running after us from the back of the house. Alice gave me a look that pretty much screamed 'I will run over him if you don't get him out of here'. I hopped out of the car and ran over to him. "Bella, please, don't leave" was all he said. Nothing about my maybe-werewolf cousin, just "don't leave". I thought I'd gotten off the hook by leaving early! Darn it!

"Jake, I can't." I saw his attention switch from my face up past my shoulder. I guess Alice was coming this way.

"These leeches you're taking her to—" He snarled at Alice.

She rolled her eyes at him. I guess she's a little put out with keeping to the dialogue in the book that she already knows by heart. "Yes. You're right, dog." She didn't snarl at him. She sounded uninterested and rushed to get through all of it. "The Volturi are the very essence of out kind—they're the reason your hair stands on end when you smell me. They are the substance of you nightmares, the dread behind you instincts. I'm not unaware of that."

"And you take her to them like a bottle of wine for a party!" he shouted, looking pretty darn upset that she wasn't paying more attention to him.

"You think she'd be better off if I left her here alone, with Victoria stalking her? And besides, she's got it in her head that she's going, and who am I to stop her? Certainly not the boy who's had a crush on her since the first moment he set eyes on her." Jeez, thanks Alice for making me feel worse about stringing Jacob along! Of course that was meant as an insult to Jacob, but I felt it too.

"Alright, stop it you two. You can argue when we get back, I promise, but now we really need to go." I pushed Alice along back to the car, but Jacob suddenly grabbed a hold of my free hand.

"Bella, please, I'm begging." Oh my damn, he's going to cry on me?!? Why, oh why, am I such a sucker for criers?

"Jake, I have to—" Well, there really wasn't anything other than the book's way of putting it to tell him. It's not like I was going to explain that I still loved him and if I didn't get there, he would die. Well, I kind of have done that already, but I'm not going to explain it again.

"You don't, though. You really don't. You could stay here with me. You could stay alive. For Charlie, Sue, Seth, Leah. For me." I gave him a big hug mainly to make him stop crying, but I pulled away before he could think that I was going to stay. He saw that I was heading back to the car, which only made him pull me into a hug again. "Don't die, Bella. Don't go. Don't."

"I won't die, Jake, I promise. Take care of them for me, okay? Seth, in particular. Make sure he knows I love him and I'm sorry for everything." I touched his face one last time just in case something out of the ordinary book plot happened and I ended up never seeing him again. "Just trust me, okay? I'll make it back, I know about these sort of things, remember? Oh, and be sure to grab those two things on the porch. They'll explain everything, and it sort of proves that I'll come back. Alive." I backed up and ran to the car. "Bye, Jake!" I screamed out the window as Alice finally peeled down the street.

"Well, that was a more emotionally charged goodbye than I thought it would be." Alice said as we neared closer to the airport. "You know, I wouldn't entirely blame you if you actually fell in love with him. He does have nice abs like the oh-so fabulous Taylor Lautner, right?"

"Alice! Is this really the time to be talking about my love for Jacob? Or his abs for that matter?"

"So you do love him! I knew it! I totally knew it the second I clapped eyes on the two of you! You've got the hots for a werewolf, don't you? Oh, this is totally going to break my brother's heart! Bella, how could you?!?" Alice was bordering on hysterical. Jeez Louise! She's gone mad!

"Alice, calm down. I love Jacob, but I'm not in love with him. Not even close. And I am most definitely still in love with your overreaction-prone brother! And speaking of your brother, where is he? Is he okay? He's not in Italy yet, right? I mean, how could he be? He only left here, what, about an hour or maybe two ago?" Now I was borderline hysterical. The panic just sort of started kicking in a little more. Plus, now that I've been sitting perfectly still for a couple of minutes, I can really feel the throbbing in my ankle, which is really going to work great with the running I'm going to be doing, but hopefully the airline will be able to get me an icepack on the plane since I didn't have time to get one with the whole 'werewolf' scare going on in my bedroom.

"Bella, calm down!" Wow, how the tables have turned. "Edward is still on the plane that he got on two hours ago. He'll just barely beat us there, unless we get saddled with a bunch of layovers. He, being the lucky one, got a direct flight." Of course he did.

The suicidal love of my life who thinks that I'm-being the love of his life-is dead, gets the quickest flight to his death. And, we, Alice and I being the only ones who can save him because of our knowledge of everything to do with this particular book, will get saddled with ridiculously long layovers that will make us arrive in Italy with barely enough time to save him.

Ugh, this is one of those times when I wish I just was not Bella. Or in Bella's shoes, whatever. I honestly don't understand how the real one ever made it to Italy on time. I am going crazy just being two hours behind Edward, not like two days!

We pulled into the airport's parking lot with literally no time to waste. I was already getting pissed off from our lack of time, but then Alice informed me that the ticket salespeople were not going to be in a very happy mood and were going to be exceedingly difficult. Oh, I'll give them difficult.

I rolled up my sleeves to prepare for the oncoming blood bath. Okay, seriously? The dude at the ticket counter was bald, mid-fifties, and probably doesn't have a girlfriend. He's Mike Newton in about thirty years, if even that long. Oh, dear God, I'm going to kill him. "I'm sorry girls we don't allow minors to purchase tickets without some sort of ID." He said as we walked towards the counter, barely taking his eyes off of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition that he was reading behind the counter. Man, he even sounds like Mike.

"We have IDs. We need two tickets to Italy, anywhere in Italy. Somewhere really close to Volterra would be preferable, though." I plastered a smile on my face, but I was snarling under my breath.

"The last flight to Italy was two hours ago, so I'm sorry but you'll have to wait a few more days before you can get another flight." He looked bored, but noticeably was staring at Alice and myself and our youthfulness, most likely. Maybe if I flash him…no! I will never be that desperate!

"Okay, but surely there is some flight that connects there eventually." The slight strain in my voice made Alice put her hand on my shoulder.

"Don't kill him, Bella. That would be a federal offence." She whispered so only I could hear her. "I could talk to him if you want me to."

"Okay, look girls, I'm sure there is, but the thing is, it would take far too long to actually look up—" I shut him up really fast by grabbing his collar from over the counter. I guess that's what Alice meant by not killing him. I loosened only a little, but he was still right at my eye level.

"Look, sir, my boyfriend is on his way to Italy to ask some very important and dangerous people to kill him because he thinks he killed me. And if I don't get there in time, he will succeed in dying. DYING. This boy is the love of my life, sir, and if I don't save him because a ticket salesman won't sell me a ticket because he's too lazy to look up a flight with a connection to Italy I might just lose it. So, please, if there is anything closely resembling a heart within that noticeably hairy chest of yours, you will sell me and my boyfriend's sister here a ticket, and with a discount if you don't mind." I flung him back to his previous position. I saw that security had moved over towards us to make sure I wasn't trouble, but the ticket dude waved them off.

Perhaps I did get through to him. "It would be my pleasure to get you two lovely ladies tickets, and, of course, in first class and it's on the house." He smiled nervously at me and gave a nod to Alice. His hands were visibly shaking as he typed some random things into the computer. Man, I never realized I was so bad-ass! This was by far the best thing I've done since Edward left. A second later, the ticket dude handed us two tickets along with our IDs and passports.

"Thank you so much. You have no idea how much you've done for all of us. Oh, and by the way, get the chest waxed!" I called as Alice handed me my duffel and we moved towards security.

Alice was staring at me, mouth gaping wide open. "Isabella Sarah Marie Ann Swan Stiles, you are my hero. That…that was by far better than anything I could have done! This is going to be a great story to tell everyone once we get back."

"If we get back." I mumbled as I moved through the security pass.

"Oh, shut up! We'll be fine. The book says so."

"Yeah, the book also said that Laurent was going to get killed by the werewolves, I was going to only hear Edward's voice in my head, and that the next time I saw him after he leaves would be in Italy. The book's been wrong, Alice. What else could it be wrong about if we don't get there in time? You know I won't be able to ever live normally ever if he…if the Volturi kil—" Funny, I've pretty much been able to say anything, but now that I'm having a full-blown panic attack, I can't say that Edward might actually, you know, cease to exist! I can't even think it!

"Don't worry, Bella, we're going to make it." She glanced at the takeoff board in the middle of the airport and finally found our flight. "But only if we start running because our plane takes off in ten minutes!" She grabbed my hand and took off as fast as she could without the other people noticing she wasn't exactly running at a human pace.

I ran behind her just as fast as my ankle would take me. Luckily, I think it's going to be okay, that is, if I keep it propped up and iced the entire flight to Italy. We made it just as the flight attendants were calling for all passengers to board the plane. "We're here! We here for this flight! Did we make it?" I almost passed out over the counter. I handed the lady the ticket packet thing, and she smiled the signature flight attendant smile and said

"Sure thing ladies, you made it just in time. Oh, and we heard about your little incident in ticket sales," oh, God they're going to arrest me, aren't they, "and we just want to say that we hope you can reach your loved one before it's too late." Thank God! They aren't going to call the cops on me!

"Thank you so much. I can only hope that I'll reach him before he…oh, God I can't even say it!" Don't ask me why, but I was milking it big time. I think I was hoping that I could get some sort of extra care deal out of this. I started sniffling too, just to see what would happen. Good grief, I really think I've lost my mind!

"Oh, you poor dear! Well, we'll make sure that you are well taken care of on this flight. You're going to have a connection that you need to get to in Phoenix, but then you'll have a straight shot to an airport just outside of Volterra, Italy. Luckily we had two of those flights today." Yeah, really lucky. Okay, lady, now stop talking so I can sit down before this ankle explodes out of my shoe!

She finally scanned our tickets and said we could go to our seats, but she stopped us one more time before we walked through the connector. "I know this sounds really stupid, but this situation sounds just like that new vampire movie, New Moon!"

Not good! Not good! Alice and I exchanged a panicked look, and laughed weakly. "Well, it's a good thing we're not vampires then." Alice said, and quickly grabbed my arm and led me through to the almost completely empty plane. It would be us and the flight attendants.

Thankfully, it wasn't the same person that was at the counter. "Welcome to Flight 1312 heading towards Phoenix, Arizona. Thank you for choosing this airline, and we hope that you enjoy the in-flight movie during this 2 hour and 50 minute flight!" The captain's voice blasted through the plane.

I honestly can't believe that Alice and I are the only people on this flight. And that it's to Arizona of all places. Maybe the real Bella will get on the plane there and come with us to Italy. I mean, since Edward wanted to find her and everything, she must want to save him as much as I do.

Great, now I'm mad at Edward again. Well, at least I'll be distracted by the movie from that and how I'm freaking out about making it to Edward in time. I heard Alice gasp as we finally took off. "Hey, what is it? What's wrong? Is Edward okay?"

She blinked again and the vision was gone. She broke out into a guilty grin, and pointed to the movie screen in front of us. "Oh, Edward's fine…but you…I'm not so sure."

"What do you mean by that—" I didn't get to finish my question because right then the movie came on.

The Twilight Saga: New Moon.

Son of a female dog! Ugh, this is going to be a long flight!


Tee hee...I LOVE THIS PART!!!

Okay, so please go review! please, please, please! *pout*

Preview for the Next Chapter

Nice to know my glare still has some kick to it. Maybe it'll work on the Volturi!

Someone else was openly staring at us a few rows in front of us. She couldn't have been older than twelve, at most. She looked back when we were arguing, then she caught a glimpse of Alice and her mouth popped open into a little 'o'. Then she stared me down. I felt like I was under a microscope!

"Alice, that girl knows." I whispered over to her without taking my eyes off the little pre-teen. Why is she looking at me so intently? No, that's not an intent look, that little girl is giving me the evil eye! She's probably thinking Edward couldn't possibly want anyone like me. God, if she comes over here to give me a lecture I just might snap and feed her to the Volturi.

Okay, maybe that was a little harsh.