Answers
"Bella, how did you know to kill Chelsea? How did you know she was enslaving us all with her gift?" Edward asks you.
You sigh and admit, "Well, you know about the whole Oracle thing, about how I just know certain things, knowledge that came to me when I was human, right?"
He and several others nod, while those who hadn't been aware of it before look at you curiously. "One of the things I knew was that Aro was the one who had killed Marcus's mate. I also knew Aro used Chelsea's gift to bind Marcus so he wasn't able to commit suicide, forcing him to stay part of the Volturi all these years. I knew Aro had a pattern of about every century or every other century attacking a coven that contained gifted members he wanted for his guard. He would come up with some reason the coven deserved to be destroyed, then invite the gifted members to join them. Some came willingly, others were forced to join. Chelsea would cut the gifted vampires' bonds with their coven, then bond them to Aro instead. I felt like Marcus deserved the chance to avenge his mate, but knew he'd never be able to do it while under Chelsea's influence."
"Ya did great, Darlin'," the Major purrs in your ear, letting you feel how proud he is of you. "I didn't even know the bitch was manipulating me."
"Why couldn't you feel that the bonds were false?" Emmett wondered. "Couldn't you tell the feelings weren't real?"
Jasper frowns and shakes his head, feeling disappointed with himself.
Max interjects, "That's because the feelings were real. The bonds were developed under false pretenses, but they functioned like the real thing. Once the bond was in place, we each felt the loyalty created by the bond, the kind of loyalty we feel for those we love and trust. We didn't have any reasons or life experiences to justify those feelings, so our minds would create ones to fill in the gap. Each of us would develop our own reasons within ourselves to make sense of the abnormally strong feelings we had and would pull from our own personalities and characters to do so."
"I was convinced I was serving the greater good, serving my kind like I had served my country. I was protecting innocent civilians from becoming casualties of war, pursuing justice, fighting evil, and preventing the coming to power of evil dictators, tyrants who would overthrow the current government and misuse their power to enslave us all," Jasper muses. "I believed the kings wanted what was best for our kind and were trying to be fair and just, with laws that were for our benefit, as well as for the benefit of humankind. They seemed so much more understanding and forgiving than Maria had been, offering up fair trials and second chances. It never occurred to me it was rigged - that only the gifted and their mates received pardons, and even then only for the price of serving on the Guard. Though, of course, it's obvious in retrospect."
Peter frowns, furrowing his brow. His eyes sharpen and he growls, "Char and I wouldn't have been pardoned, except Chelsea was unable to break our bonds to you, Major. It wasn't just mating bonds she couldn't break. She couldn't break any type of love bonds, including sibling or parental love. Unfortunately for vampires in general, bonds involving actual love of any kind, whether familial or romantic, are extremely rare. Because she couldn't separate us, Aro knew it would devastate you if Char and I were put to death for our supposed crimes. He wanted you enough to spare us and had us all bonded to him, knowing you would be grateful to him for being allowed to keep us."
"Guess it's a good thing we interrupted our honeymoon to go back and rescue his ass from Maria then," Char teases, trying to lighten the mood.
The Major lifts an eyebrow and smirks at her challengingly.
"What? I was a newborn and five years of nothing but sex and blood, having my mate all to myself, without worrying about anything else, wasn't nearly long enough," Char laughs.
Jasper rolls his eyes and snorts. "Yeah, I remember what it was like living with y'all before I had to go hook up with the little psycho."
"Only five years? My Rosie and I took ten before we were fit company for anyone else," Emmett brags.
Edward shudders, muttering, "Don't remind me. As far as I'm concerned, you weren't as fit for company after ten years as you thought you were. I would've been more than happy for you guys to take another ten or twenty years to satisfy your sexual appetites for one another before moving back in with the rest of us."
"Oh? Are we going to be shooting for 20 to 30 years of nothing but sex and blood now that this is all over, Edward?" Vicki purrs, running a fingernail down Edward's chest. "I can support that."
His eyes quickly darken and glaze over as he stares down at her, no doubt seeing some pornographic material in her mind starring the two of them. He groans and whispers, "Whatever pleases you, my love."
She smirks, pleased with his response.
You look up at Jasper, not to be outdone. Fluttering your lashes and sending him a ton of lust, you pout, "How come I only got two days and everyone else gets two decades?"
"Don't worry, Darlin', two decades is nothin'. I'm man enough to keep you out of your mind with pleasure for over two centuries if you want. I'm sure nobody'll miss us too much if we're gone that long," he purrs, his eyes full of promise.