A/N: So...a few more years have lapsed since updating anything. I'm going to stop apologising though. For some reason I keep getting drawn back to fanfic, but have promised myself not to start anymore, so hopefully these stories will finish EVENTUALLY.

Please enjoy and tell me what you think. This chapter is from Emmett's point of view.

Don't own Twilight.

Bree left soon after we talked, she had to get back to Italy before they noticed she had gone. Jacob and his pack were leaving too, to get home before dark, and he and Bella went into the corner to say goodbye. He put his arms around her and pulled her into a hug, burying his face in her hair. I looked away, feeling uncomfortable about how close they were. I had accepted the fact that there seemed to be something going on between the two of them – something that abruptly ended when Forks was attacked and Bella came with me, I didn't ask Bella about it. I wanted my wife and brother back, and I wasn't going to question Bella's feelings or motives - she could sort that all out later when we'd succeeded in our task. I needed her for this, even though we had the whole team now, it still felt like it was just me and her against the world sometimes.

"We should go and check on the others." Elisa murmured from behind me. "It's time to go hunting."

I nodded, walking over to Seth and explaining our plan. He nodded seriously, and I clapped him on the arm. He grinned at me and went over to Paul. Seth was a great Alpha, and very understanding of our newbie veggies. I don't think having the wolves here would have worked if anyone else was leading them, as Seth seemed abnormally at ease with us, so much so that the others came round quickly. I'd almost come to blows with Paul a few times, but all in all they were a good bunch, and useful enough to make it worth the wet dog stench. Seth and Paul left, obviously to phase and direct the patrolling of the borders so that we had back up if one of our guys caught a human scent and we couldn't control them. It was one of the conditions that was set in place when I was allowed to try this, and I wasn't about to argue. It was a massive risk to do this in such close proximity to humans, and I was just glad they were letting me try. I'm sure the fact that this was added a pretty serious advance on numbers to our group helped too, as the Quiletes were only one tribe and they were going to run out of elder blood sooner or later, and we couldn't wait for the next generation to be ready. To be honest, it's quite amusing just how much of the blood is around – what with the surge in vampires even those with the smallest amount of blood were changing – and there were a few 'pale faces' in that lot. Figures that their club wasn't as exclusive as they thought – then I guess neither is mine anymore.

The walk to the vamps nest (as I've noticed the humans call it) was a long one. It had to be, what with the underground tunnels being so void of fresh air and the human scent being so strong. The guys were trying, but they weren't perfect. I knew the cost if even one of them attacked a human – the trust that would be lost. The whole thing was balancing on the edge of a knife, the wolves, the humans and the vampires. We had to work harder than the others to keep it, but then our kind had a lot more to answer for.

"We're going hunting." I announced to the vampires that were dotted about. Most stood and nodded. Doris looked a little disgusted but she flitted to Elisa's side. Doris was a weird one. She was a lot older than the others, like a hundred years older, and apparently the idea of vegetarianism never occurred to her until it was made illegal. A hundred years of feasting on human blood made the animal alternative a lot harder to stomach, but she was trying harder than anyone. I had to give her credit for that.

The door was never locked, but as I pushed it open the others looked relieved to be finally going out into the air. They didn't like to leave without me, it seemed they were afraid of what might happen. I didn't want to lock them up like criminals, but I was relieved that they chose to stay in anyway. Mainly they were very young, bitten and left by the roadside now that our kind didn't have to cover up their mistakes or deal with the consequences of their actions. They woke up from the three days terrified, confused about what they had become and disgusted with their natural instincts. It's hard to wake up and for your first instinct to be to kill everyone you ever knew and drink their blood – I still remember it happening to me. It was made a hell of a lot easier to have Carlisle and Esme and Edward and Rosalie to help – these guys had no one to even tell them what happened. I focused on that a lot these days. I needed to help them the way my family helped me. I let that strengthen my resolve, that I was doing good – the best I could – whilst the pain punched a hole through my chest at the thought of Rosalie. God, Rosalie. I needed her back so badly. I needed to get these guys ready to take on Brandon. Two weeks is not enough time, even though it felt like a lifetime, but it would just have to be.

Rich was the last one out. He hadn't been with us a long time, and he was young when he was changed. Maybe fourteen, but he didn't like to talk about it. I'd heard from the others that some sadistic vampire had bitten him and then put him in his own bed at home, so the first thing he did when he woke up was kill his parents and his little sister. Poor bastard. He looked up at me, and I smiled at him, thinking how ironic it was that I was the Cullen that had fallen into this task. After Jasper I had the hardest time keeping control. Edward had his little foray before I became a vampire, but ever since the only human blood he'd tasted was Bella's, to save her life. Well, before he was captured and forced to drink it, I guess. I couldn't actually stomach the idea of that, I pushed the thought away. I was the one who had the slip ups, I was the one that had made us have to move more than once. It was humiliating, the worst part being Carlisle's understanding of it. He was never angry or disappointed. He would just...sit with me. We would discuss my feelings about having taken a life, about the nature of vampirism and all that stuff, and then I would be a bit stronger, and then the next time I messed up we just started all over again. I owed it to Carlisle and his endless patience to do this for them. But I didn't have the option of letting them slip up, there was no way we could risk even a little accident.

We were reaching the woods now, taking the long route so that we went nowhere near the humans. I surveyed the group. Eight of them in total at the moment, not including Elisa and the others that had been desensitized. There were twelve of us altogether, which was not a small number for our kind. As well as Rich and Doris, there was Garrett, who I understand ran into the Delani clan a while before they were taken and killed...he doesn't talk about it, but I think he and Kate had a thing going, and he came to find us after he failed to save her, taking up her beliefs in her memory. When he brought the news of Tanya and the other's deaths I felt numb, I couldn't describe the feeling – usually Rosalie did the emotions – I'd just do the comforting thing, focusing on her grief to keep my own at bay. I can't actually function without her, I have to push thoughts of her away...what Brandon is making her do...I started seeing red, and took deep breaths to calm me down, launching myself into the air over the rivers like the others. I had to pull myself back, I had to focus on the others, I had to pretend I was in control. I had to be Carlisle, or Edward. Focus on the now, Emmett, so we can fix this. We were almost a safe enough distance to hunt, the scent of the wolves and vampires in the area had lessened, but was still there – we only patrolled this area near hunting time, it was too far away from base to waste the resources the rest of the time.

Gina stepped out from behind the trees and smiled at me. She was small and blonde and very cute. I liked to think that we had a sort of brother sister relationship going because she reminded me so much of a blonde Alice, but Elisa had told me once that Gina had a bit of a crush on me. I wasn't going to lie, it was sort of a nice feeling, but quite awkward. We found Gina a few hours after she'd been bitten, still screaming in pain, and we brought her to the base then and there. I was with her when she woke up, and I gave her the choice, as Carlisle gave me – to either go and live how we were meant to, or strive to be different. She chose our way, and she's my proudest achievement. Only a year old and has never tasted human blood. It was rough to begin with, and she tried to attack Bella once, but then something weird happened. I grabbed for her, and in my hand she was sill snapping and snarling at Bella, who just stared her down, and Gina backed off, and then they talked...now she and Bella are quite close, and she'd never tried to take a bite out of anyone since.

"I didn't know you were out here." I said to her. She had a power of a sort. Her senses were heightened to beyond that of even the keenest vampire, and although she didn't get visions, she had "hunches" which usually came out good. All the more she reminded me of Alice.

"I was tracking a vampire, doesn't smell like the usual nomad though, more like us." She frowned. Only she could smell the difference between a vegetarian and a vampire that feasted on humans. "I have a feeling it may be someone looking for you. They only came a little closer than this, "

I swallowed hard the venom that shot into my mouth in shock. A vegetarian looking for me? Was it...could it be one of my family? Carlisle, Jasper, Esme, Alice...they are all out there somewhere. I would have gone looking for them if it wasn't for the fact that I couldn't let Bella...Bella needed me. I was still her brother no matter what Edward had said. Plus they had Rosalie...and she was my priority, and working with Bella, working with everyone, was the way I would get her back. Surely he others would understand, if we are ever reunited.

"Are they still here?" I asked.

Gina shook her head. "No, but I get the feeling they will be back." She smiled at me. "I am a little hungry, can I join you?"

"Yeah, of course. Plenty of mountain lion to go round." I gestured the way onwards, and we ran up and over a ridge to the hunting ground. We spent most of the night hunting and returned in the early hours of the morning. I waved at Seth in wolf form, telling him that everything went smoothly and reported in with Michael whilst Elisa and Gina went on patrol to make sure there were no problems.

I checked in on Bella. She was asleep. I stood at her doorway and watched her. I did this more often than I would ever admit to her, and I could sort of see why Edward found it so mesmerising, although his feelings towards her were very different to mine. She had changed so much in the last few years, she was more confident in herself, less clumsy. She was always strong willed. She is my best friend, but sometimes I missed the little awkward girl who blushed so easily. When she was asleep I could see that girl again, the shy red faced little character that somehow managed to become family so quickly, the girl that captivated my brother to the extent he built his existence around her.

Just after we separated from the others, when Rosalie was taken, and I found out they had Edward too, Bella was the first instinct I had so I went with it. There was no way I could take them and get Rosalie back, and I needed to do something, not just sit there in failure. I recognise on some levels it was selfish, I realised that after I met with the wolves, found out she was safe, but let her come with me anyway. I needed her because she was as desperate as me to get them back. She was tireless in her training, almost as dedicated as me, although she had to sleep a lot more. I admired how strong she was, picking up the others, her friends, who had lost their families, the way she took Charlie's death on the chin and concentrated on rescuing the others, saving them, making the group we had today. I know she has nightmares still, I hear her screaming a lot, and I've held her whilst she cried a few times, wishing I could cry with her. But she never even looked sad to anyone else. Not even Jacob.

She mumbled something in her sleep. Could have sworn it was "Edward." She said it so often that I was hardly surprised. If I could sleep I'd dream of Rosalie. I sort of envied Bella that, that she spent her nights with him. She seemed to be in a happy dream tonight so I left her to it, instead finding Elisa in the large canteen that doubled as a planning room. Elisa was sitting at the back of the room alone, staring at something in her hand.

"I'm going over the material, trying to find anything we've missed." Elisa said, shifting a little as I went to sit opposite her. She had all the plans in front of her, which consisted of an itinerary of the parade, a drawing of the area and two photographs, one of Edward and the other of Rosalie, so the others would be able to recognise them if they had never met before. I could have sworn she'd been staring at the picture of Rosalie. The girl was very thorough.

"Have you found anything?"

"No. I believe as long as no one messes up, we should recover them. Brandon and his cronies do not have many powers, and being able to communicate with Edward via telepathy is going to be useful. I just have one issue." She turned her eyes up to look at me. "I don't think Bella should see Edward until we have him back here."

"Agreed." I said quickly. "His control is broken and her blood holds a massive temptation to him. He'll kill her before he knows what's happening." I thought back to the girl that I killed once, her blood was just too mouth watering, I had just fed but I reacted on instinct, hardly knowing what I did until she was lying dead in my arms. I didn't know how Edward had managed to hold his instinct in that first second, and every day afterwards.

"He also thinks she is dead, so may think it's another trick Brandon has laid upon him." Elisa said. "Bella won't like it."

"She'll see sense. She'll be needed to rescue Rosalie, she's going to be the difficult one." I touched the photo of my wife, pulling it to me and staring it. "She'll be watched by Brandon. We have to get his attention diverted, and we'll only have a short amount of time before he notices." I sighed and looked around the area. All the humans were still asleep. Gina was in the corner with her headphones on, listening on some really cheesy pop music whilst sketching on a notepad. Seth and one of the other wolves, James I think he was called, one of the townsfolk who turned, had just come off patrol and were sharing a meal. Apart from that the place was empty.

It was interesting, the way that the wolves and the free roaming vampires interacted. They barely acknowledged each other's existence unless there was some need to. Seth and I were the only exceptions, acknowledging and treating each other as friends. There were four vampires that weren't confined to the Nest: Elisa, Gina, Thomas and myself. Thomas was older than even me and claimed to be an old friend of Carlisle's who had taken up vegetarianism a hundred years ago. He said that he liked his privacy, which is why Carlisle never mentioned him to me, but when we became marked men he had sought my family out as a safety in numbers thing. I wasn't completely convinced by his story but I had no reason not to believe it – the eye colour was the one thing that a vampire couldn't fake, not even with contacts as vamp eyes can see right through them. His eyes were as golden as mine, he was one of us. Still...there was something about him, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt and he never gave me reason to suspect anything. Hell we needed all the help we could get, friend or no friend of Carlisle's. He was fast and vigilant, and he and Elisa grew close quickly, although she denies that there's anything going on there. It seems to piss her off whenever I mention their little thing so I just stay out of it.

Elisa had spread out all the facts we had on Brandon and his family over the table, meticulous as she was with going over and over the plan. She seemed to never take any time off, always either patrolling, helping with the relentless training we put the humans through, helping with the newbies or going through our information and the plan. The only time she seemed slightly relaxed was when her and Thomas were sitting in the corner talking quietly. I looked over the documents again too.

Volterra was the only city that we knew of now in which humans were even slightly protected, except Forks. Not that they were exactly safe. Brandon asked for a number of humans to sacrifice themselves each evening by the clock tower as the sun goes down to feed their thirst. If there were no willing submissions then they would usually take the children first, therefore there were no shortage of people to sacrifice themselves for their children. It was a horrible situation, but one we could use to our advantage. We have heard that morale in the city was nonexistent. The humans barely would look each other in the eye, terrified to interact and bond, just in case that person was the next to be sacrificed. It would be easy for the humans in our party to integrate unnoticed and they would have virtually free reign of the city.

With the information which Bree brought we knew that vampires were being invited to pay tribute to the new ruling family, and those invited would be included in the parade wearing the long red cloaks that the humans used to wear in Volterra to wear at their annual festival. It was to be a cruel twist on their beliefs, to further demoralise them. That was our in – Bree would make sure that we could get access to the robes and we were going to melt in with the others come to pay tribute.

The wolves were going to be the difficult part, but they were important to the plot. We should all find it easy to blend in, but there was no hiding the stench that the wolves held for vampires. The first time Brandon catches a scent of it he would know something's up. They would need to rely on the varied smells of the crowd to hide them for a short time, but they would need to get the timing exact for the plan to work.

In the corner of my eye I saw a whir of movement in the corner that Gina was sitting in. When I turned to her I saw she was standing on the table, staring out of one of the high windows.

"What is it?" Elisa asked.

"The smell from before." Gina replied. "The other vegetarian. They're in the woods."

"Well, let's go roll out the welcome wagon." Seth and James were on their feet. I looked over at them and nodded.

Gina's senses made it really easy to track the smell. In the back of my mind I knew there was only one person who would have the foresight to know that we had a vampire who could do that, and that she would be with me at that exact time. I kept the idea where it was, in the back of my head. It was so farfetched, so unlikely that if I entertained the thought for a second the hope would burn me alive, and then the disappointment when it inevitably wasn't her would crush me.

Gina stopped dead for a second, smelling and wrinkling her nose. We all stopped with her. Elisa and I stopped dead but Seth and James overshot slightly, all the speed but none of the precision of the vampire.

"What is it?" I asked.

"The vegetarian isn't alone. She's with another vampire, smells like the others."

"What?" I asked, trying to get my head around this new development. Could this be a new vegetarian? Why would they be with a vampire that kills humans? It's a death sentence to even associate with a vegetarian.

"This could be a trap." Elisa said, closing in to watch my back. Gina was still frowning at the smell, whilst Seth immediately phased to his wolf form, ordering those on patrol to circle and check the perimeter for any breaches.

"Stop, I know what I smell. There's a vegetarian somewhere close, the same one as earlier. And a new vampire that has tasted human blood recently."

"She's right, but you don't need to worry, we won't hurt you." A voice sounded from the woods, a voice that made me freeze in shock. A pair of golden eyes shone through the darkness, belonging to a short girl with cropped hair. "I missed you, Emmett."

"Alice!" I caught her up in m arms, joy radiating through me to see her safe. "I thought I'd never see you again."

"Me either." She said, frowning as I placed her back on the floor. "My visions of you and Bella are hazy and patchy at best these days, I had no idea whether you were okay or not, and it took a while to find you."

"We're fine." I told her, hugging her to me again. "We're safe. We've got this whole operation going, you've got to come and see it. We're going after Edward and Rosalie."

"I know, I had a vision. It's why we're here. To help."

"We?" In my excitement I had forgotten what Gina had said. Another vampire, not a vegetarian... "Who is with you?"

"Who do you think, silly?" Alice smiled and play punched me in her unflappable way. I had forgotten her ability to remain calm and peppy in all situations. "Come on out. Nothing will happen." She called into the trees.

A figure stepped out from behind a nearby tree, honey blonde hair that I would have recognised anywhere, but eyes a shade I had not seen since the first time I met him, before he converted to our way of life. Not the murky brown colour of a recently lapsed vegetarian, but the vivid red of a vampire who had been drinking human blood regularly for over a year.

"Hey brother." Jasper smiled at me, the grin lighting his crimson eyes. All I could do was stare.