AN ~ Officially into BD now! A longer-than-usual chap but hopefully a good one even though it's not fluffy (don't worry, this is not the end of the fluff!) Thanks everyone for your reviews XD More are always welcome. I know I have lots of lurkers so come on, guys, drop me a line!

Disclaimer: Breaking Dawn is not mine, nor is the line "It'll all work out, somehow" (Twilight deleted scene: 'she's brought him to life')

Chapter Forty Seven: Preparation

Carlisle:

For the next few weeks, the whole house radiated happiness and nerves; a hive, buzzing with excitement. The only black mark – getting darker and more permanent as the wedding date drew nearer – was that Jacob Black was still missing. With him rested our simplest and cleanest solution, and of course Bella's freedom to see her pack friends again.

Edward would not allow Bella onto their lands now that Jacob was not around to protect her. She had rarely asked his permission before, but without Jacob's presence she had lost her largest motivation and even some of her welcome. Every minute Jacob spent away, Bella lost another chance to see her friends from across the treaty line: once she became one of us, her friendships with the wolves would be over. Ties cut. She would no longer be the Bella they knew; she would be one of us, and we were as unwelcome on Quileute lands as ever.

Her ties with the wolf pack were not the only ones Bella would have to sever with her upcoming change. For their own safety, her mother, father and human friends had to be kept out of it. It was a lot to lose, but Bella was determined. Impressively, her commitment did not waver even at the gruesome cautionary tales she had to hear about our kind. In fact, I was surprised at her resilience. The dizzy, fragile girl I had treated in the ER after Edward saved her from a wayward van was long gone. The new, tough, matured Bella stayed late night after night to manage both sides of her preparation: for the wedding, and for the change.

"Edward, was it really necessary?" I heard Bella ask him once as they walked up to his room, where a bed was awaiting her very tired body.

"Not for the first time - yes, it was," he replied calmly. "And don't worry. I assure you, nothing went on between Tanya and myself. I will assure you of that every day from now until the end of time. Will you trust me on this one?"

"Yes, I trust you, of course I trust you but..." she swallowed uncomfortably. "The Denalis in the same state as the Quileutes seems like a bad idea, let alone on the same property, or in the same room. Isn't it dangerous?"

"A little tense, maybe, but dangerous? No. It wouldn't be happening if it was dangerous, trust me," Edward assured her. "Besides, Irina's the one with the vendetta, and she's not coming. The others feel bad for leaving us to fight alone. They won't cause any trouble."

Bella huffed insecurely.

"We're the closest thing they have to family, Bella," Edward had pointed out. "They still feel like orphans, you know, even after all this time."

"Okay, okay," Bella mumbled. "Maybe it won't be so bad."

"Thank you," Edward breathed. He kissed her gently and the room fell silent, but for Bella's heart and both their steady breathing. Once Bella had settled into slumber, Edward came to me.

"Have you told her about Immortal Children?" he asked in a low voice. I frowned.

No. But it is an ancient practice, long since wiped out. Surely she does not need to know of it right now? There is a lot of pressure on Bella at the moment and I don't think we should be making this transition any more traumatic than it already is.

"Tell her."

Are you sure you're not still trying to scare her away?

"She needs to know."

.o.o.o.

The next night, the topic of our discussion was just that: Tanya and her sisters, and the incident that had shattered their lives even more drastically than first being changed. The story of the Immortal Children – and the breach of one of the vampire world's most absolute laws, which had led to the death of their mother and creator many years before I was even born.

"Bella," I warned, "this is a terrible story. Are you sure you don't want to hear it tomorrow?" It was pitch black outside, and raining; it was quite an eerie night, and the last thing Bella needed was even more loss of sleep. And yes, I admit, I was still a little hesitant about telling the story at all.

"No, it's okay," she replied. "We've already been through newborn armies, succubuses, collateral damage, and a whole bunch of other things that would make any mere mortal vomit." She laughed half-heartedly, trying to make a joke of it.

"If you're sure," I sighed, pulling up a chair. Bella settled into the comforter. Hopefully she would fall asleep before I reached the end of the story: she looked about ready to. In her hands were a chocolate bar and a packet of tissues.

"Comfort food, check. Tissues, check. Alright, bring it on." Bella smiled uncertainly at me. I shut my eyes for a long moment, recalling Tanya's heartbroken expression as she recounted her mother's final chapter to me.

"Please understand that we don't like to talk about this," she had said. "I must ask you to refrain from asking questions, Carlisle. Curiosity is not a crime, but...it can be painful."

"I understand. I will respect your wishes," I had vowed, taking one of her hands gently in mine, trying to comfort her despite my confusion.

"Young Carlisle," she had sighed, surprising me with the use of a title she only used when speaking to me as a mentor. She had shaken her head gently before resting her cheek against my shoulder. "You bear so much weight for what has been done to you, and you bear it well. My sisters and I also carry a burden. We will carry it for the rest of our lives, and into the next, if there is one, I should imagine. It is a story of love and betrayal, and three sisters and their mother and a child they never knew..."

"I don't know Tanya's mother's name," I explained to Bella. "They never speak of her if they can avoid it, never think of her willingly. The woman who created Tanya, Kate and Irina – who loved them, I believe – lived many years before I was born, during a time of plague in our world: the plague of the Immortal Children. What they were thinking, those ancient ones, I can't begin to understand. They created vampires out of humans who were barely more than infants."

Bella grimaced and swallowed hard, and I realised she was probably imagining some grotesque creatures from a horror movie.

"They were very beautiful," I hurried to explain. "So endearing, so enchanting, you can't imagine. You had but to be near them to love them; it was an automatic thing.

"However, they could not be taught. They were frozen at whatever level of development they'd achieved before being bitten. Adorable two-year-olds with dimples and lisps that could destroy half a village in one of their tantrums. If they hungered, they fed, and no words of warning could restrain them. Humans saw them, stories circulated, fear spread like fire in dry brush…"

I shuddered lightly, watching the Great Fire of London devour the city and wondering, like I had done a hundred times before, how many villages had met the same terrible fate to stop the stories spreading. How many lives had to be destroyed to keep a secret? As much as I hated to admit it, wouldn't it be better to just destroy the children, stop the practice and let the whole mess fade into the history books?

Yet, nobody had the heart to destroy the children. They were protected and by everyone who set eyes on them, nearly impossible to turn down, certainly impossible to escape. They were the perfect predators.

"Tanya's mother created such a child," I went on. "As with the other ancients, I cannot fathom her reasons."

I paused to take a deep, steadying breath, trying to push away the image of little Olivia, one of two children that had been staying at Volterra when I arrived. Everyone adored her blonde hair and dimples and luminescent eyes, even though those eyes never got darker than bright scarlet. In my head, Olivia grinned at me and laughed, the sound distorted in Volterra's halls. She ran off down the hallway, and her brother Lucas and I chased her, laughing merrily.

"The Volturi became involved, of course," I forced myself onward. "The Volturi studied the Immortal Children, at home in Volterra and all around the world. Caius decided the young ones were incapable of protecting our secret, and so they had to be destroyed."

The Volturi had not always been hospitable about Immortal Children as they had been with Olivia and Lucas - in fact, they had made it painstakingly clear to me that they had come down with an iron fist on any of the creators or defenders of the children. In a library deep under Volterra there is a collection of books documenting lists of vampires and notes on each; one volume per year. Over the centuries, especially in the 6th and 7th, the midst of the era commonly called the Dark Ages, many names had been marked sradicare, bambino-peste: eradicated, plague child. Right up until the 1700s, offenders were still being tracked down. I had read those documents, and very few of them seemed the radical type, the type to try such a risky process. Some of them, in fact, I had lived with for years before coming to live with the Volturi. I recalled how much Sulpicia and Athenodora begged their mates to let Olivia and Lucas live: had they not been Caius and Aro's mates, I didn't doubt they would have joined the hundreds of names stricken from the Volturi's records in the fights over other Immortal Children.

"I told you they were lovable," I continued. "Well, covens fought to the last man – were utterly decimated – to protect them. The carnage was not as widespread as the southern wars on this continent, but more devastating in its own way. Long-established covens, old traditions, friends...In the end, the practice was completely eliminated. The Immortal Children became unmentionable, a taboo. When I lived with the Volturi, I met two Immortal Children, so I know first-hand the appeal they had. Aro studied the little ones for many years after the catastrophe they'd caused was over. You know his inquisitive disposition; he was hopeful they could be tamed. But in the end, the decision was unanimous: the Immortal Children could not be allowed to exist."

That day had been a sad one for all of us, even Caius, who was somewhat more hot-blooded than his brothers and, in the end, was the one to destroy the children. I had never asked, but I didn't doubt it was Caius who had destroyed Tanya's mother and her child.

"It is unclear precisely what happened with Tanya's mother," I explained to Bella, fighting to keep the sadness out of my voice, and failing. "Tanya, Kate and Irina were entirely oblivious until the day the Volturi came for them, their mother and her illegal creation already their prisoners. It was their ignorance that saved Tanya's and her sisters' lives. Aro touched them and saw their total innocence, so they were not punished with their mother."

I blinked to rid my eyes of the tears that should have been building up. A few slipped down Bella's ghostly white cheeks but she didn't wipe them away.

"None of them had ever seen the boy before, or dreamed of his existence," I went on softly. "Until the day they watched him burn in their mother's arms. I can only guess that their mother had kept her secret to protect them from this exact outcome.

Even with Aro's perfect assurance that Tanya, Kate and Irina were innocent, Caius wanted them to burn. Guilty by association. They were lucky that Aro felt like being merciful that day. Tanya and her sisters were pardoned, but left with unhealing hearts and a very healthy respect for the law. Even now, their mother's death leaves an emptiness inside each of them, but they feel angry with her for not having told them, for getting herself killed without even telling them why..."

Bella was sinking into the chair now, almost completely asleep though she was still sickly pale with horror, salty tears drawing tracks down her cheeks. Almost immediately, Esme arrived with a soft smile and a blanket. She carefully scooped the sleeping Bella into her arms and carried her out to the lounge.

"'M not asleep," Bella groaned as Esme lay her on the lounge and lovingly rearranged the blanket.

"Edward is out with his brothers. He will take you home later," Esme promised. "You should get some sleep, sweetie, you're exhausted."

Bella mumbled half-hearted resistance but soon was sleeping comfortably. Esme quietly moved to my side and took my hand.

"Are you okay?" she asked softly as we watched Bella's lips moving silently, her chest moving up and down with numbered breaths.

"I just hope she's ready," I sighed, squeezing Esme's hand.

"They love each other - that has overcome every obstacle so far and it will overcome this one," Esme assured me. "It will all work out, somehow." She smiled encouragingly and leaned into me.

"Ahem," Alice appeared next to us and pretended to clear her throat. "We have guests."

With that, she was gone. Esme smiled innocently up at me and both of us laughed.