AN ~ Because I have no life and no job these holidays, prepare for lots of Stars chapters! And I mean it this time. I'm up to chapter 80 already! You guys deserve it for trudging through seventy six chapters. Have any of you been around all year? Impressed! And grateful! Merry Christmas you guys XD
Chapter Seventy Seven: Hoist the Colours
Esme:
Jacob, Bella, Edward and Renesmee were at Charlie's place when it happened; an argument between Amun, Ben and Alistair that Carlisle attempted to break up. Within minutes, the entire household was gathered around the living-room. It seemed not even Christmas could go smoothly this year.
"Where's Alistair?" Carlisle asked.
"He disappeared," Ben muttered. "Perfectly cowardly, if you ask me."
"Sensible, more like!" Amun snapped. "At least someone has finally realised what folly this whole mess is."
"Hey!" Tanya interrupted, shoving her way to the front of the gathering. Carlisle sent her back with a stern glance, but I refused to move. Kebi glided to my side, her eyes slightly wide but otherwise giving no sign of a reaction to the confrontation. Tia, on the other hand, was clearly shocked.
"Folly? They're trying to save themselves, Amun!" Ben objected. "Someone has made a serious mistake, and the Cullens are trying to right it - or would you prefer they all died, huh? Well, I for one am not going to leave them. If you won't let me stay, I suppose I shall just have to join the Cullens. But it doesn't have to be like that; I'll come back to Egypt when all this is over and it will be as if nothing ever happened."
"You're staying with us." Amun gritted his teeth, glaring furiously at his coven's youngest member. Carlisle stood calmly beside the boy, enduring his friend's burning gaze and vicious hiss. At that moment, Edward and Bella came in. Edward dragged Bella to my side, but Amun was clearly not bothered by Carlisle's growing support.
"Amun, if you want to go, no one is forcing you to stay," Carlisle reminded his friend. I could see the pain burning in his eyes, even from my side-on view: his allies leaving, his friends fighting...
"You're stealing half my coven, Carlisle!" Amun shrieked, jabbing a finger at Benjamin to emphasise his point. "Is that why you called me here? To steal from me?!"
Carlisle sighed, and Ben rolled his eyes.
"Yes," Benjamin replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Carlisle picked a fight with the Volturi, endangered his whole family, just to lure me here to my death." He snorted. "Be reasonable, Amun. I'm committed to do the right thing here - I'm not joining any other coven. You can do whatever you want, of course, as Carlisle has pointed out."
"This won't end well. Alistair was the only sane one here," Amun grumbled bitterly. "We should all be running. We're all going to be slaughtered!"
"It's not going to come to a fight," Carlisle repeated.
"You say!"
"If it does, you can always switch sides, Amun. I'm sure the Volturi will appreciate your help." The edge to his tone sent a tremor through the room. Carlisle's eyes narrowed. So did Amun's.
"Perhaps that is the answer," the Egyptian sneered.
"I wouldn't hold that against you, Amun," Carlisle said quietly, the bitterness gone from his tone now. "We have been friends for a long time, but I would never ask you to die for me."
When he spoke, Amun's voice was more sincere too.
"But you're taking my Benjamin down with you."
Carlisle reached out and put a hand on his friend's shoulder. Amun shrugged it off.
"I'll stay, Carlisle, but it might be to your detriment," he warned. "I will join them if that's the road to survival. You're all fools to think that you can defy the Volturi."
His eyes dropped from Carlisle's face, and scanned the row of us; Tia, Kebi, myself, and Edward, before finally coming to rest on Bella and Renesmee. Amun sighed.
"I will witness the child has grown," he added. "That's nothing but the truth. Anyone would see that."
"That's all we've ever asked," Carlisle assured him softly. Amun grimaced.
"But not all you are getting, it seems." He turned to Ben and growled; "I gave you life. You are wasting it."
Benjamin's face was cold and defiant as he glared at his leader - or, former leader.
"It's a pity you couldn't replace my will with your own in the process," he retorted. "Perhaps then you would have been satisfied with me."
Amun turned on his heel, and Kebi gravitated after him as the two disappeared outside. Carlisle hung his head. Tia embraced Benjamin. Tanya sympathetically moved towards her friend, noticing that I was frozen to the spot.
"He's not leaving," I heard Edward tell Bella in a whisper, "but he'll be keeping his distance even more from now on. He wasn't bluffing when he spoke of joining the Volturi."
"Why did Alistair go?" Bella asked, just as quietly.
"No one can be positive; he didn't leave a note," Edward replied. "From his mutters, it's been clear that he thinks a fight is inevitable. Despite his demeanour, he does actually care too much for Carlisle to stand with the Volturi. I suppose he decided the danger was too much."
Edward shrugged, but his words had clearly hit me with more strength than they did Bella. Eleazer added a comment as though the conversation was meant for us all.
"From the sound of his mumblings, it was a bit more than that," he said solemnly. "We haven't spoken much of the Volturi agenda, but Alistair worried that no matter how decisively we can prove your innocence, the Volturi will not listen. He thinks they will find an excuse to achieve their goals here."
To hear that this theory had spread to others made it all the more real. Alistair was twisted, maddened by distrust, but it seemed Eleazer reluctantly believed this theory, and as the others shifted uncomfortably it was clear a part of them hated to admit it too. We liked to think the best of our leaders, burying the painful stories under decades of peace we were allowed by their law enforcement - brutal though that was. We were not safe, perhaps we never had been, and that realisation meant that everyone in this room suddenly had much more to lose than anyone had been willing to admit.
"Thank you for helping us," I said. The words seemed so small once they came out, but the Denalis smiled slightly, and nodded their understanding of everything I was trying to say.
"Of course," Tanya and Kate replied in unison. Kate's eyes darted over to the Romanians; just about everyone was eavesdropping on them, apparently. Stephan was looking at Edward.
"I see your point," he was muttering to Vladimir. My skin crawled at the slick sound of his voice. "Indeed, they will gain much if they win."
"More than we can afford to have them gain, don't you agree?" Vladimir replied.
"I think I must agree, and that means..."
"That we must stand against them while there is still hope."
"If we can just cripple them, even, expose them..."
"Then, someday, others will finish the job."
"And our long vendetta will be repaid. At last."
They locked eyes for a moment, and their determination faltered; burning desire for revenge warring with the instinct of self-preservation.
"It seems the only way," they murmured in unison.
"So we fight," Stephan decided.
"We fight," Vladimir agreed.
Carlisle's eyes found mine, wide and deep and afraid, as if he had predicted this happening all along. Perhaps he had: right from the start he had tread carefully around the Romanians. He had dreaded for months this turning into a fight, but now it seemed as though he was watching turn before his very eyes.
"We will fight, too," Tia said, stepping forward. "We believe the Volturi will overstep their authority. We have no wish to belong to them."
"Apparently, I'm a hot commodity," Ben added. "It appears I have to win the right to be free."
"This won't be the first time I've fought to keep myself from a king's rule." Garrett crossed the room and gave Ben a hearty slap on the back. "Here's to freedom from oppression."
"We stand with Carlisle," Tanya announced. "And we fight with him."
"We have not decided," Peter said, looking to Charlotte, who pursed her lips. She had apparently made up her mind, but didn't want to speak against her mate.
"The same goes for me," Randall said.
"And me," Mary added.
"The packs will fight with the Cullens," Jacob declared, with a confident smirk. "We're not afraid of vampires."
"Children," Peter muttered.
"Infants," Randall corrected. Jacob grinned at the nomads, unfazed.
"Well, I'm in, too," Maggie decided, pulling away from Siobhan's restraining arm. "I know truth is on Carlisle's side. I can't ignore that."
Siobhan watched the youngest member of her coven with worried eyes.
"Carlisle," she said quietly, as if they were alone. The tenderness of the moment between them made my heart swell. "I don't want this to come to a fight."
"Neither do I, Siobhan," Carlisle replied, giving his concerned friend a crooked smile. His eyes softened, the terror melting out of them as his leadership, which both of us had begun to fear had deserted him, resurfaced. "Perhaps you should concentrate on keeping it peaceful."
"You know that won't help," Siobhan objected, a smile creeping onto her face too. Carlisle believed she had the power of influencing the outcome of an event - Siobhan, of course, thought this was a load of rubbish, and Carlisle knew it.
"It couldn't hurt," he shrugged. Siobhan rolled her eyes.
"Shall I visualise the outcome I desire?" Her voice was thick with sarcasm; Carlisle grinned openly.
"If you don't mind."