16. BLACKOUT

"Don't move," Alice threatened the three figures that my mind was telling me couldn't still exist.

"What-" Edward stammered, blinking furiously. "How- how are you alive?"

"It's rather complicated," Irina said. She was at the head of the trio, her face obviously not one of anger, nor did it resemble any face that she would present on the battlefield. Her arms were outstretched towards us, since all of us were on red alert, ready for battle.

"Seth, stay behind me," Alice murmured to me. I understood. I was human, and vulnerable. Blood was still in my human veins.

"Edward," she greeted him, smiling. "Tanya!"

Tanya's face was stuck in an expression of shock and disbelief.

"Irina?" she said, so low it was almost incoherent.

"I know," Irina said softly. "It's hard to believe."

"If you would explain," Benjamin said gruffly. "That would be nice. Besides Jennie, we were all there, we saw Caius burn you."

Tanya and Irina both flinched at this.

"Give us a minute," James said, much softer than I would have imagined. So far, his eyes hadn't left Edward's. "We can explain."

And then Irina was talking quickly.

"You've noticed that your powers don't work once you cross the Jade Line," Irina began. "That effect has been created by a vampire that is inside this citadel, in the Innermost Ring of the building."

"You will also have noticed that there are three vampires you know to be dead standing in front of you," Victoria said, grinning. "That effect has also been created by a vampire in the Innermost Ring."

I raised my eyebrows at this; I hadn't known the Cloner could do that.

"Aro already knew Victoria and I, because I aided Caius in the Werewolf Assassinations," James explained further. "He read my mind before I helped. One of the newborns had a power to show people memories of other people, so he showed the Cloner the memories and she created us right away. Technically speaking, we are our old selves, but when you kill the Cloner, then we disappear."

"What are we waiting for then?" Jennie said. "Why can't we go in there and kill them?"

"That's not such a good idea," Irina said, looking unhappy. "Aro isn't our enemy."

This took us all by shock. I had to blink a few times to understand at all.

"You're shocked," Victoria said. "But that's not the worst part. He's hypnotized."

"Hypnotized!" Alice yelled. "That's what I saw!" Edward shot Alice a confused glance. "When I was fighting Jane, I saw a glimmer of something from the back of her mind. I saw us killing Caius, and Aro helping us." She looked at me. "That's why I wouldn't let you kill Jane, Seth. She and Alec are both hypnotized, too, aren't they?" she asked the three clones.

Irina nodded.

"Yes," she replied. "Aro felt so bad about everything that happened last New Year that when Caius started plotting to get rid of all of you, Aro was angry. Caius had been planning for that, and he already had the Hypnotizer. He hypnotized Aro into going along with his schemes. Jane found out, and she and Alec exploited to the entire Volturi guard that Caius had betrayed their Master Aro. The Guard revolted against Caius, but Caius was too smart. He had already created his Newborns, so it was only too easy for him to hold them back and get the Hypnotizer to bend the Guards to his will. You're people are down there fighting the wrong people. And the right people, but mostly the wrong people."

Instantly, I felt nauseated.

"Edward, you have to get out of the circle," I half-gasped. "We have to know what's going on down there!"

The thought that my Jacob was risking his life against our hypnotized allies (or sort-of-allies).

Edward was instantly out of the Jade Circle.

"We're winning, I think," he said, excited suddenly. "They've only lost six of their number, and we've lost one." His voice faltered at the end.

"Edward," I said, quietly. "Who have we-"

I never got to finish.

"Oh my God," he gasped.

"What?" Alice asked, sprinting to him.

"They... the Guard has surrendered."

"What?"

"Just the Guard! The Newborns are still fighting, but the Guard has stopped. Something happened, but I can't make out what it was! Carlisle got the wolves to keep them away from the Newborns. The Newborns are trying to kill the Guard members! Something happened! I think one of them got into Bella's shield and instantly, he or she- no, it was Felix- told Carlisle everything. Carlisle got Siobhan to will the battle to slow down so that they could separate friend from foe!"

There was a pause, in which I ran to Edward and Alice. Had something happened? What was it?

"The Guard is fighting with us!"

Benjamin, Alice, Jennie, Tanya, and I all shouted with exultation! It was as if heaven had opened on the battlefield, and there was no chance we could lose!

"Bella is keeping them in her shield so that they all stay in their right mind! And you won't believe this- once the real Guard members got inside the shield, their clones disappear! Since there can only be one clone per person, the Newborns are all that are left! No clones at all!"

"Yes!" Benjamin yelled, clapping me on the back a little harder than I think he meant to. Nevertheless, I patted him back, smiling widely.

Then we all ran to the edge of the cliff. What I saw was extraordinary, and relieved every fear in my mind. It was visible down below that the tides had turned for the absolute better! There were figures in black robes fighting others in black robes, accompanied by massive wolves and other vampires.

All of a sudden, more smoke than ever was rising from the battlefield, and we were winning!

"Wait!" Irina said.

We all turned to her.

"There's good news, and bad news," she said, smiling sheepishly at the cliché.

"Good news is," James began, "The Cloner, The Hypnotizer, and the Jade Shielder: they are all the same vampire."

"And the bad news?" I asked.

"Your friends are trapped inside."

Get Brady and get out. That was my job.

Seconds after James had given us the best news of all (kill one, win all), we had made one plan, and then we started walking into the Citadel.

"When we get to the Innermost Ring," Edward explained as the Irina, James, and Victoria clones guided us to through a labyrinth of corridors, "You have to find Brady and get out, Seth. Go back the way you came. Alice will go with you, for protection."

I was scared, although we were winning. There was obviously danger here that I had never witnessed. Brady was in danger. My pack brother was somewhere in this madhouse, with no power to phase. He was as vulnerable as I was. We didn't even know if our friend were alive.

"Alice," I said as we continued to walk. "Is there a chance that... that Caius had our friends killed already?"

Alice looked down before answering.

"No," she replied, and my heart lifted a little. "Caius would rather let us go in after them and then kill us all together. Don't worry, though. I will keep both you and Brady protected until you can phase again."

Of course, I was reassured by her gentle words, but my heart seemed to beat louder with every step. I couldn't doubt that I was about to face horrors that I had never dreamed. They were vampires, after all. Sparkly vampires with superpowers.

We stopped after about three minutes. The Citadel was massive, after all.

We found ourselves facing a huge pair of ornate golden doors at the end of the longest and widest hallway we had traversed so far. I knew that beyond those doors, I could very well die. I could very well face Death beyond those doors: Death and all of his friends.

"Beyond this door, we will not exist," Victoria said after a few long moments of silence. "There is another line of Jade, and we cannot cross it without going into non-existence."

Edward looked Irina in the eyes.

"Now would be a good time for goodbyes that we never had the chance for, I believe," he said slowly.

Then he drew Irina in for a tight hug, like cousins once again.

"I'm so sorry that I betrayed you," she said as they hugged.

"It's alright now," he replied as they ended the embrace. "No hard feelings at all."

Then Irina hugged Alice.

"I'm sorry," she said again.

"It's okay, Irina," Alice replied, patting her on the back as she moved on to Tanya.

The embrace between the two sisters was tear-jerking for me. This was the last time they would ever see each other again. I could tell that if either one could have been crying, they would have been.

"I'm so sorry," Irina said, her voice broken. "I messed up so bad. I love you, and Kate, and Carmen and Eleazar. I'm so sorry I hurt you."

"It's okay," Tanya said, and she held her sister close.

"Tell Kate I love her, and miss her," Irina said before stepping away from all of us.

"Well," Victoria said, feeling out of place, as she should have, since she was surrounded by former enemies. "See ya."

Then she made an awkward wave and went to cling to James' arm.

"Yeah," James said. He waved awkwardly as well.

"By the way," Edward began curiously. "Why exactly did the Cloner recreate you three?"

Irina laughed once before answering.

"They thought that bringing back dead enemies would intimidate you enough to scare you away, or to entice you deeper into a trap," Irina said, as if the idea was funny to her. "Of course, I refused to fight."

"What about you two?" Alice asked Victoria and James.

"We just didn't want to fight," Victoria said, shrugging. "I've fought enough for three lifetimes."

"Same for me," James said.

There was one more second of awkward silence.

"We'll go this way to the other Jade Line so that we don't make this worse by our appearance," Irina suggested.

There were a few more awkward waves and smiles before the three vampire clones disappeared around the corner and out of sight.

I gasped as the doors in front of which we were standing began to open of their own accord.

The scene that met our eyes was frightening.

The chamber was ridiculously massive. There were pillars lining the side walls, tall and made of pure white marble.

There were three thrones at the end of the chamber. Caius was sitting in the biggest of the thrones, in the middle. Aro was in the one to his right, his face entirely free of expression. Jane and Alec were seated on the floor by Aro's feet, with the same blank faces that he wore. I noted morbidly that Jane was all put back together from when I ripped her legs off.

To Caius's other side sat a boy that looked barely twelve. He was the only one beside Caius and the Cloner that wasn't hypnotized. However, there was something about him that was sad, and he looked like he could've cried.

In the middle of the room, a girl no older than I sat stock-still, her red eyes shining green around the edge of the whites, and her face also blank. I couldn't imagine the awful concentration that it must have been taking to keep all her power in line. It was suddenly strange that we were here to kill her.

Seated in between each of the pillars edging the walls were the members of the last minute scout team.

With a feeling like an ice cold stab to the heart, I realized that they were hypnotized.

I found Brady's face instantly, his eyes glowing green because of such close proximity to the one that was keeping him silent. I imagined that the glow disappeared the farther away you got from the Hypnotizer/Cloner/Jade Shielder.

"Brady!" I yelled before I knew that I could speak at all.

Caius smiled at these words. I knew that he was hoping that I would run forward to Brady, but I didn't. And Brady didn't even stir at my words.

"Good evening," Caius said in a tone that didn't match how he looked: too conversational. He could've been getting ready to serve tea with that tone. "Won't you come in?"

None of us spoke, but I continued to glare at him balefully, my eyes full of the purest hatred.

He frowned when none of us spoke.

"This is Wendy," he said slowly, pointing towards the girl in the center of the second Jade Circle. "I can guess that the three clones from the past told you all about her? She's been quite useful really, after we got her to oblige with what we wanted. It took a little... persuasion." He continued when none of us answered. "This-" He pointed to the boy beside him. "-is Erin. He has a rather special ability-"

"Cut the shit, Caius," Alice yelled. "If you wanted us dead now, you could've had Wendy hypnotize us by now. Why haven't you?"

"Well, I would've thought it to be obvious!" he laughed. "I thought we'd have more fun this way."

Caius stood up and looked at us all, each of our eyes burning into his.

"Well, this is it, I'm afraid," Caius said, in false sadness.

And then the end began.

In a sudden flash of movement, my vampires, except Alice, ran forward. Aro, Caius, Alec, and Jane were a blur of panicked movement as Edward ran at Caius head on.

Marble arms sheathed in a cotton sweater wrapped themselves around me and in a flash of movement, we were next to the human Brady, who was still blank-faced.

"Brady!" I yelled as Alice put me down. "You have to listen to me!"

I was picking at straws now. I slapped his face, shook his shoulders, but nothing was working.

"Damn it!" I yelled, tears stinging my eyes from the panic. "Alice, I can't-"

And then I saw my chance. In the center of the room, the second Jade Circle sill glowed emerald green, with the girl in the middle, unmoving as a statue.

"Alice!" I shouted. "Get her out!"

I pointed at the girl as Caius and Edward flew by.

Alice was a blur of movement again. Up to that point, she had been assuring my safety by standing behind me. Now, she shot towards the beautiful girl in the center of the room. With one push, Alice threw the girl into the air, above the battle below and out of her circle.

Instantly, she fell victim to her own power-stealing, and Brady's eyes started to slowly turn back to their normal, warm light brown. And the other vampire's eyes were suddenly turning red or gold.

For one second, I was exultant, and then my eyes met Caius' red ones-

Then I was seeing black. I flew at light speed through the air and slammed hard into the wall. I felt something hot and red seeping from my body as I fell to the floor. The world went black and I couldn't see.

When I could see, I was seeing red, entirely red. I could see dimly the outlines of the battle. Neither the scout team, Aro, Jane, or Alec hadn't yet broken from their hypnosis, although the girl lay on the ground, far from her circle: only a few feet away, I could see. But I couldn't move. Aro, Jane, and Alec were still fighting, their powers still not working, obviously.

I heard Alice yell my name before blood trickled down onto my face. I was on the opposite side of the room, as far away from Brady as I could be.

Then I saw a figure very close to me. My first thought was that Caius had come to finish me off. This was it; I was going to die.

But it wasn't. It was Erin, the boy at the thrones. And there, at his side, was a girl that I had seen only once. I had seen this fair-haired girl outside of Jacob's house standing in the woods...

I heard a scream and a screeching metallic sound before the world got darker.

Fire burst inside my eyelids. Was I burning? Surely not, because I could still feel.

Then I heard the scream again- clearly, it was Caius. Was my team killing him? Had Brady come back to his mind? Had they destroyed the girl? Yes, I think they must have done so, because Jane was surely torturing him, which means that she would be back in her right mind now, and now an ally.

Then the feeling of fire joined the sight of it.

I didn't hear my own scream, but I could feel that it was being forced out of my throat.

I felt something wet and warm creep out of my body and out around me... I was still bleeding, even worse now...

My eyes seemed to open again, and I saw three people now: Alec, the boy, Erin, and the girl.

My mouth mouthed the words without me having to say them for myself.

"Help me... Find Jacob."

If they could keep Jacob safe, it didn't matter what happened to me.

If I was leaving this world, I would leave it with Jacob's name on my lips. I saw his face behind my eyelids, which felt so heavy that they closed without my permission.

My eyes filled with tears to mix with the blood pooling around my body.

Jacob was nearby. I could feel his presence so strongly that it almost kept me conscious.

"Keep him... safe... Jacob..."

I saw Alec and the boy called Erin raise their hands, a mist descend on my eyes, my mind, my heart...

And I was gone.