AN: On with the Apocalypse! Thanks for reading and reviewing. S. Meyer owns twilight
CHAPTER 2
Alistair POV
They were heroes. I couldn't believe it, the people I'd hated as corrupt rulers were nothing of the sort. I had allowed my own bitterness color my view of them, twisting everything they kept secret as a danger to my own freedom. I stood and walked to Aro "can I see?" I asked, he agreed and touched my hand. The images of his life flood my mind. It was true, everything he said was true.
My mind was stuck; guilt and pain swirled in me. I'd been so stupid. I heard J call for Charlie. An arm guided me out and we headed into the castle. The smell of the air changed and I knew I was in the healing room. I felt a warm, white light surround me. The pressure melted away from my flesh and I felt lighter. I blinked and looked around, Aro was beside me looking concerned.
"I'm okay." I said. "Thank you for showing me that. Your secrets are safe with me. I will accept the role as Anti-corruption Officer and build an agency when the time if right." He looked at me curiously. I explained "the agency can't be biased to one species, with your plans for the future we need to include Spirit Walkers and Werewolves." Aro looked relieved "I whole heartedly agree, Alistair."
I saw Charlie come over to my side. "I had to remove your darkness, Alistair." He said. It was such a strange concept; healed. Whole. I knew I'd changed physically, I was very happy with the changes. Now I felt lighter, the bitterness was gone, but the wariness remained. I'd hold onto the wariness, it would ensure I wouldn't miss anything when I set up the Anti-corruption agency. Alice hugged me when I stood up, we were free to be together without our pasts holding us back.
Charlie turned to Aro "I could help you too, you know?" Aro thought briefly before askin "how?"
"I can give you the same treatment I gave Alice and Alistair, if I alter the ingredients slightly you won't put on weight, but you'll look more ...robust?" It was amusing seeing Charlie struggle with tact. Aro smiled "I'll give it a go." It would definitely help the image of the Volturi and the other Supernaturals if Aro lost the brittle look to his skin. "I can see darkness around you, do you want me to take it away?" He asked Aro. "Not yet, I want to hold on to it until my family and friends among the wolves are free from their pain."
JPOV
We, the Horsemen, left the others in the healing room and followed Caius and Marcus to Caius' sitting room. Marcus turned to us. "It's time to act. Would you four be willing to take a small troop to collect Vladimir and Stefan from Chernobyl?" He asked. Pete accepted the mission on our behalf and added, "we'll need Demitri and Felix."
"What about the werewolves?" I asked. Caius answered, "I'll be going with you. The wolves are Fred's pack, they know me well. We'll leave in a few days when the full moon ends."
"Will they be safe until then?" Bella asked, Caius shrugged "they're smart and have learned how to hide themselves during the full moon."
"We should speak to Charlie before we go, he might have something that'll hide their scent and soothe their instincts against us." Pete said, Caius wrinkled his nose in disgust at the thought of the scent and nodded.
Bella and I returned to our room to mull things over. We'd been given a lot of information in the last 24 hours and needed to process it. I could feel how right this was; the unity of the supernatural world. After hearing their history I was eager to meet the true werewolves. I'd only heard bad things until the Masters told us their history. I wondered where else they'd settled. Had some returned to Iceland? Were there any in America?
Char POV
It was a new day. J, Bella, Pete and I decided to train with Demitri and Felix, adding to each other's fighting repertoire. Caius was making the arrangements for our trip to Ukraine. Demitri would be our comms officer again, he'd drive a small bus to Ukraine while we ran ahead. The Healers were working on the supplies we'd need. There would be the usual first aid kit; enriched animal blood, scent changing human blood and a vial of liquid to disable the gifts of the vampires we captured.
The Healers and Marcus were also making a care package for the wolves; they were modifying the scent changing mix and adding it to bottles of water, hopefully it'd make the wolves' scent tolerable. They were also mixing a few different teas from Oona's recipes, they added some dried Rowan berries. It wasn't a guaranteed werewolf remedy, but it we hoped it would work. Fred and his pack would be returning with us to Volterra. They would witness the punishment of Vladimir and Stefan.
When the sun began to set we gathered in the bat cave. Caius led the way in his black cloak, we followed behind, masked and cloaked. Felix ran by our side. Our ear pieces connected us with Demitri, he was driving a bus with supplies. We ran in silence. The weather was on our side, it was a cloudy night and we could keep to industrial areas to avoid being spotted by humans. We reached the alps and followed the mountain range to central Austria.
Our speed was reduced so Demitri could keep close. The scenery was stunning and the air was crisp as we crunched through the ice tipped peaks of the Alps. We reached the Austrian village of Graz by midnight, an hour later Demitri arrived in the bus. It was a shock to travel through countries so easily, it brought home how large America was. Demitri showed us the route he'd be taking through Hungary and into Ukraine. Caius informed us we'd meet the wolves in Rovno, Demitri would stay with them while we headed into the red zone. Our supplies would deteriorate in highly radioactive areas. Demitri's senses were telling him Stefan and Vladimir were in Pripryat, near the Sarcophagus of reactor number four.
We set off again, leaving Austria and passing through Hungary. We followed a major highway into Ukraine. We paused for Demitri to catch up and ran alongside the bus until we reached Rovno. Caius caught the first scent of wolf on the eastern outskirts of the town. There were a lot of paddocks covered in snow. We followed the smell further in until we reached a copse of trees. Demitri parked and we lined up behind Caius.
Caius bowed lowly and whispered words in an ancient language. We followed his lead, bowing lowly. A tall figure stepped forward and smiled in greeting. His brown hair hung in waves to his shoulders, his skin was almost olive in appearance. He looked a lot like Aro, but there was a lightness about him his brother had lost since being turned. His eyes were a light blue/green, I wondered if Aro had the same eye color as a human. This was obviously Fred. Fred's clothes were torn in places and muddied. He started talking in Italian to a surprised Caius.
"Greetings, Caius." He turned to us and kept speaking Italian "welcome friends of my blood. We apologize for the escape of the prisoners."
"You speak Italian now?" Caius asked, still in shock. He snapped out of it, shaking his head and smiling. "It's not your fault, Fred. You held them for a full millennium, we are grateful for your persistence. I can't tell you what a relief it is to talk to you in my language, yours is very difficult to master." He said. Fred smiled "we've had a lot of time to master the romantic languages. There was little to do in Siberia except dismantle the Romanians and watch them put themselves together again. We would gamble on which body would succeed first, but even that gets a little tedious after a few hundred years."
"Eir will be amused." Caius chuckled darkly.
"Don't suppose you speak English?" Pete asked, my mate had never really got the hang of other languages. "Of course, we're more comfortable with English since a lot of tourists spoke it while travelling. It's much easier than Latin based languages." He spoke in perfect English, there was a hint of an English accent. Pete was relieved and thanked the pack master.
Fred asked us to follow him. He led us to an abandoned warehouse on the eastern part of the city. "This is our temporary home, welcome. Come in." We entered and Demitri ran to get the bus. A short while later he parked outside. He entered carrying a stack of boxes. Caius took them from him and distributed them to the wolves. There were 17 wolves, all around their late teens, early twenties.
Fred smiled, "another care package from Thegnmarr?" Caius nodded "of course. Your brother and uncle send their regards and have invited you to join us in Volterra when we capture the Romanians. We have a healer, a spirit walker like the witches you've met over the years. He's achieved a lot in the few months he's been with us, even healed your uncle." Caius' said. "The healer and his apprentices have worked on a few remedies that could help you all stay in control around the full moon and change your scent so it doesn't set off our instincts. You could be free." He added carefully. He didn't want to get the wolves hopes up.
Fred searched Caius' face "are you sure?" He asked. Peter stepped forward "I have a gift, Fred, I'm related to the spirit walkers and can divine the paths of fate. My gift tells me there will come a time where you gain control. It's possible this will work, although it won't taste nice." Fred's eyes lit up with hope. "We'll try anything." He said. He turned back to Caius "How is my uncle?"
"Thegnmarr has a new mate, he's very happy." Caius said cheerfully. Fred looked confused.
"I thought vampires only had one mate?" He said, Caius nodded "we thought so too, chances are no other vampire has survived so long after the death of a true mate. We're lucky Chelsea was able to reduce his suffering, but she's lifted her influence now and he's like his old self again."
"We'll gladly come to Volterra." Fred looked over to me and the other Horsemen "you're safe here if you want to remove your masks. The closest vampires, aside from yourselves, are over 300 kilometers away in Pripryat."
We took our masks off and Caius smiled, introducing Pete and Bella. When he turned to J and I his pride grew "this is Jasper and Charlotte. They're descendants of my brother." Fred shook our hands, his skin was almost scalding hot. We were introduced to the pack. He pointed to a short woman with long blond hair, bright green eyes and petit figure "this is Brigitta, she's my mate and second in charge." He pointed to a tall, lanky man with black hair and blue eyes, "this is my co-second in charge Einar. He is mated to Freja." He pointed to a brunette with grey eyes around 5'5" she was rather stocky. I was surprised by how human they looked, there wasn't any distinguishing feature aside from the smell.
We were introduced to each of the 16 wolves in Fred's pack. All looked to be the same age, but they were tall, short, stocky, thin, blond, brunette, black haired. They would be impossible to locate amongst humans when their scent changed. Their smell was as strong as the scent of the wolves in La Push, but instead of the spirit wolves' earthy stench mixed with wet dog, the werewolves smelt of rotting corpses. No wonder they were our natural enemy.
Demitri set up the comms system in the warehouse and gave the wolves the remedies the Healers had concocted. The first one was the scent changer. I was relieved how fast it worked, the wolves seemed relieved too. "You vamps don't smell too bad when we drink this. The sweetness is still there, but the chemical, bleach and ammonia scent has faded." Fred observed as we headed out. Their scent had freshened to resemble humans, but it didn't trigger our venom to secrete like humans did. There was a slight edge to the scent, a bitterness, but it wasn't unpleasant.
We put our masks back on and our earpieces in our ears and waved to Demitri and the wolves. We headed to Pripryat. Felix ran behind Caius with us following them. He carried the standard black duffle bags used to carry vampire parts.
There was a vibration in the atmosphere the further we ran, it was unsettling and grew stronger the closer we got to the red zone. The air had a metallic taste, but it didn't make me feel sick like it would have if I were human. We were getting closer to the abandoned power plant. Demitri's voice crackled through the speaker "you've got 100 miles to go." Caius stopped us outside the town of Korosten, he pointed to us and silently indicated our groups.
Bella and Pete were with Felix, while J and I were with Caius. We watched as Felix's group turned north east and we followed Caius south east. We reached a river and followed it north to a large lake. "Status" Caius said quietly into the ear piece. Felix's voice whispered through the comms "Pripryat River, lake in the distance, approximately a mile away."
"Good, we're at the lake" Caius responded. Pete's voice joined in "my gift is telling me there are seven guarding the Vladimir and Stefan. Death won't be able to use her gift, there could be traces of graphite, we can't risk using fire. I recommend our team take the western shore of the lake and fan out slightly. Caius, you come from the east. War, you'll need your power."
"Understood." Caius said.
JPOV
We were in position. I could sense the emotional hum of several vampires in a building to the north east of us. "In position" Caius said. "In position" Felix replied. Caius waved his hand forward and we moved silently among the decaying, broken buildings. It was surprising to see all the plant life that grew, I even spotted a small heard of horses nearby.
I could sense the Romanians and their allies stronger now. Nine vampires in total, seven guards and the two Romanians. Our earphones crackled and died, but we stayed on target. Caius and Char jumped through the door and started attacking. I snuck up on the Romanians and pushed pain and lethargy into them while Felix, Bella and Pete attacked from the other side.
The Romanian guards were strong fighters, we had our hands full. I recognized the leader, Carlos. He'd been a newborn army general during the first Vampire Wars. I looked at Pete and Char, their emotions were full of rage, they knew who commanded and trained the Romanian guards.
I saw a large vampire try to sink his teeth into Bella's shoulder and panicked a little, I heard his jaw break against her shield. Thank fuck. Peter caught her attacker and ripped him apart easily. I kept a tight hold on the back of Stefan and Vladimir's necks. They were writhing on the ground in front of me. I'd given them the same emotional cocktail I'd given Maria. They scratched and bit, but didn't make contact with me, only each other.
The screech of metal being torn echoed around the room. This was taking longer than expected, but these weren't amateurs, they were older. Carlos and his army must've escaped the Volturi cleanup half a century ago and kept training. I could see Char's eyes darken as she used her power to increase the blood lust of her attacker. She finally got the upper hand and tore his arm off. She removed his head as he froze in shock.
Caius and Felix took down their opponents easily. Four down, three to go. Char and Bella teamed up against one while Felix and Caius took the other two. Pete got to work dismembering Vladimir and Stefan. I kept my hold on them until I could remove their heads. Caius easily removed Carlos' limbs and helped Pete and I gather the pieces of vampire from around the area. Felix finished tearing apart his opponent and headed outside for the duffle bags. We filled all five bags for transport to Rovno, we couldn't risk setting them alight in the red zone. The bags strained with the limbs of nine vampires twitching within.
The run back to Demitri and the wolves was filled with relief; the Romanians were contained, we dealt with our own enemy, Carlos and the Radioactive hum was easing. The atmosphere around us lightened the further we got from the red zone. We passed through forest and farm land. It was late morning and we couldn't risk being near humans.
The wolves' warehouse came into view, Demitri was pacing out the front. His anxiety hit me like a truck, the comms had broken before we started our attack. I heard Felix chuckle as he sprinted to Demitri, bowling him over. Dem hit the ground hard as Felix pounced on him, "miss us?" He taunted Dem.
Felix was thrown into the air as Dem landed a kick in the gut and straitened himself up. He put his hands on his hips and yelled to us "do you have any idea how much you scared the shit out of me! If I hadn't felt your presence with my gift I would have run straight there myself. Where's Death?" He searched our group, Bella shyly put up her hand and Dem glared "that shield of yours is going to be the death of me! I couldn't sense you, missy. Next time the comms break, drop the damn thing for a second to let me know you're okay." She nodded, stunned. He turned on his heel and went back into the warehouse.
"They're back and they're safe!" He announced as we entered. Fred stared at us, searching for injuries, his relief was through the roof as we entered. "Everyone okay?" He asked, Caius nodded "all present and accounted for, no injuries except for the Romanians and their friends." Fred relaxed and said something in his native language, Caius chuckled "that's not a very polite thing to say."
Fred shrugged and sat with Dem as he called Volterra to update the Masters on our progress. The wolves had changed clothes since we left, I could also smell the scent of human food.
Dem handed us each thermoses; blood for the vampires and tea for the wolves. They even got a few cookies. We packed up the bus for Demitri as he got the wolves cloaks to wear on our trip. They were black with purple lining. "Honored guests" Felix explained the colors. The wolves got comfortable on the bus. Dem had moved the supplies into the walkway besides the seats. The duffle bags with the Romanians and their guards were in the cargo hold, no one wanted to smell them. Caius brought out new earpieces. We put them in for the trip back home. Demitri started the bus, the wolves riding as passengers. We ran at a steady pace.
We took our time running back, speeding ahead when in isolated areas then slowing down for some sight-seeing in the towns. Night had fallen an hour ago and the temperature dropped, it was almost uncomfortable as we entered the Alps and traversed the mountain range into Italy.
We'd been running for twenty two hours so far. We stopped in Udine, inside the Italian boarder and waited for the bus to catch up. We'd run parallel to it until we reached the Castle in Volterra. The waning moon shone high in the sky and humans bustled around in their cities, it was a Friday night and everyone was in a good mood. We were lucky we had our cloaks.
It was midnight as we skirted around the busy city of Florence, keeping to the woods as much as possible. The route to Volterra would pass through farm land and forest so we'd be able to run close to the bus.
We finally entered the city and followed the bus into the bat cave. It was good to be home, the wolves were excited to see their kin and watch the punishment of the Stephan and Vladimir.