A/N: Here it is. The other big battle scene. No more making you wait for it. I would like to thank everyone who gave input as to whether Edward should live or die, and how everything should happen. Also, I will be going to visit my older sister in Virginia for a few weeks. I'll still be writing, but it might get haphazard for a bit. Just wanted to let you know. Enjoy!

PS... My novel is done and back from the proofreaders. After doing some minor corrections, I will be self-publishing this week! I'm beyond excited. As soon as I get it published, I will give you all of the information for those who would like to read it.

Chapter 52 – Who Will Live?

Before the newborns even broke through the tree line, the Cullen's and their allies were in position and ready to leap into action. Based on Alice's vision, they knew the wolves would be arriving at about the same time as James and his lackeys, and that meant the vampires needed to stay on guard not only from the enemy vampires, but also from the pack. They could trust no one except each other.

Today they would kill one of their own. Edward had chosen to align himself with the enemy in order to get Bella for himself and for that, he posed a danger to the coven; and although Carlisle could forgive him because he was his son, even the leader of the coven knew that to allow his first son to live would put everyone in his family at risk.

"All y'all need to focus. Remember what I told y'all!" Jasper growled. He could hear the thunderous sounds of several feet hitting the ground, running towards them. This was it, and when they were done with the newborn sacrifices, he would make sure James and Edward were turned to ash. And this shadow that was with them…no one who formed a pact with the enemy would live. The moment the newborns entered the clearing, the Cullen's greeted them with a ferocity never seen in this family before.

There were nine newborns in total, and they snarled and bit the air, acting more like a rabid animal than a vampire or human. There one purpose in life was to kill the Cullen coven and anyone who was with them, but the two brunette girls had to live. If they didn't, if the newborns messed up, they would die. The only way to live past today was to kill only those their master allowed them.

Running as fast as possible towards the vampires who were waiting on them, they believed this would be an easy fight. James had told them they were stronger and more powerful than the Cullen coven, and they believed him. No one could overpower them…no one except James. He could kill them in the blink of an eye and they wanted to live, to drink more human blood, to serve him as long as he wanted them. Some may say they were brainwashed; maybe they were, but they didn't care. They wanted to make their master happy.

Growling and snarling, they rushed the Cullen's and grabbed hold of the first person they could, allowing their instinct to guide them. Some wrapped their arms around the enemy intent on crushing them to death. Their goal was to rip the Cullen's apart, to crush them, make them unable to reattach themselves, and then their master would burn them until there was nothing left.

As soon as the newborns could be seen, the Cullen's ran towards them, Jasper in the lead. They had to destroy this small battalion and then they could move onto the bigger fish. The southern vampire reached the newborns first and grabbed the male vampire directly in front of him. Without allowing the newborn to wrap his arms around him, Jasper slid to the ground, took hold of the newborn's ankle, and pulled, sending the other vampire to the ground. Regaining his feet less than a second later, Jasper spun around and found his enemy getting to his feet as well, but the newborn made a fatal mistake. He left his back to the former Confederate Major. Leaping into the air, Jasper grabbed the newborn's head and ripped it off before pulling out a lighter and setting it along with the body on fire. One down.

Kate thought her gift would be enough to defeat the newborns, and met one of the females head on. Her mistake. While her gift did help her, the pain she felt when the newborn wrapped her arms around her was excruciating. Kate ran and got ready to punch the newborn in the face, but her enemy dodged and grabbed her around the waist squeezing as hard as she could. It hurt like nothing she had experienced in her entire vampire life, and Kate almost forgot her own gift. Slowly lifting her arms, she placed both hands on either side of the newborns head and turned up her power to the maximum. At first she didn't know if it was working, even though the newborn started to scream, her hold did not loosen; and then she released her prisoner in order to rip Kate's hands away from her head; and the moment Kate was free, she pulled the head off of the body and threw it into the flames. The headless body started to spasm and Kate fell to the ground.

"Are you all right?" Eleazar inquired as he picked up the shaking body and threw it into the fire Jasper had created. He, himself, had stayed back to offer aid where he could since he was not a natural fighter.

Her body was still recovering and the pain lingered, but she was alive and she would heal quickly, "I'm fine."

As the Cullen's engaged the newborns, one of them had caught Rosalie before she could attack. The blonde could feel her head beginning to separate from her neck, the cracks forming, and then she was flung to the ground. Looking up, she found her mate ripping the arm off of the newborn that had attacked her and throwing the arm into the fire. "Emmett! Behind you!" She shouted the warning when another newborn tried to attack him. Leaping onto her feet, she tackled the newborn that threatened her mate and tore its head off before it hit the ground. Two heads were thrown into the fire at the same time.

"You okay?" Emmett as Rosalie as he helped her to her feet and lifted the headless body under her away. With a flick of his wrist, it landed into the growing flames.

"Fine…I'm fine," she said as she was pulled into his embrace. Around them, others fought newborns and one by one, the enemy was being destroyed.

Much like Jasper had done, Charlotte and Peter were able to dispatch their newborns with relative ease and quickly. They didn't allow the newborns to touch them, and before their enemy new it, they had been manipulated and captured and thrown into the fire without much of a fight.

Bella was getting frustrated. Whenever she got close to one of the newborns, it dodged her and would not engaged; and she noticed the same thing was happening to Alice. Every time they got close, the newborns would scatter and neither Bella nor Alice could grab them. However, in the heat of battle, when five of the newborns had been killed, one of the remaining enemy fighters screamed and grabbed Bella by the hair. Alice ran towards her to help, and the newborn managed to slap her, sending her to the ground and away from them.

Charlie had managed drop kick the vampire he was fighting into the fire after being unsuccessful at ripping the head – or any appendage – off of it. Turning around, he watched the newborn hit Alice and he saw red. Still unsure of any of this, he knew Alice was special to him, his mate, and he wanted to kill the person that hurt her, to rip them apart with his bare hands, and then he noticed the same vampire was holding his daughter captive, and he roared. Running as fast as he could, he pulled the newborn away from his daughter and ripped off his head hurling it into the fire. The body soon followed. Seeing that his daughter was all right and Jasper was already with her having killed yet another of the newborns, he ran to Alice's side, "Are you hurt?"

Shaking her head, she smiled, "I'm fine. He just caught me off guard. It was my fault."

Esme and Carlisle worked together to kill the last newborn. This one seemed more aware and intelligent, dodging and escaping their grasps. However, her luck was soon to wear out. Esme disappeared as if running towards Bella and Alice, leaving Carlisle to face the newborn alone…or so the enemy thought.

"Ready to die?" The newborn snarled. Rushing forward, she grabbed the doctor around the neck, but could not get a good grip. Grabbing his arm, she ripped that off and dropped it. And that was the last thing she did.

Coming from behind, Esme jumped on her back and wrenched the head off of the newborn and carried it to the fire, dragging the body behind her. She rushed back to her mate to help him reattach his arm, worried about him.

"I'm okay. You got to her in time," Carlisle reassured his wife and lifted his good arm to brush his fingers against her cheek.

"Your arm…" Esme sniffled.

"Can be reattached. I'll be fine," he insisted. No sooner did she get his arm attached, two more vampires stepped out of the woods as well as the wolves. "It looks like we have other problems right now though."

Clapping as he stepped forward, James sneered, "Brilliant. I wasn't quite sure what to expect or if you would even be alive when we got here. Considering you're not dead, I'm going to assume you killed off my brother and friends; and since you were able to kill all of my babies, I guess I shouldn't underestimate you."

"No, y'all shouldn't," Jasper growled.

"Oh really? Maybe, you shouldn't underestimate me."

The major chucked, "Ya think?"

"Oh I think," the nomad simpered and then looked to Edward, "Kill him." As soon as Edward rushed forward to do his bidding, he ran to grab Bella. The mated couple were closer than the others to him.

Seeing James try to capture Bella, Edward changed course at the last minute and ran towards James. The other vampire didn't even see him coming. Bella went flying to the ground as the two vampire wrestled each other, but in the end, it was Edward who had been decapitated.

James had no time to savor his victory, because just as Edward's head came off, his did too. The last thing he saw before he was thrown into the fire, were the red eyes of Bella staring back at him as she spit on his face and then tossed him into the flames.

The enemy vampires had been destroyed, but the danger was far from over. Without warning or provocation, one of the wolves charged Jasper and pinned him to the ground. Bella went wild with worry and just as she was about to leap onto the wolf and kill him, Peter threw him off of the military leader and then stood his ground ready for the charge. This is what the pack had planned. They would use Paul to attack the vampires in the hopes the Cullen's would kill Paul, and then they would be enemy number one. "Don't do it Paul. They're just using you. Think about it. Do you really think you can kill Jasper without us killing you? We kill you and then war starts between us and your pack."

Paul shook his head. He would not listen to what these monsters had to say.

"He's right, Paul. You were in trouble earlier, weren't you? Kept in a cell. Why'd they suddenly let you out? If they can't control you, what use are you to 'em?" Jasper said as he got to his feet and joined his friend.

Again, the wolf shook his head. They had to be lying. Why would his pack do that to him? They had all come to deal with the problem that was the Cullen's. They had to be punished for biting two different humans and turning them into cold ones. They had to… It was then that Paul realized he had been the only one to attack. The others had held back. Yes, he had been told to kill Jasper since he was the one who had turned both Bella and Charlie, but why only him? Why not the others? Looking over his shoulder, he asked, "What is he talking about? Is he right?" He wanted to believe in Sam, to believe in his pack, and yet, he couldn't. In wolf form, there was no way to hide ones thoughts. Asking the questions, brought the truth out. Sam might have been able to keep it hidden if Paul had not been stopped because his anger at the pack, at the nomads, and at the Cullen's controlled him. It did not allow him to see the truth or to hear it. A person might be able to bury a thought somewhere in the back of his/her mind, but when the questions get asked, when the probing starts, those thoughts and ideas are no longer hidden. He had been set up. As much as it hurt and was hard to swallow, the leeches were right. Paul would attack, he would be killed, and the pack would seek revenge. That had been the plan.

Turning around, he growled and snapped at Sam. He would not be used as a pawn in this game. Today he would gain his freedom! Using the technique he learned from Old Hank, he severed the connection between him and his pack, and ran forward, leaping into the air intent on attacking Sam.

Sam didn't need to be able to read Paul's thoughts to know what was going to happen. He gave the order for his pack to scatter, to get back, and then he jumped backwards. If he had not jumped in time, Paul would have landed on him. Baring his teeth, he hunched down and got ready to attack. The moment Paul started forward, Sam met him in the air. They fought on their hind legs, standing up on two feet, swatting and biting each other. Sam had the advantage of being a little bigger and more muscular than his subordinate. They leaped backwards, landing with only about five feet between them, and then attacked again. The alpha was done with this. Allowing Paul to bite into his shoulder, Sam rolled and landed on top of the other wolf. When he heard the whimper, he got to his feet. Ignoring the pain in his right arm, and pinned Paul down on the ground, biting into his neck and ripping a chuck of it out. Any and all present could see the blood gushing, the exposed muscles and bones. Paul would bleed out and die, and Sam seemed to care not as he spit the flesh out of his mouth.

Jasper knew as soon as the fight started, Paul would probably lose his life…and he had been right. The smaller wolf had lost the fight. But that's not why the Cullen's remained in the clearing. Truth be told, it would have probably been easier if they had left the wolves to battle it out themselves, however, Alice said there was someone else with James and Edward. A shadow. Who could it be? As much as he wanted to leave the wolves to clean up the final mess, he couldn't take the chance that it would be something impossible for them to kill.

His eyes scanned the trees, looking for anyone or anything coming towards them, and when he saw who it was, he swallowed hard. Shit! This day was going to hell in a handbasket, "Maria."