the outtakes
illusions
"Time is an illusion."
- Albert Einstein
o.o.o
The illusion is important. That's what she'd told her grandfather when she presented this entire plan to him and the other Kings over that summer so long ago. The illusions were important, especially for humans. It was already going to be a tough blow for them to learn that they weren't at the top of the food chain, harder still for them to learn that the peace spreading through every nation had nothing to do with human innovation and everything to do with vampire initiative.
The illusion had to be observed.
"Just hold still," she sighs with exasperation when, once again, Caius shifts away from Alice's poised make-up brush. "I've already told you, it will be easier if you look - softer."
Caius' lip curls slightly but he holds still long enough for Alice to brush faint rouge over his cheeks, just enough to create the illusion that even old vampires still maintained some humanity. An underhanded tactic, maybe, but she didn't see any way to avoid it.
"Less threatening, you mean," he mutters caustically. He might have seen the wisdom in acting more human than vampire, but he'd made it clear that he wasn't happy about it.
"That too," she agrees. She's just glad that out of all of them, it was only Caius who was being difficult. The rest of the Volturi - the main coven - seemed amiable enough to Didyme's influence to be amused by the entire orchestration that she and Alice had worked up over the course of entire decades, but Caius lived to be contrary.
It's somewhat disconcerting that her little Teddy - all grown up and mated and insisting on being called Theo - had taken up the same attitude in general. Not all that surprising, she supposes, considering that Caius was his favorite Volturi relative or who Teddy had ended up mated to.
"Precious, are you quite certain that you will not be on the dais-"
"Stage," she corrects automatically, turning her attention toward Aro.
"- with us? It's such a shame that the human world-"
"Just world, Grandfather, honestly…"
"-will not know the hand you played in their peace! Look how unified they all are! Are you sure you will be content by remaining in the sidelines?"
Bella rolls her eyes. "I'm hardly in the sidelines," she says pointedly, because it was the truth. Between being Aro's granddaughter and the public face of dhamphirs, she was rather well-known in the scientific community, a fact that was unavoidable given that she looked seventeen on a good day and that even in 2502 it was somewhat arresting for a teenager to be a doctor. Especially a doctor that happened to be on the cutting-edge of several discoveries.
Beside all that, she never did enjoy the spotlight - and neither did Edward. It was enough that she could operate in the background for the most part and spare them both unnecessary amounts of attention. Her mate enjoyed a certain amount of anonymity within the realm of music and she wasn't going to disrupt that, not even for this.
Moreover - the illusion was important. The world had to believe that it was a trio of ancient Kings who had saved them from themselves, not a slip of girl who was largely uninterested in anything besides family and discovery. It would be easier for them all to put trust in the Volturi right from the start, which was why she had tailored her plan into a centuries-long undertaking of slow, gradual changes for the better from the inside out.
She shudders to think what might have happened if Aro - or Caius - had had their way. Or if they had ever made any effort to actually take over the world in the three thousand years before she'd been born.
Megalomaniacs, she thinks with fondness, inspecting the six vampires awaiting final approval in the backstage area of the auditorium. The main Volturi coven - three happily mated pairs - were the picture of stability. Alice's steady hand had delivered just the softest, most subtle edge of human visage that even the most sensitive technology would translate a certain air of familiarity, even on such startlingly telegenic faces. The slightest illusion of humanity paired with tasteful, fashion-forward clothes struck just the right balance of trustworthy and powerful.
It helped, of course, that this news conference at the Global Summit would be held with all the human leaders in the world - of course, not even those human leaders fully realizes that they had been put into power by the Volturi and it would remain that way. It was just another illusion that had to be maintained to avoid inciting mass panic.
"They're ready," Alice says at her side.
Bella tilts her head. "You're sure about the eyes, though?"
A question that did deserve a third inquiry because not even Bella was sure that it was a good idea to trot the Volturi out with the same oddly bright eyes that all vampires who drank synthetic blood eventually gained. Not as frightening as the glaring garnet of newborns or the swimming crimson of human drinkers - only criminals, else risk death - or the strange gold of animal drinkers, but still alarming and unnatural. It was an unforeseen result of her synthetic formula, this return of eye color had as a human but saturated and lit with a backglow that was a dead giveaway of something other.
"They're ready," Alice repeats firmly.
And Bella has to agree - because even with all the illusions that they have to keep, there are some illusions that must be shattered. And the world had to know that the supernormal would be officially in charge now.
It was time.
"Stick to the script," she instructs seriously, leveling a meaningful look to her grandfather. "This is what we've been working toward."
Aro's smile is winsome. "Don't worry, precious, I believe that we know a thing or two about perpetuating illusions."
And really, don't they all?
Her arms are crossed, shoulders high, as the most public faces of the Volturi take stage under a round of diplomatic applause, over three dozen of the world's highest-ranking officials and representatives welcoming them into the fold - or rather, recognizing that the Volturi had a foothold in the fold. Alice has drifted toward Jasper, who had tagged along as an insurance policy just in case some of the human leaders - or their immediate audience - would need a calming influence. In Alice's stead comes Edward, tucking himself around her back with an arm comfortable over her shoulder, mouth pulled taut in concentration as he monitors the thoughts around them. Bella's eyes are locked onto the thin screen showing the live reel that was being transmitted to the rest of the world. The Volturi look good, but her nerves were still betraying her, especially when Aro steps toward the podium -
This moment was the culmination of nearly four hundred years of careful maneuvering. Stop a famine there, eliminate a terrorist here, block that candidate from winning, make sure this delegate votes this way, throw money at that problem and then another problem - and if money didn't fix it, then quiet interventions of brute force, of anonymous aid, of setting up publicity ops to sway the politics -
Everything according to plan. Everything had led up to this.
She should have looked over Aro's speech again - just one last time to make sure that he didn't come off as maniacal -
Edward's fingers brush over the nape of her neck. You're worrying too much.
I know.
There was no reason to be nervous. With the world firmly under their thumb, with the vampire mythology she'd grown up with completely altered, with actual peace brokered between nations and an entire global population striving toward finalized unity, the was nothing to be nervous about. That didn't shake the anxiety that this news conference needed to be absolute perfection.
Aro stands behind the lectern, shoulders back and chin proud, with Sulpicia just at his elbow and the other two mated pairs on either side, all standing in solidarity. The camera only emphasizes how young they all look - a group of twenty-somethings with a definite regal air to them, as if the world was brought to heel at their whim, which wasn't too far from the truth.
"Today is a day of revelation," begins Aro, mouth stretching into a genial smile. "Although, citizens of the world, we hope you will keep an open mind as to the contributions of vampire-kind toward the general wellness of our global unification…"
A/N: Another outtake request! Just the idea of a vampire news conference for The Big Reveal is enough to send me into fits of giggling.
As always, be brutally honest. I can take it.
~cupcakeriot