STEFAN POV

The second that sentence ran through my ears, I felt like a huge gun had shot a bullet straight into my back.

She was only 8.

It takes a substantial amount of trauma for an ancestral vampire to even see the switch and even more to have the power to turn it off. That's why, typically, vampires who have already matured have done it. But, Bella? 8 year old Isabella?

"You've clearly misread something, Damon. That's impossible!" I firmly said into the phone. I mean, it was impossible. Right?

"I thought it was impossible, but I can't see anything in her mind right now. Her emotions are gone!" I knew he was serious. It took a lot to get rid of Damon's usually laid-back demeanor.

I began to pace back and forth, looking at my watch. I had told Max I had to go to the bathroom in order to buy me some time, but this wasn't the phone call I was expecting, "Well... what happened!? What caused it?"

"I don't know. One second, we were walking through the hallway like normal, and then her mind went crazy. I took her to the study to try and calm her down, but her power started destroying everything. And then I gave her Vervain to prevent further chaos, but I guess that just locked her into her own mind. I don't know what was going on up there, but she clearly couldn't handle it." He was rambling so fast I had a hard time understanding what he was saying. Not to mention, my own mind was reeling.

I mean, I knew Max was hurting her, but that bad, really? I mean, I know she's 8, but the way he treats her just reminds me of one of those strict Morman homes you'd see in the countryside. This doesn't seem like enough to warrant a humanity switch situation, "Woah, woah, woah. Slow down. This doesn't make sense."

"That's what I'm saying, man. That's why I was thinking, what if she... has some kind of mental disorder?" Damon hesitated out of fear of what the outcome of that situation would be. He and I both know what happens to ancestral vampires that aren't... all there.

As soon as they come of age, whatever disorder they have becomes 10 times more potent than it would be in a human. That was figured out by the hard way in the 1500s when Max came across a rather disturbing mental vampire. He thought he could help her... that was until her 18th birthday. Let's just say that nutjobs are just as frowned upon in our community as immortal children are to the Volturi.

I was very skeptical of his claim, though, "If that's true, then Max will... he'll kill her, Damon! Why on Earth would you come to that conclusion? Do you know how dangerous and accusation it is like that is?"

Damon let out a sigh, 'Yeah, yeah, no, you're right. I don't know what I was thinking."

His breathing got heavier, "What aren't you telling me?" I practically hissed it into the phone.

"What? I'm telling you everything, Stefan. 1 moment, she was fine, and the next, she just shut down." I could tell he was lying to me.

"Damon, I'm not gonna get mad at you. Whatever happened probably wasn't your fault. I promise, Isabella is my only priority right now. Now I'm only gonna ask 1 more time, what aren't you telling me?" I tried my best to keep my voice calm as I knew whatever was about to come out of Damon's mouth would probably change all of our lives for the worst.

"Okay, okay. Max doesn't just beat her and test out his cursed objects on her. He... rapes her. At least 3 times a week for hours on end. I'm so sorry, Stefan. I know how much you care about her, and I also know you can't do much about Max. I didn't want you to know. But, I guess now you have to..." He began to trail into more rants about how sorry he was and what we should do next, but I wasn't listening anymore.

I felt like my entire body had just shattered. Bella, my Bella, my sister. Raped. She was only 8, God dammit.

Then my heart dropped as I heard banging on the bathroom door of our private airplane, "Stefan! What are you doing in there!? We're about to land, hurry up!" I had been in this bathroom for 5 minutes, which felt a lot more like an eternity.

"Look, I gotta go, Damon. Tell her if she can't find her stuffed bear thingy, then she's just gonna have to find something else to play with." I heard a sigh come from Damon as he heard Max's voice through my phone. He quickly let out a half-assed reply to play along before I hung up and exited the bathroom.

I looked into the bright blue eyes of the man responsible for all of my sister's pain and was surprised I was able to mask my fury, "Sorry about that, Bells was having a little ordeal with Mr.Hugs," I let out a little eyeroll to act as if the very dire situation I just heard over the phone was about nothing more than a silly lost toy.

"I heard, and... I know, " we were walking off the plane now, and he quickly pulled Mr.Hugs out of his carry-on satchel.

Great. Not only does the guy rape her, but he takes away the little guy she hugs onto to keep the monsters away at night, "Why'd you take it?" I was genuinely confused at this point, especially considering the story I told was a lie.

Max shoved the rather tattered beat back into his satchel, which looked large enough to fit 2 more, "Well, as you know, Isabella is quite a pain. Sure, she's gotten better over the last few months, but still... so I was thinking just because I'm not there doesn't mean I'm not gonna give her a hard time."

I gave a fake smile and nodded, "Ah, good call, sir. Bella has been quite... out of control since you first brought her here, " I was aware that "out of control" was the only truthful term in my sentence.

"Well, let's get down to business, shall we?" I found it funny the way Max was nonchalant about this mission. He had no idea how important this thing really was to me and Damon.

Max and I were in Volterra. It's a pretty little Italian city that housed none other than the Volturi. They agreed to make a deal with The Underground in order to maintain their secrecy. As a full-on ancestral vampire, war wouldn't exactly be easy to hide from human eyes. What Max doesn't know is that Damon and I had already made a deal with them. Damon has been chatting with Aro, the leader, over a masked IP address in a program similar to what the military used for their communications.

I'm not sure how this deal is gonna go now that this new information has come to light, but I can only hope for the best.

Now, here goes. We knew Isabella existed because of the 5 leading demons and the powers they held. Think of it as the Greek gods of the underworld. Each with their own individual element to control. Out of the 5, there is one leading one, Satan. Yes, you heard me, Satan is real, and he leads Hell. Now, a rumor spread down there that he had a kid. In order to avoid a war that would have been much more catastrophic than this one, he admitted it but claimed that the child died.

Now, obviously, this kid wasn't dead. It was implied by the demons questionable behavior, and Max wanted them. Here comes the crazy part. This kid was Isabella.

We eventually found her in that God forsaken hell house, more formally known as the lab. Satan wanted this kid to see how powerful they could get, and boy was Isabella powerful. This is why the other demons kinda hate Satan. Contrary to popular belief, the man isn't evil. In fact, Hell is actually a pretty forgiving place when you get down there. All Satan wanted was unity between all species, human, demon, half-demon, and vampire alike.

He wanted to use Isabella and all the other kids that he couldn't get very far because of their extraordinary power. The reason for his other children's deaths, you may ask, is because the way power is handed down to a demons' offspring is very much how genes work. You know, punnet square type stuff.

Satan, however, being the strongest and leading demon, was juggling a lot of these powerful genes, and he soon found out... making a functional ancestors vampire with just the right DNA was very hard. Finally, after 10 attempts, he came up with Bella. He did messed up tests to try and find a way to make a center point for all species to aline.

Now, if you ask me, that last part made no sense. That's because it doesn't. Satan is a little bit insane, but I guess being around since the beginning of time will do that to you.

Anyway, we tracked her down and took her in. And while Max is planning to take down the Volturi from the inside, Damon and I are going to give her to the Volturi in exchange for protection when this war that may or may not happen takes place.

I know we're technically selling Bella, but trust me, this is a good thing. The Volturi see great potential with her, and Aro wants her to be his personal guard when she's of age. He knows how Max treats her, and he knows what Max is planning, thanks to us. The Volturi are going to help her and keep her safe from all of this.

The thing is, Aro believes Bella is the catalyst for this immortal war. Which, she is. As soon as Isabella was born, the demons went to war, and in return, all the ancestral vampires took sides. Unbeknownst to the poor girl, what was going on outside of her isolated excuse for a life, there have been hundreds of assassination and kidnapping attempts on her. Damon and I are the reason she's not dead.

By now, we were already in the castle. And to say it was extraordinary would be an understatement. Made of off-white marble and covered in original pieces of artwork and artifacts, the place really looked like it hadn't aged since the day it was built. Seeing the guards in dark cloaks and vintage suits really sealed the deal, though. I felt like I had just gone through a time machine.

"This place is a..."I couldn't seem to find the words.

"Old," he followed his observation with a chuckle. To be fair, he was certainly not wrong, but I knew it had an insulting undertone.

His statement did make me take a look at myself. My very worn leather jacket covering my gray and wrinkly T-shirt. And my tattered jeans that wrinkled over my muddy boots didn't exactly fit the old Italian profile. I looked over to Max next, aware that his clothes were much nicer than mine. This was because I was expected to do the fighting. He was more of a negotiating businessman. He was wearing a slightly worn navy suit jacket over a simple, clean, white T-shirt. He had on matching blue pants and some simple, black vans.

Max's attire was almost laughable. His clothes were simple, and his hair was in its usual careless state, but I knew he had spent nearly half the plane ride perfecting all of it. I couldn't help but think of how truly sad it was, though. Max had practically made himself a slave to his power. Conforming rather than using. Maybe this was why he felt the unconscious need for complete control. Of maybe I'm full of it, and he's just an asshole.

None of that really matters, though. The only thing I care about now is the happiness of Isabella. And right now, I'm beginning to think it might not be possible. It's pretty hard to turn someone's humanity on without using some sort of emotional or physical trauma and the only thing I could think about was the impending pain that was going to have to be forced onto an 8 year old.

I shook my head slightly to get the dread out of my mind. I needed to focus. The last thing I want is for Aro to read my mind and come to the same conclusions as me. And it was especially risky considering I don't have my usual plan B in this situation. I'm about to put all of my eggs in one basket and leave my little sisters life to the mercy of Aro Volturi.

Finally, we reached a large set of oak doors. There were intricate little carvings of designs I wasn't knowledgeable enough to understand the meaning behind. One of the guards, a big beefy guy that could probably lift a mountain if he wanted to, knocked ironically gently on the door a few times.

The door was opened not a second later by what would seem like magic, but really, it was 2 little vampire preteens out of our natural line of sight. I held back a grimace, looking at them. There is something unsettling about beautiful little psychotic killers that are the same physical age of middle schoolers.

The other guard, more of a normal height and build, stepped forward and announced, "Masters, I bring you The Underground."

I looked up to finally look the 3 kings in the eye. The people I was about to give Isabella to. I could only hope that my impression of them was more accurate than the things that Max was constantly spewing out.

They seemed pretty peaceful on their wooden oak thrones, covered in the same carvings at the door, but also embellished with a few golden accents that I didn't doubt was the expensive stuff.

To my left was a rather depressed looking man. His hair was black with a hint of gray, the curls reaching slightly above the sternum of his tall form. The man to my right looked like he might have been the reason the Volturi was looked at as evil. His scowl was practically burned into my mind the second I looked at it. His hair was shorter, only reaching to his chin. It was also a blindingly bright blonde. His red eyes gave him an albino look. And finally, we have the man in the middle. Aro Volturi. His hair was jet black, and its length was somewhere in the middle of the other ones. In fact, just about everything about him was in the middle, like a messed up version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. He wasn't depressed or angry but had a serene smile on his face. His figure was rather relaxed as well.

"Ahh, yes. The Underground. Welcome!" Aro was the first to speak, "and you two must be Stefan and Max, am I correct."

"Yes, sir, that is correct," Max actually calling someone "sir" was rather amusing to me. This was the first time he wasn't on top of the damn hierarchy.

Aro practically glided off his fancy throne and landed in front of us. I suddenly felt more self-conscious about my outfit compared to the clean black cloaks him and his brothers were wearing, "Well, let's get down to business. We clearly have a lot to do and so little time to do it, yes?"

We all ended up talking from when we first arrived at sunrise to sundown when it was time for us to retire, "It must feel good to be able to sleep. What I would give for a break after my 3000 years..." we were just packing up our things while Aro looked at the ceiling to reminisce.

"Not in this business, the amount of all-nighters I've pulled just planning one meeting is ridiculous. Sleeping just wastes my time," Max says this in his laid-back demeanor like always.

I had been nearly silent the whole meeting, only chiming in to agree with someone, so I decided this would be a good time to talk, "Well, unlike us Max, these gentlemen haven't had anything as hectic as this to deal with in centuries. I imagine it gets rather boring?," I directed my question at Aro after taking a quick glance at Marcus's zombie state.

"Yes, you could say that. I suppose it's a good thing we're working together, our spectrums are rather different," Aro gave me a small smile as to keep the conversation going. We knew we had to get Max out of the room so the real meeting could begin.

Max looked at Aro with confusion, "Does the spectrum even matter when we're on the same team?"

Aro looked back at Max, slightly hardening his expression, "That, Max, is when it matters the most. People with different views trying to come up with the same conclusion can be rather chaotic. But, I say, even though our wavelengths are different, they're right next to each other. That is why I believe we will win. We can come up with a solution that covers all angles rather than just one."

Aro looked back at me, making sure I noticed the undertone in his words. Aro was talking about me and him finding a solution to get rid of Max and help Bella.

"Whatever you say, sir. But Stefan and I really should get to bed. We have a long day tomorrow." I could tell Max was annoyed. He wasn't much for meaningless talk about concepts.

"Actually, I think I'll use the bathroom first. You know, freshen up a little bit. Between that long a plane ride and this meeting, I definitely need to splash some water on my face." Sure I was trying to make an excuse for being alone with the Volturi, but as I said it I slowly realized how good that would actually feel, "do any of you mind telling me where the bathroom is?"

Aro got out of his chair elegantly with his black cloak draped over his perfect vampire form, "Of course, Stefan. Right this way." With that, he began to walk and motioned me to follow. I looked back at Max, who was very wary of leaving me alone with the guy, but I gave him a reassuring look. He hesitated and then left to go to our room.

When me and Aro got a reasonable distance away from any prying ears, he suddenly had a change and personality, "Alright, Stefan. What were you thinking we do? What's the plan? I'm certainly intrigued by your leader's plans. Rather disgusting, actually. But, right now, I must know about Miss Isabella. How do you plan on getting her to me?" He went on and on with questions and statements, almost like an excited 5 year old.

I put my hands out as a way to motion him to calm down, "Hold your horse's, Aro. I know you're excited, but we have a bit of a problem..."

Aro's face immediately filled with concern, for which I felt slightly grateful. I was glad he was able to care for Bella so much, even before he met her. It reassured me that she would be safe with him.

Before he could say anything to voice his concern, though, I just held out my hand for him to touch.

Aro immediately snatched it like a child would candy after a piñata burst open at a party. His eyes glazed over as he read my every memory, and I could only hope this didn't change his mind.

He let go after a few minutes with his eyes closed. He stopped and took deep breaths, seemingly trying to control himself, "I'll kill him."

Hey, ya'll

Sorry it took so long to write this. I have been super busy and had a lot of personal issues come up... not to mention my extreme procrastination problems. ENJOY 3 :)