Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight or its characters.

Guess who we ran into at the shops

Walking in circles like she was lost

Didn't you hear they called it off

One gasp and then,

How did it end?

Say it once again with feeling

How the death rattle breathing

Silenced as the soul was leaving

The deflation of our dreaming

Leaving me bereft and reeling

My beloved ghost and me,

Sitting in a tree

D-Y-I-N-G

It's happening again

How did it end?

I can't pretend like I understand

How did it end?

Come one, come all

It's happening again

The empathic hunger descends

We'll tell no one except all of our friends

But I still don't know,

How did it end?

A FIGHT NOT OF HER OWN

It was an odd feeling. She knew it wasn't normal. The four strangers who were in the room when she woke up were on the other side of the door and she could hear every single thing they were saying as if they were still in the room with her. Then again, was it any stranger than the fact she was still here? Whether she was actually alive or not, it was up to debate. But she wasn't… dead. But she should be. She distinctly remembered fighting against the heavy currents of the water. She remembered the burning in her lungs as the water flooded her. She remembered everything.

She should be dead right now.

But she wasn't. At least not fully.

She still had no heartbeat.

"Do you have any idea what you've done? The danger you put us in?"

"I did what I had to do. The last thing we need is Aro having that kind of power on his side, he would be indestructible."

"All you did is put a massive target on our backs, Benjamin! What if Felix and Demitri saw you? Or caught your scent?"

"They didn't see me. And any scent of mine was washed away with the water."

"Regardless of that," a female voice spoke up. "They are after her, which puts us in danger if we harbor her."

"Would you rather Aro get a hold of her? Did you not hear what I said earlier? Her existence alone proves Aro's corruption."

"That isn't our fight."

"It isn't your fight because you have kept us hidden for as long as I've been alive, father. That doesn't make you smart, it makes you a coward."

The silence felt heavy then. Isabella waited on baited breath as footsteps approached the door to the bedroom she was in. She pushed herself further against the wall she was hugging, using her cloak as a way to shield herself. The door opened and the young man whose name she learned was Benjamin walked in, followed by Tia, the girl who'd helped her when she had woken up. Amun and his wife followed right after.

"What are you going to do with me?" Isabella asked.

"That's the question indeed," Amun said, glaring at the back of his son's head.

"We don't need to worry about that right now," Benjamin said, ignoring his father.

"We do, actually-"

"She hasn't fed," Benjamin snapped in the direction of his father. His eyes softened when he looked at Isabella once more. "You haven't, have you? If you had, it wouldn't have taken you two days to wake up."

Two days? Had she been unconscious for two days?

Flashes of the creatures who attacked her village flashed through Isabella's mind. The image of her mother's neck being snapped forever embedded in her. No, she couldn't do that.

"I don't want to feed. I don't want to hurt anyone."

"You don't have to," Tia said, kneeling to Isabella's height. "There's a way for you to feed without harming humans."

"You can feed from animals," Benjamin continued. "It won't sedate your thirst as human blood will and you will be significantly weaker than a vampire who does feed on human blood, but it will be enough to sustain you."

"Come with us," Tia said, offering Isabella her hand. "We will show you how to hunt."

"But what are you planning to do with me?"

"Don't worry about that. Right now you need to learn how to feed. You're too weak."

"Benjamin, I don't believe that is a good idea-"

"It is a fine idea," Benjamin argued with his father. "She is a vampire and she needs to learn."

Tia, who never turned her gaze away from Isabella, nudged her hand closer, hoping to gain her trust. Isabella was hesitant at first, unsure of what was to happen to her if she allowed herself to go with them.

"We won't hurt you," Tia promised.

Perhaps it was a choice she would one day regret, but Isabella chose to trust her. She slipped her hand in hers and Tia gave her a gentle squeeze, almost as if she was thanking her for trusting her, and guided Isabella to her feet. Tia wrapped her arm around her shoulders, giving Amun a sharp look when he opened his mouth to protest, but decided against it. Tia guided Isabella out of the room, down a narrow hall that led to a small living space. Benjamin followed closely behind and once they made it outside, he shut the door firmly behind him.

Isabella took in her surroundings. They were at a small cottage in the middle of the woods. There was nothing but forest and fog looming all around them, no sight of another living being nearby.

"I'm amazed at how calm you are for a newborn," Benjamin said as they began walking toward the woods. "Usually newborns are uncontrollable and unpredictable, their thirst clouding any sense of judgment."

Isabella wasn't sure what to say. She felt the burn in her throat, yes, but she found it easy to ignore. She wasn't looking forward to drinking blood, even if it helped her sustain her new life, the idea was quite unappealing.

"Your control is admirable," Tia said, squeezing her shoulder. "Many vampires, including the ones who have lived for centuries, would kill for even a hint of it."

"Like I said, animal blood will ease that burn you feel, but you will be considerably weaker than a vampire who drinks human blood."

"Where am I?" Isabella asked.

She wasn't interested in how strong or weak she was at the moment, or if her self control was admirable. She wanted to know how she was still here. How the hell did she survive the currents? How did he bring her here without being seen by Felix and Demitri?

Benjamin pursed his lips, looking down at his feet as they walked.

"I wasn't too far from where your village was," he said. "I caught the scent of the smoke and went in search to see if there was anyone who needed help. By the time I got there, you'd already awoken and Aro was there. I heard everything, and after you managed to escape, I went after you as well. Felix and Demitri were so focused on getting to you they never noticed me. They're both imbeciles. Once it started raining, they lost your scent and your track, so they didn't know you'd gone off the cliff. I got to you, but by the time I was able to reach you in the water, you'd already drowned."

"You should've left me like that," Isabella said, her voice quiet. "I wanted that. I didn't want to be saved."

Benjamin and Tia exchanged a glance.

"You wouldn't have stayed dead," Tia said. "You're a vampire now. Your body would've washed up on shore and you would have woken up the same way you did. The Vulturi would have found you had Benjamin not brought you back."

"The rain helped significantly. It makes it harder for our scents to be detected."

Isabella stayed silent once more, cold chills running down her back. If drowning wasn't enough for her to stay dead, what would it take then? Would she come back every time she died? Was there really not an end?

She let them guide her through the forest until they were hit with a small breeze, carrying the sweetest scent Isabella had ever smelt before. Her mouth instantly went dry and that burn they were talking about in her throat came with a vengeance. She looked at Benjamin, who gave her a nod to go ahead and she was off, running after the scent. Everything passed by like a blur until she came to a stop, nearly toppling over a tree as her shoulder slammed into it. She groaned, but the pain was nothing compared to the fire in her throat.

Just feet away from her, was a mountain lion, who hissed at the sight of her. Every instinct she had wanted to lunge, even the voice in her head yelled at her to go for it.

Feed.

You need to feed.

She let go. Her body moved on pure instinct. One second, she was by the tree, the next, she lunged at the mountain lion. Their bodies collided hard and the mountain lion roared, but it was no match against her in her frenzy. She couldn't register what she was doing. It almost didn't click in her mind that she was holding a mountain lion down, it couldn't because all she could think about was the blood coursing through the lion's veins. That siren call that demanded for her to strike.

And she did.

She fed on two mountain lions and though it wasn't enough to fully ease the burn in her throat, she felt somewhat satisfied. Or she would have, had she not had to wash away the remnants of the animals blood by a nearby stream.

She gave Tia a tight smile as she took the cloth she offered and soaked it in the water, using it to scrub the blood off her face and neck. As she rinsed the cloth, she noticed the cut down the palm of her hand. She'd scraped it on a rock while trying to pin the animal down. It had been deep and she bled heavily, but now, it looked as if it'd been days since the injury and not hours.

"You'll start to heal faster the more you feed," Benjamin explained to her. "Eventually, that wound right there will heal in a matter of seconds instead of hours."

A silence fell between them, filled by the sound of the water against the rocks. Isabella finally finished scrubbing the blood from her skin and dropped the worn cloth on her lap, her eyes glued on the steady stream of the water.

"Who were they?" She broke the silence. "The ones who attacked my village, are they with Aro?"

Benjamin, who sat on a nearby rock, leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees.

"No, they're not. They're Vladimir and Stefan, they're the leaders of a clan of vampires who are trying to overthrow the Vulturi."

"Overthrow? Are the Vulturi royalty?"

"Something akin to that in our world," Tia said as she pulled Isabella's hair out from under her cloak and began to softly untangle the knots in her hair. "Back in the dark days, vampires ran rampage through villages and small towns alike, killing and turning humans. It was getting out of control. A single vampire can decimate an entire village. If our species continued the way they were going, humans would've been easily eradicated and humans are our main source of food, so Aro and his two brothers stepped in to place order amongst the vampires. He killed those who hunted and turned for sport, as well as any vampire they had sired and that caused an uproar in our world. Our very own civil war."

"It was the vampires who wished to continue their killing spree free of consequences led by a vampire called Adrian - the oldest vampire at the time - versus those who wanted order led by the Vulturi. Aro quickly made alliances with the covens who were on his side and a war ensued. Many of our species parished, but it wasn't until Aro himself killed Adrian that the war came to an end. The Vulturi burnt his castles and all the riches he acquired in his killing sprees, and they made a spectacle out of the death of every single vampire who followed Adrian. However, in a show of good faith Aro spared Adrian's children, Vladimir and Stefan, and gave them the chance to join the Vulturi Guard. They didn't, for obvious reasons, opting to run away. No one had seen them in centuries."

"Once Aro finished the executions of those he deemed traitors to the vampire species, he mandated the laws of which our kind now live by," Benjamin continued. "It is of the utmost importance to keep our existence a secret from the humans and any vampire found to have revealed that secret is punished by death, and so is the human they shared this information with. We must keep our feedings discreet and at a minimum, so as not to bring questions about our potential existence. A very small percentage of male vampires can father offspring with their respective mates, but often their children are born with special abilities and the Vulturi deem those children a risk if they are allowed to be out in the world with the covens. So, as a law, any True Born vampire has to be brought to the Vulturi where they'll be raised to be a part of the Guard. Those who violate this law are also punished by death and their children are taken to the Guard regardless."

"Vampires cannot, under any circumstances, change a human into a vampire. Newborns are very unpredictable and it's better to keep our numbers to a minimum to keep our secrecy," Tia said. "You can imagine what the punishments are for those who have been found to have broken this law."

Death, Isabella thought to herself. Which was why Jane had said her existence was forfeited until Aro discovered her gift.

"This is the only law with an exception," Tia continued. "The only way a vampire can turn a human is if that human is their mate."

Isabella's head whirled in Tia's direction, recalling Aro's words.

It is time I have found my mate.

Mate.

"What is a mate?" Isabella asked.

There was a beat of silence between them. Tia glanced over to Benjamin, who gave her a nod and she let go of Isabella's hair, leaning closer to Isabella.

"A mate is someone you share a bond with. It is like an invisible string that ties your soul together. You'll feel that pull and it'll get stronger and stronger the closer you are to each other until you finally set eyes on one another, then… it all falls into place. Nothing matters but your mate. It is an unbreakable bond that no vampire can resist. If you're apart, you'll be restless, you'll feel a void in your chest and every single fiber in your body will call out to them. Vampires mate for eternity and it is one of the very few qualities we have."

It was too much to take in, but Benjamin and Tia were kind enough to allow Isabella the time to soak in all the information.

It felt alien to Isabella. It felt like a novel she'd read right before bed, full of vampires and mating bonds and war. This wasn't her world. This wasn't her fight and yet somehow, she found herself thrust in the middle of it. She was now battling a fight not of her own.

"Aro wanted to present me as his mate," Isabella finally spoke. "Am I?"

"If you were, you wouldn't ask that question," Benjamin said. "And that is where lies the root of our problem. While it is important to keep our existence a secret, Aro is losing the support he once had with the covens."

Isabella remembered what Jane had said to Aro: You are struggling to keep the alliances with the remaining covens. So Aro was losing his alliances, but why?

"The main reason is the children," Benjamin answered Isabella's unspoken question. "The covens do not believe the children will pose as big a threat to our kind as the Vulturi claim. Many believe Aro is using the children as leverage against the covens, and if any of them step out of line, it is the child who pays the consequences. Then there's the taking of mates who have special abilities. Whenever a vampire turns a human who they claim is their mate, they have to present them to the Vulturi in an event that is called The Rite, where Heidi, who can sense these bonds, will confirm the mating bond and their names will be written into the Codex. Yet, somehow, when a vampire with a gifted mate shows up, they are coincidentally found to have lied and Aro will kill the sire and take the gifted mate into the guard - claiming their thoughts to have been pure and giving them a chance. Vladimir and Stefan know this and they are using this to turn the covens against Aro."

"But why not take the mate pairs in? Why does he have to kill their ungifted mate?" Isabella asked.

"Because a vampire will do anything to keep their mate safe. Being part of the Guard brings many dangers and mated pairs are a liability," Tia answered.

"That is where you come in, your existence alone proves Aro's corruption. If word got out about your true nature, it will turn the last of the covens against Aro."

Isabella stood and turned away, an icy chill running down her spine. This wasn't right, she knew it. This wasn't supposed to happen, she was supposed to get married, she was supposed to grow old with Edward. She wasn't supposed to be a pawn in a war that wasn't her own!

"So what will happen now? What will you do with me? You cannot avoid the question any longer."

Benjamin opened his mouth to answer, but another voice cut him off.

His father, Amun, was walking toward them with his wife at his side.

"That is where the dilemma lies. By saving you, my son has made us a target for the Vulturi. I have spent the last hundred years ensuring my family stays hidden away from the Vulturi and I will not have our lives jeopardized by you."

"But we can help her, father-"

"We cannot, Benjamin! The Vulturi are looking for her and pretty soon, the entire vampire race will be after her and that means that if we harbor her, they will be after us as well. What do you think will happen when they find us? You are a gifted True Born who has been kept hidden from the Vulturi for the last hundred years, with a human turned mate no less, what do you think they'll do to her? To us, your parents? We. Cannot. Help. Her."

Isabella let out a shaky breath. She couldn't understand why Benjamin would help her when it meant putting his entire family in danger. A part of her understood his father's reluctance to help her, Benjamin had just explained their laws and it seemed Amun had broken several in order to protect his family.

And what if what he said was true? Did she really have the entire vampire species after her?

"I don't want to be a danger to your family," she said.

"Oh, but you are," Amun muttered.

"Then I'll go. I'll leave and you can be safe, I cannot be the reason why your family is in danger-"

"You don't know what you're asking," Tia said.

"I don't not want anyone to die because of me and I refuse to be a pawn in this war," Isabella cried out. "This isn't my war, this is far beyond me. I was supposed to get married! This wasn't supposed to happen and yet it has and I refuse to allow anyone to use me as an asset. I'll go. I'll stay hidden. I will never say anything about the help you have given me, but please, just give me my freedom."

Benjamin stood. "You have to understand, you are not asking for your freedom. Once word gets out that Aro's potential mate is out there and he is looking for her, there will be a manhunt out for you. It won't only be the Vulturi after you, but also the vampires who will wish to use you as leverage to get back on his good graces and not to mention those who will want to kill you for being his mate. You will not have an ally in this world. You will not be able to trust anyone. You cannot have a friend because they too will be in danger. You will never be able to stay in one place for long, you will not have a home. You are not asking for your freedom, you are simply exchanging one prison cell for another, and trust me, the one out there is far lonelier than the one in Volterra."

Isabella was stunned. The magnitude of what it meant for her… was she really meant to trust no one? Was her fate from now on a lonely one? Has it always been what was in store for her?

Did it really matter? She couldn't think of a fate worse than being used as a weapon, even if it meant she was to spend an eternity on the run. She wouldn't be anyone's weapon and much less a breeding mare as Aro had disgustingly suggested. Isabella raised her chin, determined even as fear grappled her.

"I have nothing now, Benjamin. Anything is better than what waits for me in Volterra."

Benjamin looked resigned at her words.

"I'm afraid the day will come where you'll believe otherwise."

Thoughts? Let me know! I'll see you guys next Wednesday.