"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine." One of the things that still amaze me after becoming a vampire is how good my singing voice is now. "You make me happy, when skies are gray." Iris happily gurgles at me while I sing to her. "You'll never know dear, how much I love you, please don't take my sunshine away." Jasper's deep voice joins mine. When he leans over my shoulder to press a kiss on her forehead, Iris makes a grab for his blond curls.

I'm glad Jasper has been able to briefly detach himself from the war planning. In a moment Rosalie and Esme will be taking Iris to the ranch in Montana to keep her far away from the fighting. We should make the most of our chance to say goodbye. Luckily Rosalie was willing to hand her daughter over to me so she could have her hands free to argue with her father.

Carlisle has been advocating for capturing the newborns alive instead of killing them, completely ignoring that they vastly outnumber us and are likely too feral to rehabilitate. We have tried to reason with him from every possible angle and gotten rather fed up with it.

"Carlisle, if you don't want to kill any vampires just stay out of it and come to Montana with us."

"No, I need to be here to give medical assistance in case one of the wolves get hurt. We can't have a repeat of Jacob Black."

"Fine, but then you can't judge the others for killing first, asking questions later. They will be outnumbered, they can't afford to waste energy trying to take the army down alive and can't spare anyone to guard captives."

"Easy for you to say when you won't be anywhere near the fight."

"That's a low blow and you know it. If my three month old daughter was not still breastfeeding I would be tearing these newborn's throats out with my teeth while my husband stayed home with the baby."

Carlisle looks aghast at his adoptive daughter's bloodthirst.

"Carlisle, you have to be pragmatic.", Peter interjects. "You haven't seen the slaughter a newborn army is capable of firsthand. There are several dozen vampires on the loose. We are capable of dealing with them. If we don't, they will kill thousands of humans and expose our secrets. Tell me in which scenario you would have the least blood on your hands."

"I was never fond of the utilitarian school of ethics.", he sighs. "I'm just saying, the bloodshakes have made such a difference in our lives. If we can force-feed them some processed blood the typical newborn rage should dissipate and then they can be reasoned with."

"Exactly." Carlisle looks surprised to receive this affirmation from Jasper. "After taking in processed blood their control will improve, and that takes away our main advantage over them. Half our strategy to fight them relies on them functioning like mindless beasts. We are experienced in dealing with that, and can plan for it. We can't plan for a large organized group of vampires that are both extra strong and coherent."

Carlisle's face falls into what can only be described as a sulk. Esme sighs and sternly stares down her husband.

"I don't like it either love, but the children are right. We can be displeased with it, but we can't interfere with them doing the only thing that makes sense. I'm going to Montana with Rose and Iris, and you are going to stay in Forks at some distance from the fight. We need you there as a line of communication and the rest needs you there as medical support for the wolves."

At that Carlisle finally relents, and he kisses his wife, daughter and granddaughter goodbye. After the car drives off we make our way to the clearing in the forest we chose for the confrontation to take place.

The fight is anticlimactic, barely a fight even. Fighting on our side are Jasper, Emmett, Peter, Charlotte, Kate, Garrett and myself. The newborn army outnumbers us six to one, but we have such an excess of skill, experience, strategy and gifts on our end that they do not stand a chance.

The southern war vets are disassembling newborns like they have never done anything else, which I suppose was true for most of their life. Kate and Garrett are a dynamic duo, she drops them down with her electric shocks and then he holds them so she can tear their heads off. I match the newborns in strength, and easily outfight them with my superior control and the extensive training that Jasper and my other friends put me through. Jasper hovers at first, but when he sees I can hold my own he opens a path for me to join the well-oiled fighting machine of him and his former comrades-in-arms.

Emmett, uncharacteristically for him, is not on the frontline. With their child only months old he and his wife discussed at length what they could do to help without risking that Iris should lose one of her parents. In the end Rosalie's stipulation for letting Emmett join had been that he could come as backup, but would not be allowed to be in the thick of the fight unless absolutely necessary. He had readily conceded, and claimed the task of burning up the fallen newborns. This is a great support to us, as he makes sure the bodies are destroyed before they can reassemble themselves and attack us again.

The wolves help, herding the newborns towards us almost like sheep dogs. Our strategy was to rely on the natural disgust that the newborns have of the wolves to throw them off their game, but otherwise avoid direct fighting between the two on account of the more vulnerable bodies of the wolves.

Initially I had not been optimistic about the pack's ability to follow this strategy. I was well familiar with the hotheaded nature of the wolves, particularly the teenage ones. Jasper however told me not to underestimate Quil Ataera. The current alpha had proven himself more balanced and reliable than either Jacob Black or Sam Uley when we reconciled with the Quileutes, and continued to do so in the war preparations. During the fight though I can tell even Jasper is impressed with the iron discipline with which Quil manages his fighters. I'm not sure we could have done without them, or at least we could have managed nowhere near as well.

In fact we escape with only superficial injuries. A few bites on the part of the vampire fighters, a few broken bones on the part of the werewolf ones. The latter are quickly checked over by Carlisle, and only two had fused back together so crooked that they need to be rebroken.

Not that this good fortune would truly register with me for another month or so. No, I would be much too preoccupied with the parting taunt that Victoria manages to throw at me.

She nearly gets away. We have long suspected that her uncanny knack for escaping tight situations is a special vampire gift. Perhaps my shield ability makes a difference. Whatever the case, as Leah Clearwater tries to chase the redhead back to the main fight I find myself tackling her to the ground. I make eye contact with Jasper, and the split second before he can make his way over to us and take the honor of tearing her head off is just enough for her to speak.

"I caught your precious little papa. I bit him, and then I dropped him at the border of the southern territories as a gift for lady Maria. I left a note explaining all about the new human plaything of her favorite major and how much it would displease him if her daddy was hurt."

And thus all the wounds I had carefully been mending over the past year were ripped open anew.