There wasn't anything particularly out of the ordinary about that night to start. Once in a while Aro moved the late night sessions spent pouring over old books out of the library and to the catacombs so he, his brothers, and the wives could spend time together around a table rather than in separate areas. It always went the same way. Marcus would keep to himself with whatever books had struck his fancy that day, hardly giving any input. Aro and Sulpicia made a game of quizzing each other on the material in the books they had, usually about art and artists.

That left Emily and Caius. Usually their time was spent with Caius reading Emily stories or giving her history lectures she found herself enjoying more than she had expected. Every so often Caius would ask Emily questions about what he was reading to her to keep her engaged. This time he was quizzing her on one of her favorite stories, one Caius had been told in his youth about the tumultuous and tragic life of a Spartan soldier.

And, purely to annoy Aro, Caius didn't deliver the questions in English.

"Shkul sa jāhon brōzi tala?" He asked Emily. Her head was in his lap while the other half of her body was supported by her chair. Caius held the book open on the table with one hand, gently stroking Emily's hair and face as he read. She almost felt inclined to purr.

"Calliope, drēje?" Emily answered lazily, more focused on the gentle touches.

"Si jāhon ābrazyrys?"

"Lysandra."

"Eglie riña." Caius' eyes left the book to look at Emily with a slightly impish smile as his hand rested on her cheek. She squirmed, grabbing his hand with both of hers and almost hiding in his palm. If she could blush, she would have.

"Caius, you know I hate it when nobody can understand what you two are saying given your refusal to translate for anyone aside from Emily." Aro finally spoke up with a sigh, looking at Caius from over the top edge of the book he had open.

"You're just jealous that you don't have a shared language with Sulpicia. Plus with the gift you have, you feel uncomfortable not knowing what we're thinking or saying." Caius replied flatly.

"Is what you're saying really that scandalous to not share with the rest of us?"

"Ziry sa hobrenka āeksio." Emily said, still hidden from Aro's line of vision by the table. Caius started laughing at her bluntness and his brother's ignorance. Aro just rolled his eyes and turned back to his book, knowing better than to push it.

The double doors were pulled open, drawing them out of the moment. Emily sat up to see one of their guards, Santiago, leading a woman inside. Her blonde hair was tied up in a messy bun, a few loose ends brushing the shoulders of the short black dress she wore. Emily also immediately noticed her gold colored eyes. Knowing she wasn't a Cullen, she deduced that it was one of their distant cousins, a Denali. Emily recalled seeing her at the wedding. Irina, her name was.

"What do you want?" Caius' tone immediately jumped to his clipped, authoritative voice rather than the softer one he used with Emily. Irina didn't respond right away, the words getting stuck in her throat. "Hmm?"

"I have to report... a crime." Irina finally stuttered out. "The Cullens--"

That got their attention.

"They've done something... terrible."

Suddenly ever so interested, Aro slammed his book shut and shot out of his chair right for Irina. He took her hand and began probing her memories. Irina looked at the floor in shame while Emily and Caius shared a look.

"Oh my..." Aro said once he was done. He gestured for Santiago, indicating he take her to a room to stay in for the time being. Witnesses were always granted asylum until the claims could be verified. Nine times out of ten it was a concerned coven mate and returning home was a bad idea having turned someone close to them in.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Emily asked as Aro frantically started cleaning books up.

"It would seem that the Cullens broke a rather serious rule." Aro began cryptically. He paused, Emily gesturing for him to spit it out. "They've fostered an Immortal Child, a little girl by the looks of it."

One could believe Christmas came early the way Emily and Caius' faces lit up.

"How soon can we leave?" Emily asked.

"Given the size of the Cullen's coven and their infamy... we'll need to gather all of our witnesses first." Aro said. "Jane!"

"But that could take weeks!" Emily cried as Jane ran inside the room.

"She has a point, brother." Caius added. "It could take us a while to find all of our witnesses across the globe. Alice Cullen likely already knows that we're coming and that gives the Cullens time to gather their own support."

"Caius, given your past of military strategy, I'm surprised you haven't thought far enough ahead." Aro said. "We need our witnesses, you know the protocol. Yes, this may give the Cullens time to gather their own, but if we don't take the time to gather ours, we could end up outnumbered. It's worth it to be a little patient, would you not agree?"

Emily could see Caius wanted to argue, but he knew it wouldn't do any good. They both knew their whole coven leaving as is could overpower the Cullens right then and there. But when justice was served, they needed their witnesses to spread the news. They had rules to abide by, protocols to follow.

And, on top of that, they knew of Aro's flair for the dramatic. They needed witnesses to spread the news, but moreso, Aro wanted an audience to see whatever shit he cooked up.

Jane knew this, too, and she also seemed a bit disappointed at the delay.

"Jane, you know what to do. Alert the coven, then begin to send out the Guard to gather our witnesses. We're dealing with the Cullens and an Immortal Child, everyone needs to be prepared. I'm putting you in charge of delegating who goes where. We leave when everyone is accounted for." Aro told her. She opened her mouth to reply, but closed it seeing Emily and Caius' slightly perturbed expressions. She thought for a moment, knowing none of them were too pleased with the decision to wait. Jane caught their gazes, her lips quirking up before responding.

"Ūja ziksoso itatagon, ñuha āeksio." She said impishly with an innocent smile before leaving the room. Caius started coughing, having been taken off guard. Emily started laughing hysterically. Aro groaned and left the room with his books in his arms.

***

It took two and a half weeks for all their witnesses to gather. Everyone was doing something to prepare. Emily was stuck with a role she would have liked to do the least: playing host with Sulpicia. As witnesses showed up, she and Sulpicia greeted them from their husbands' thrones in their absences.

Emily had so badly wanted to go out and help cover bases. Unfortunately Aro, Caius, and Marcus had taken the twins, Felix, and Demitri to various points around the world to prevent the Cullens from getting some witnesses they were expecting. The entire crew had gone to London to prevent one from getting to Carlisle. Usually, though, they went in small groups.

However, given that the majority of the Volturi's power base was out doing that, that left Sulpicia and Emily acting in their stead. Volterra should never be left completely unguarded ("There must always be a Stark in Winterfell." Emily rolled her eyes when Aro had to be the one to tell her she wasn't coming. When he raised an eyebrow at the statement, she shrugged and said she read it in a book), so the queens stayed behind.

So, Emily put on her best, most forced smile and greeted their witnesses with the most sincere thanks for coming in their time of need. She silently vowed she'd kill her brother in law once he returned, something Sulpicia discouraged her from when she saw the thought in Emily's mind.

Once everyone was back under one roof, there was one major logistical detail they had to figure out: group transportation. Ideas were thrown out until they begrudgingly landed on airplane flights. Flying itself wasn't a problem, the difficulty arose when Jane pointed out that an entire army of black clad people wished to board one flight to Washington State would raise unecessary amounts of suspicion.

Caius grumbled over things being easier when humans relied on ships for trans-continental travel. Large groups of people could board one ship and nobody would question it.

They spent one night crunching numbers and doing research. The poor secretary had to be the one to operate the boxy computer on the main level with seven vampires looking over her shoulders asking questions and making demands. Caius nearly ripped the monitor off of the table after the fourth time the website buffered.

After five hours everything had been smoothed out. The witnesses and most of the Guard had plane tickets in groups of two or three spread out over four different airlines. The secretary had started looking at first class tickets for the rest of them before Emily and Jane in particular protested flying commercially after the chaos of the flight they had taken to the wedding.

The secretary managed to find private jet rentals while Emily and Jane argued with Sulpicia and Aro over sucking it up for one flight or not. So the kings, the queens, the twins, Felix, and Demitri would take that.

By the end of it all, Marcus looked like he wanted to bash his head into a wall more than he usually did.

"All this trouble over one Immortal Child... none of this would have happened if Aro had just let us go the second Irina reported it." Emily griped as she fell back into the seat of the jet with an exhausted sigh.

"Wiping out the Cullens will be worth it, though." Caius said next to her, pulling out a book he had brought with him to read during the flight.

"I'm never flying in an airplane again after this if I can help it-- Aro, what did I say about airplane peanuts??"

And finally, after all was said and done, Demitri zoned in on where the Cullens would be gathering and the entire armada treked through the forest to find the open field of snow.

The witnesses and the Guard formed a line, a long wall of bodies in front of their leaders. Emily could sort of see the Cullens over the various heads in front of her.

The seas parted to allow them through. Aro, Caius, and Marcus led the way with Emily and Sulpicia behind them. The twins flanked Emily while Sulpicia had Felix and Demitri behind her. Witnesses and Guards split into two respective lines to back all nine of them up. Irina marched with the Guard not too far behind Emily.

She could see the Cullens more easily now. They were in small groups flanked by the witnesses they'd gathered staying in their respective coven groups. Emily could pinpoint a few, the Denalis looking at Irina with deep concern close to the Cullens. The Egyptian coven, the Irish Coven, even the Romanians. There were a few nomads Emily wasn't as familiar with among them as well.

That's when she spotted the wolves.

A group of about ten werewolves emerged from the trees behind the Cullens. One in particular moved a bit further up than the others in his pack, a russet colored wolf. He stood right next to Edward and Bella as they held a little girl close to them.

She was probably the Immortal Child in question.

So not only were the Cullens fostering the child, but they were allying themselves with werewolves, another broken law. Emily could practically feel the seething rage rolling off of Caius at seeing the animals, let alone with the Cullens. It seemed like a pretty open and shut case to her. She supressed a smirk.

They stopped walking with several yards of space still between the two parties. Emily and her coven all threw their hoods down and stared at the Cullens. The silence permeated for a few seconds, the faint whistle of the wind the only thing that could be heard.

Carlisle stepped forward, acting as the voice for his coven. He spoke normally despite the distance, but it sounded clear enough given all their enhanced hearing.

"Aro. Let us discuss things as we used to. In a civilized manner." He said calmly.

"Fair words, Carlisle... but a little out of place given the batallion you've assembled against us." Aro replied thinly.

"I assure you, that was never my intent. No laws have been broken."

"We see the child. Do not treat us as fools!" Caius spat.

"She is not an immortal! These witnesses can attest to that. You can look. See the flush of human blood in her cheeks."

"Artifice!"

"I will collect every facet of the truth." Aro cut in, raising a hand to keep Caius from continuing his tirade. Emily pursed her lips, staring at the child closely. "From someone more central to the story. Edward. As the child clings to your newborn mate, I assume you are involved."

Aro held out his hand, waiting for Edward Cullen to approach. The younger vampire looked at Bella and the child before walking over to them. Emily couldn't help but stare daggers at the Cullen boy, remembering all the trouble he'd caused ever since he had begged for death almost a year prior.

Edward offered up his hand for Aro to take. They stood in silence for a moment before Edward pulled back.

"I'd like to meet her." Aro said. Emily's eyebrow quirked up, a bit confused. Was the girl not immortal? Edward gestured for Bella and their child to come forward. They did, also joined by Emmett and the russet wolf. Bella's expression was hard, holding the girl close. The last time she'd seen Bella was when she was still human. Her hair looked redder, her eyes a pure gold color.

Emily could see the child clearer now, too. The color on her cheeks framing her perfect cherub face was more obvious. Now she was even more confused. As much as she was loathe to admit it, her flush seemed natural... but no human child looked that perfectly crafted.

"Ah. Young Bella. Immortality becomes you." Aro greeted before turning to the girl. Three seconds passed before Aro let out the most asinine laugh Emily'd ever heard from him... which was saying a lot, unfortunately. "I hear her strange heart."

Emily listened closely, and sure enough she could make out the beats of the child's heart. Her own dead heart sank. Bella gestured for the girl to approach Aro, his hand stretched out to her with an excited smile on his face.

"Hello, Aro." The child greeted politely. She brough her hand up, though she didn't take Aro's as they had expected. To everyone's surprise, she touched his face gently, the most innocent expression on her face. Aro's face told Emily he was clearly seeing something. The child was gifted, most likely, able to project her thoughts and memories through touch. Aro's inverse, really.

Emily's eyebrows knitted together in deeper thought. Blood in her cheeks, a heart beat, perfect features, a gift... what was the truth here?

"Magnifico." He whispered as the child pulled away back into Bella's protective embrace. "Half mortal, half immortal. Conceived and carried by this newborn while she was still human."

"Impossible!" Caius and Emily said at the same time. Aro turned to look at them, an eyebrow raised.

"Do you both think they fooled me?" He asked them thinly.

"Brother, we're merely wondering how such a thing could happen. I wasn't aware that we could... procreate with humans." Emily defended. Bella led her family back to their side of the field, but not before the russet wolf snarled at Caius and Emily in particular. Emily felt anger bubble in her chest, both at the nerve and on Caius' behalf, knowing his history with the creatures. Though, Caius let it slide off his back easily enough.

"Bring the informer forward." He ordered, raising a hand and curling two fingers in a 'come hither' gesture. The entire armada curved around their leading group as Irina was brought out by two guards to stand directly in front of Caius. It was an intimidating position to be in, let alone having his entire family standing behind him watching her intentely. Irina shrank beneath his gaze, Emily smirking at the sight as she stood off to her husband's side. Caius pointed to the little girl across the field sternly. "Is that the child you saw?"

"I... I'm not sure." Irina stumbled.

"Jane?" The girl's name alone was threat enough.

"She's changed. This child is bigger." Irina deflected lamely. The words slipped out before she realized what she said. Immortal Children were frozen in time after they were turned. They didn't change.

"Then your allegations were false."

"The Cullens are innocent." Irina finally relented, accepting defeat. "I take full responsibility for my mistake."

Irina turned to look at her family, mouthing an apology. Caius however looked at Emily almost expectantly. She gave him a questioning look that he replied to with a simple quirk of his head in Irina's direction. Understanding what he was asking, Emily turned to Aro, silently asking permission to proceed. Her brother in law just smiled at her with a nod.

Suddenly excited and eager, Emily looked at Irina with the most sadistic smile on her face. The Denali was too focused on Caius to notice his wife looking at her strangely. Demitri approached them with Caius' torch that he accepted as he usually did.

"Caius, no!" Edward cried. What the Cullens and their witnesses were probably expecting to happen was Irina being executed the normal way...

What they didn't expect was Irina to launch eight feet off of the ground. They watched Irina struggle to move, rendered nearly immobile by an invisible force. Emily stepped out in front of the rest of her coven, her hand extended and fingers spread wide to hold Irina in place. The Cullens stared at her, horrified.

Finally, Emily twitched her wrist and Irina's arms flew off. She screamed momentarily before her head came off as well. Emily let the pieces of Irina drop in a heap in front of her on the snow. Caius walked up behind her and offered her his torch. She accepted it with a warm smile before setting Irina's corpse alight.

She continued to hold the torch as Caius snaked an arm around her waist to pull her flush against his side as if to remind the Cullens who she was to him and the rest of their coven. All the Cullens and their witnesses' jaws hung open in shock, looking from Irina to Emily as if they struggled to process what they'd just seen.

"Caius... Caius, what-- who... The woman. Where did you find her?" Carlisle asked, his tone wavering between disbelief and accusation.

"Don't talk about me as if I wasn't here, Carlisle." Emily said cooly.

"Who are you, then?"

"I was a labratory experiment. I was the fourth test subject for a special branch of the MK-ULTRA project. I was locked in a lab for most of my life hidden just outside of a small Indiana town. I was the one responsible for nearly every awful thing that happened in Hawkins alongside my longtime lover, responsible for the murder of his mother and sister in 1959." Emily turned with a nasty smirk to Bella, the newborn putting more pieces together. "Yes, Bella Swan, I was the lover of Henry Creel, the boy who supposedly died that night. Your father didn't tell you everything. Alas, I found a family and a greater purpose with the Volturi by sheer accident. So now here I am, standing before you because fate willed it so. Who I am is your retribution."

Everyone stayed silent to let Emily's words hang in the air. She looked at her coven, and they looked at her proudly in return. Caius looked at her with pure pride etched into his features. He loved her wholy and completely, never more than he did in that moment. Emily looked back to Carlisle and she could tell he was at a loss for words. Now they had the Cullens scared, so now it became a game of provoking them.

She turned to look at Jane. The girl seemed to take the hint and began to scan the gathered Cullens. She zeroed in on Edward.

"Pain." She muttered. Instantly Edward collapsed to the ground, suddenly overwhelmed with splitting pain. Jane refused to relent.

Bella suddenly stepped forward and began to focus. She concentrated and then a silvery shape began to grow from around her body. It expanded into a large dome to cover her coven and their allies. Edward stood up, suddenly fine. Emily looked to Caius and his lip curled.

"Somby." He hissed. A shield. Bella was a shield. Suddenly it all made sense, how she was immune from all their powers all those months ago. Her latent shield ability protected her even then. Emily looked at Aro and he looked at Jane, unable to find a target. The girl lurched forward before Alec stopped her from attacking. They couldn't attack first, no matter what. Though, absently, Alec's sensory deprivation smoke started to creep out of his hands. Aro held up a hand to keep the other twin at bay. He then turned to Emily and gave her a look she understood immediately before he relayed it to the others.

Do not kill Bella unless it becomes absolutely necessary.

After all, the Volturi didn't have a shield yet...

Carlisle spoke up, choosing his next words carefully.

"Aro, you see there is no law broken here." He said calmly.

"Agreed. But..." Aro replied, stepping out to face his whole coven. Emily and Caius stepped a little bit back as they exchanged a knowing look with Aro. "Does it then mean that there is no danger? For the first time in our history, humans pose a threat to our kind. Their modern technology has given birth to weapons that could destroy us. Maintaining our secret has never been more imperative. In such perilous times, only the known is safe. Only the known is tolerable, and we know nothing of what this child will become. Can we live in such uncertainty? Spare ourselves a fight today only to die tomorrow."

Low murmurs rose from the Volturi, taking Aro's words in. He was stoking fear, absolutely, but Caius and Emily relished it. They came here to fight and they would get a fight... even if it meant bending the rules a little bit.

Aro's demeanor completely shifted, though, when he turned to look back at the Cullens and he seemed to spot something. Emily's smile faltered as she followed his line of sight. Sure enough, she saw it, too.

"Alice." Aro said as the up till then absent Cullen marched up to the Volturi with Jasper Hale in tow. A few of the Guards intercepted them once they got too close. "My dear Alice, we're so glad to see you here after all."

"I have evidence the child won't be a risk to our kind." Alice said.

Shit.

"Let me show you." She offered Aro her hand, something very few people did willingly.

"Brother?" Caius questioned uncertainly. Aro didn't reply, he merely gestured for Alice to approach. She broke through the guards keeping her in place and walked up to Aro confidently. He took her hand and for a moment neither of them said a word. Emily began to grow antsy. Alice's expressioned turned upset quickly.

"It doesn't matter what I show you." She said coldly upon realizing. Alice yanked her hand out of Aro's grip. "Even when you see, you still won't change your decision."

Alice turned to look behind her, barely whispering 'now' to what seemed to be Bella. The newborn seemed to know what this meant, placing the little girl on the russet wolf's back and speaking a few words to them before sending them away to run back into the woods behind them.

"Get them." Caius hissed to Santiago. Before the guard could do anything, Alice whirled back around and kicked Aro right into the air. Everyone watched him fly up in the air before looking at Alice in disbelief. Aro landed back on the ground with a low growl as Alice tried to run. Two guards grabbed her before she could make it very far.

"Take her away." He ordered. They started to drag Alice away just as Santiago took that as his cue to chase after the Cullen girl and her wolf steed.

"Let her go!" Carlisle roared, suddenly charging right for them. A few guards tried to intercept him, yet Carlisle just shoved them aside, determined to reach Alice. He lept into the air and Aro jumped to meet him. They collided at their peaks before they fell back to the ground.

Carlisle's head was gripped in Aro's hand as his body fell right in front of Caius and Emily. Alice fought to break free seeing her adoptive father's body in front of her as everyone could hear Esme's horrified cry. Emily just smiled serenely as she passed Caius the torch so he could set Carlisle's body ablaze.

That seemed to do it. Emily turned to look back at the Cullens and their witnesses and she could see them beginning to run right for them.

What a stupid mistake.

Aro raised his arms to signal for the Guard and their own witnesses to charge. A sea of black cloaks sailed past Emily as she watched them run to meet their enemies. Unthinking, she started to run and follow them.

Caius gently grabbed her shoulder to hold her back. Her eager smile fell, remembering the protocol they had to stick to. Caius, his brothers, and their wives stayed back with a couple guards to let the witnesses and the rest of the coven fight their battles. Why risk endangering themselves when there was no need for it?

Sulpicia offered Emily a sympathetic smile that she tried to return. It didn't come out the way she intended, instead looking pained. Her foot started rapidly tapping against the snow as she started growing more antsy the longer she simply stood there watching the others in her coven have all the fun.

Caius noted her expression and turned to look at Aro. His brother looked from him, to the battlefield, to Emily, and then back before he smiled. Caius gently touched Emily's shoulder to get her attention away from the battle. She looked at him with a peeved expression before she caught Aro's gaze. All he did was give her a simple nod.

That was all she needed. Emily smiled widely to voice her thanks. She looked at Caius, who smiled at her warmly before pressing a kiss to her forehead and gesturing for her to run along.

Emily's grin turned feral as she ran into the fray.

***

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