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UNLOCKED

OF COURSE THINGS ESCALATED; THEY ALWAYS DID BETWEEN CAIUS AND ARO.

Billie had seen it happen before— before when they were back in Volterra and Caius made the mistake of questioning Aro's judgment. It was clear that Aro didn't like his power being put into question, resulting in a brief bickering spat between the two kings.

Bella and Edward took this as their sign to start escorting themselves and their daughter back towards the group of witnesses, the giant wolf following suit. Caius was undeterred, however, and carried on with his own personal agenda. "Bring the informant forward," he commanded, and suddenly the woman Aro had told her about was being shoved before him by a vampire with darker skin. "Is that the child you saw?"

Caius was pointing to the child, but the Denali woman seemed hesitant now. "I'm not sure," she shook her head, eyes casted downward. When Caius called Jane forward, it was then that she truly began to talk. "She's changed; this child is bigger."

"Then your allegations were false," Caius refuted, matter of factly, and Billie knew where he was going with this.

"The Cullens are innocent," Irina responded, voice wavering only a little. "I take full responsibility for my mistake... I'm sorry."

It all happened so quickly— too quickly; Felix and Demetri were quick in tearing Irina Denali's body into pieces, with Caius lighting the remains on fire. Billie couldn't take her eyes off the scene, not even when screams of anguish could be heard from the opposite end of the valley.

There was commotion, so much of it, that Billie was having trouble latching onto something specific. Every time she thought about the Cullens, her head swam, and every time she tried to think of something else, she was brought back to them.

So she had missed the way Aro looked at the blonde Guard member, only for Jane to mutter out a single word in their opponents direction. "Pain."

Edward collapsing onto the ground harshly stirred Billie, the girl acutely watching the scene unfold. It didn't last long, because someone on the battlefield had the unique ability to make Jane's gifts stop working.

Jane's eyes flickered to each and every one of the witnesses, trying to evoke that same pain onto the others, but it wasn't working. Evidently frustrated, Jane took an angered step forward, only to be held back by Alec.

"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," Aro explained, turning to his own battalion that he brought along. "Maintaining our secret has never been more imperative."

Even with no laws being broken, the Cullens and their witnesses were still going to be punished, it seemed. They still did something wrong in the eyes of the Volturi, or maybe it was all payback for what they had done to Billie— she secretly hoped it wasn't that. She didn't want to be held responsible for the demise of all these people when they were innocent.

"In such perilous times, only the known is tolerable... and we know nothing of what this child will become. Can we live with such uncertainty?"

Footsteps. Footsteps so loud, that they seemed to echoed throughout the landscape.

All eyes were set upon two faces of vampires who were clearly late to the party. Though she recognized one more than the other, she was surprised to hear the man next to her take a sharp intake of breath, sighing out the name of the one he was most eager to see. "Alice!"

When the duo approached the Volturi, other members of the guard detained them before Aro. "I have evidence that the child won't be a risk to our kind."

Two other figures came walking out from the trees where Alice and this other vampire emerged from, one appeared as though he was an ordinary man, standing next to a woman with crimson eyes.

They came to a stop beside Alice, the girl turning to Aro. "I've been searching for witnesses of my own, among the Ticuna tribe of Brazil."

Aro gestured for the man to speak, and he did. "I am half human, half vampire... like the child," he stated resolutely, "a vampire seduced my mother who died giving birth to me. My aunt Huilen raised me as her own; I made her immortal."

Billie's mouth was agape. So, this child was no ordinary human, but no ordinary vampire either? And, to top it all off, there were more beings out there just like her?

"How old are you?" Bella asked, rather frantically from the Cullens' side of the terrain.

"150 years," he answered. "I became full grown seven years after my birth. I have not changed since then."

"And your diet?" Aro questioned, and Billie knew he was simply trying to mask his confusion with feigned curiosity. He hadn't seen this one coming.

"Blood, human food— I can survive on either."

After a bit of conversation between the three kings, Aro turned to the masses behind him. "My friends... there is no danger here," he reassured his own army, "we will not fight, today."

And for the first time, Billie had no idea what Aro was thinking. He seemed so hellbent on his mission of ending the Olympic coven; why hadn't he just gone through with it despite Alice bringing their way out to him?

A tug on her sleeve, the hand attached to it belonging to Jane. The girl still had a particular fire lit within her eyes, but based on the way the masses began to retreat at Aro's words, it appeared as though Jane was trying to get her to come along.

But Billie was rooted in place, her head turning to observe the others across the field who hugged and embraced one another because of their victory.

She must've been staring for too long, because she heard his voice before she even saw him. "Amore?" She looked away from the scene, glancing to the man who had yet to be more than a few feet away from her. "What's troubling you?"

"Can I..." she started, her gaze subconsciously drifting to the faces she saw in her mind, the faces who were now just within reach. "Can I see?"

The man briefly, for a split second, looked like he was about to say no. But Billie didn't have to look in the mirror to know she had the biggest, most pitiful frown on her face.

"Jane will escort you."

And that was better than nothing, she supposed.

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Jane and Billie walked side by side across the snowy terrain, and the entire time, they were being watched by those who still remained at the scene: the Cullens and the giant wolves.

Rather than going up to their equivalent of a leader, Billie felt herself be pulled in the direction of the one whose child had been the topic of all conversation lately. Bella.

Jane hovered, her head held up high, practically begging to unleash some sort of pain onto these vampires who escaped far too easily.

"Hello," Billie greeted, a slight nod of her head in the brunette's direction.

Bella sighed out a sound of relief. "Hey."

"Would you mind if I touched your forehead super quick?" the blonde rushed out, a half-smile half-grimace placed atop her face.

Thankfully, the girl across from her nodded fervently. "Sure, uh— go for it."

Billie nodded, more to herself than to the girl, and gingerly pressed her fingertips to her forehead.

Only, nothing happened.

Pulling them back to her side, the crease between her brows didn't let up. "It should've worked," she murmured, her hand curling into a fist at her side, "I should've remembered."

Edward, the one who had been watching the exchange while ruminating in the blonde's thoughts, shook his head. "Bella's a shield," he offered out, "our abilities don't work on her... they can't."

Billie's eyes snapped to his in a moment of desperation. "But they can on you, right?"

Jane didn't like this, not one bit. "Billie, we really must—"

"Let her try, Jane," Edward interjected, and the two exchanged a heated glance before he was stepping forward. "Try."

Nodding, Billie mimicked the motion she had just done to Bella; and this time, she was met with a dozen images flashing before her very eyes. There were deeper glimpses of her life before she'd turned, and she wasn't a fool to realize that all of her memories with Edward always featured Bella.

The two girls seemed inseparable, though Billie was torn from the memories after viewing a final one— one where Edward and Bella were keeping things from her, and she'd called them out on it.

She stumbled away, her hand gravitating to her neck as she mentally compared the two from her memories to the two standing before her now. While there weren't as many differences between Edward then and Edward now, the same couldn't be said for Bella. It was obvious she'd turned as well, but that wasn't what had her nails start digging into her neck.

No— it was the wedding ring on her slim finger. And Billie was sure it hadn't been on the girl's finger in the memories she just received back.

Billie hadn't recalled a time where she felt this much anger course through her veins.

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[ wyn's note ]

billie is such a sweet girl :( she truly wants the best for everyone even if if it's at her expense :(

and ik i said angst here, but boy oh boy the next chap is where it's at (this is a two-parter cause I didn't want the chap to be 3000 words long so the next one should be out v soon since it's a continuation)!

xx