So, this is my new story, and it's obviously a Bella and Caius one. I wanted to do something different, and this is it. It is most likely going to stay in Bella's POV, but there may be some instances where I switch it up and do someone else. Also, I'm not sore how long it's going to be, so please bear with me if it's a super long one shot.

Summary: Bella goes to Italy with Alice, intent on saving Edward, but as she is on her way to the clock tower, she realizes something. Edward and Alice disappeared and Demetri takes Bella to see the Brothers, which is were Alice and Edward will be found.

As Alice and I were driving along the winding roads of the Italian country side, it hit me. They left. All of them left me without so much as a good bye, and here I am, in a different country, practically on the other side of the world, trying to save the life of my idiotic, ex-boyfriend. I'm not entirely sure why he thinks he has the right to ask for his death when he's the one that left me. Broken. Alone.

The people that I had come to love as my family, just gone. Here one day, absent the next. Never to return, as per Edward's promise.

Why did I agree to this? Wasn't it supposed to be like they never existed? As Alice continued to drive, the more I thought on the words that Edward told me when he left me in the woods behind my house. Sure, I was still in sight of my house when he took off, but how did he not think that I wouldn't follow him? I get that he couldn't read my mind, but really, is he that stupid? Maybe being in the minds of so many teenagers doesn't help, or maybe Edward didn't seem to grasp that even though I had just turned 18, that I was still a teenager, in love. Or so I thought.

During the months that the Cullen's had just up and disappeared, as promised, I came to some startling realizations. I didn't like who I had become when I was with them. Edward and Alice especially. It's like they used their vampire lures on me, to bend me to their will.

If there was one thing that Edward spoke the truth of that night, it was that he never loved me. Once I came to that realization, I started to live my life. I became the person that I wanted to be. No more of this, Barbie Bella that I was turned into. I bought my own clothes, in my own style, not the fashion forward stuff that Alice always tried to dress me in. I learned how to ride a motor bike with Jacob Black, who I had known as a kid. I even went cliff diving, anything for an adrenaline rush. Jake and I had gone many times before, both alone and with the pack. Did I mention that Jake was a shape-shifter, and that him and his pack were protecting me from Victoria?

Ultimately it was Victoria that brought me to where I am now. Sitting in a stolen sports car, listening to Alice tell me that I would have to get to the clock tower as quickly as I could, because once the clock struck noon, it would be game over for Edward.

See, Jake and I were supposed to be going cliff diving, but the pack caught Victoria's scent, so he had to go join them. Now, since I had already gone cliff diving by myself, I thought I would be able to handle it. Had it been any other day though, I would have. Too bad there was a storm rolling in. Both metaphorically and literally.

It wasn't until I landed in the water that I knew I was in trouble. I kept getting pushed up against the rocks of the cliff. I felt Jake pull me out of the water, and by the time that I was coherent enough I was told what happened.

They didn't get Victoria, but she came close enough to the reservation that it caused two new wolves to shift. Leah and Seth Clearwater, the kids of one of my dad's friends. They were expecting Seth to phase, but not Leah. At the time of the shift, Leah was in the middle of an argument with her dad, and her shifting caused her brother to shift, and for their dad to have a heart attack. He didn't make it.

Charlie was helping with the funeral, and when told, Edward decided that I was dead and he needed to die too. All this because none of the Cullen's could keep up their side of the deal. No looking in on me, no keeping tabs. They existed alright, and it seemed that they were going to make me remember.

Alice ambushed me at my house, the phone rang, and then Jake opened his big mouth. After that, it was all a haze. Alice packing a bag, Jake phasing, leaving me on my own. Being manhandled into a waiting car and driven to the air port to catch a flight to Volterra, Italy. Home of the Volturi, the self-made rulers of the vampire world.

And that brings us to now. Me being shoved out of a still moving vehicle. The words: "Hurry! Run to the clock tower!" the only thing going through my mind. I caught myself just before I face planted into the ground, but I felt my wrist pop and knew that I was in trouble. But lucky for me (or unlucky depending on how you want to look at it), someone helped me off of the ground.

"Are you alright miss?" the person asked. A man by the sound of his voice. It was only too late that I realized that his voice was too smooth, too musical to be human. When I looked up to answer, I knew right away what he was. Dressed just a little to fashionably, and covered in a dark gray, almost black, cloak, was a vampire.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. I mean, while it's not everyday that I get shoved out of a moving vehicle in a country I don't know much about, it seems that it's happened," I replied. Did I mention that while hanging around the pack, that I was really able to let my sarcasm go without being worried about being reprimanded for being un-lady like?

"If you say so. Can I help you get anywhere?" the vampire continued to talk to me. By this time the first gong of the clock started to ring out.

"Actually, there is. Can you get me to the clock tower before noon fully hits? I'm supposed to be trying to save someone from committing suicide. The faster the better," I said. "Only because if Edward Cullen wants to die, it'll be by my hands and not the Volturi's for breaking a cardinal rule," I added.

"What?" I think I broke the vampire. I mean sure, he's already pale, but whatever color he had retained from his human life just left him. I decided to humor him a little.

"Well, I know that you're a vampire, the red eyes kind of give it away you know. Not only that, but Edward Cullen is my ex-boyfriend, and I was dragged on this suicide mission to try and 'save' him," I told him, using air quotes. "Now, are you going to help me out or not?"

"How?" the stunned vampire asked. I think he was at a loss for words. I may have shocked the vampire just a bit.

"Well, I'm Isabella Swan, human ex-girlfriend to one Edward Cullen."

"Demetri Ivonov, of the Volturi Coven. Come, I shall take you the the two Cullens," he sneered, before leaning down and picking me up before running as fast as he could without looking non-human to the humans. "So, how exactly do you know of us?" he asked me.

In response, I flashed him my wrist. The one with overlapping bite marks, because what human would have markings like mine and still live to tell the tale. "I'd rather only tell my tale once, can we save it for when we are in front of everyone?" I questioned. "And what a tale it'll be."

"Edward and Alice Cullen have been taken before the Brothers, so I'll take you to them in the throne room," Demetri says as we come upon the clock tower.

"That's fine, and while we are in there, do you think that you can keep them away from me?" I asked as sweetly as I could.

"I don't see why that would be a problem." The poor thing was confused, I could tell. "We are almost to the throne room," he added. At this point, we had traveled to the far end of the alleyway by the clock tower, and down into a man hole. He's started to pick up the speed at which we were traveling, and it seemed like the closer we got, the faster he would go.

When Demetri finally slowed to a stop, we were outside a pair of ornate doors, at least twice as tall as me, and each door was at least four of me wide. I couldn't help but gape at them a moment. When I realized that we weren't going in the doors just yet, I looked to Demetri and saw that he was looking at me like he wanted to ask me something. I raised an eyebrow, as if to say 'what?' and all he did was shake his head before putting me back on my own two feet. With one last look, Demetri opened the doors and led the way in.

As soon as both of us were through the doors, they slammed shut. If every eye in the room wasn't on us before because of the beating heart that just walked into the room, they were now. I decided to take my chances on trusting this new vampire before me, even more so than I already have, and stayed behind him. If he was going to promise to keep me away from the Cullens, then that meant that he had to keep me from their sight as much as out of their clutches.

It seemed that I walked into one level of hell, straight into the next. After three, agonizingly slow beats of my heart, everything seemed to speed up. Edward with a roar, ran towards me, Demetri crouched low and started growling, and the doors slammed open again. By the time that things calmed down, Demetri had Edward hanging inches from the floor, one hand around his neck, and the other keeping me close enough to him to hold up on his promise of protecting me. Taking a glance around the room, Alice looked worried, whether for me or Edward, I couldn't be sure; the vampires standing along the wall appeared ready to jump into the fray. There were two vampires sitting upon what looked to be thrones in the middle of the room with an empty one off to the side: one vampire staring off into the distance, appearing for all intents and purposes to be daydreaming, the other was sitting on the edge of his seat, hands poised as if he was just finished clapping, with an excited expression on his face. The last seat was, by this point, being sat in by an angry blonde, who seemed like he would rather be anywhere other than the throne room, as Demetri called it.

These three vampires must be the rulers, the Kings as Edward told me, what seemed like years ago by this point, when in fact it was only months. The one in the middle, the excited one spoke then. "Demetri? What is the meaning of this? Why is there a human seeking your protection?" he seemed to ask more questions, but they either came at a speed which I could not keep up with, or a level in which I couldn't hear. There were gestures and looks in my direction, but nothing that I was able to catch or respond to in any manner.

I got tired of being ignored and shifted into what I was told was my bitch mode. Arms crossed over my chest, right hip popped out to the side, and left foot tapping. I wished that I was wearing a pair of shoes that would make an annoying tapping noise against the floor with each downward motion, but my coordination wouldn't have lasted long without my sneakers. Thinking about it though, these immortals with their fantastic hearing would be able to hear each tap tap tap on the floor, no matter the type of shoes I was wearing. This thought made me grin.

After three minutes, I had an eyebrow raised. Two minutes and twenty-four seconds after that was when they turned towards me. I wasn't sure if it was because of something that was said during their subhuman level conversation, or if they just got tired of listening to me tap my foot, or even if it was a combination of the two.

"Are we done talking about the human as if she wasn't here?" I questioned once all eyes were on me. The vampire in the middle opened his mouth as if he was about to respond, but the one on his right, the blonde one who was late to this gathering started to growl at me. My eyes stayed glued to the one in the middle, the one who seemed like he was in charge, only after taking a quick glance to see where the growl was coming from.

"Apologies, Isabella," the middle man said. "It is...unusual to have a human such as yourself in this room and actually aware of what we are, and what it is that we're doing," he tried smiling, but the one on his right kept growling. "Caius, enough." It didn't sound like an order, but while the blonde stopped growling, he just turned a glare in my direction. It didn't bother me like it should have apparently, for the surprised looks I was being given spoke volumes.

"Oh, I'm sure," I muttered, knowing that every being in the room would be able to hear me with perfect clarity. Speaking up, I replied, "It's no problem, sire, but it seems that we have some issues to resolve. I can think of three off of the top of my head." I gestured towards Edward, Alice, the three kings, and myself.

"Yes, yes. First off, introductions! I am Aro, and these are my brothers, Marcus," the vampire to the left of Aro barely made any acknowledgment of the situation, just a brief flicker of his eyes to me. "And Caius," Aro continued with a gesture to the blonde on his right. If at all possible, he glared harder. I just ignored him and kept my eyes on Aro, waiting for him to say more, and he did not disappoint. "Isabella, if I may, you are absolutely beautiful. Edwards memories don't do you justice."

I raised my second eyebrow and moved my hand in a 'get on with it' motion, waiting for him to add something else.

"Now, I know what happened from young Edwards mind, but I want us to hear the story from your view point. You see, it's rare for this kind of occurrence to happen. Usually the odd human who comes here to save their vampire clings to them in fear of what will happen, but you don't seem to want to be anywhere near Edward or Alice. I wonder why that is," he mused, and I couldn't keep the faint smile off of my face.

"Well, it all started when I moved to Washington state, Forks to be more exact...," and from there I told the whole sordid love story between a human and an animal blood drinking vampire. Just before I got to the part where the Cullens were playing baseball, I made a gesture with my right arm, not even thinking that my shirt sleeve rode up just the slightest bit during the scuffle between Demetri and Edward. It was when the growling started that I realized my mistake. I tried to cover my wrist, but the bored vampire king was faster. Who knew that he was actually paying attention?

"Where did you get this young one?" Marcus questioned. "Better yet, how is it that you are still human?" he furthered, flashing my wrist to the room.

"What do you know about vampire style baseball?" At the looks that I was getting, I went on to explain. "It all started out fine you know? Just me and the Cullens in a field, in the middle of a storm, just playing baseball. Well, they were playing, I was attempting to watch, but when you move as fast as a vampire, it's just a little difficult. Anyway, it started when this coven of three vampires came into the clearing. James, Victoria, and Laurent.

"James was a tracker who liked to play games with his prey. Unfortunately that night, I became his newest obsession, the best game of cat and mouse that he'd had in a long time apparently. Alice and Jasper took me to Phoenix, Arizona where I lived with my mom before moving. I ended up escaping them while we were waiting for the rest of the Cullens to land in the airport so we could all meet up and figure out a new plan. I thought that James had my mother, and he said that he'd let her go if I found a way to escape my bodyguards and meet him at the little studio that my mom forced me to take dance lessons in. So I did." I stopped talking for a moment, too caught up in the memories, in the pain.

"I ended up coming away from that with my head cracked open, a badly broken leg, a few broken ribs, and the bite of a vampire. Of course, Edward refused to let me change into a vampire, so the masochistic little fuck decided that it would be best if he sucked out all of the venom that James left in me, in the process, stopping the transformation."

There were astonished gasps from everyone in the room. Stopping the change was unheard of from their reactions. "The pain of the change is bad enough on its own, and you decided that it was a good idea to stop her change? Introduce venom foreign to what was already changing her?" Aro asked. He got no answer, but at this point I'm not so sure that he was expecting one.

"The summer between my junior and senior years was good. I spent as much time with the Cullens that I could: shopping with Alice, listening to Edward play his piano, playing video games with Emmett. Normal human teenager things. Anything that was considered too dangerous to do, the human wasn't allowed to partake. That included being around Jasper.

"By the time that my birthday came around, school had already started and I had every class with one, if not both Cullen kids that were still there. I was bombarded with attention all day on my birthday. Everyone knowing that I didn't want a party, and a party is what I got. I was coerced into going to the Cullen house that was decked out in more things than one human and seven vampires would need. Crystal plates, flower petals, candles. A cake that would feed at least fifty people. And then there were the presents; the presents that started the fall of what I thought was going to be my forever.

"Keep in mind the fact that Jasper is an empath, and blood lust is an emotion." I told everyone, looking around to see that more vampires had wandered into the room. Cullens included. I wasn't sure when they got there, as focused as I was with telling my story and with as much attention that they were giving me, I don't think that they realized that there was at least one member of the Volturi guard standing behind them. "I never blamed Jasper, if anything he was the least at fault for the entire thing. Him and Rosalie. They were the only ones who wanted to take care of me the proper way that these laws of yours dictate," I told Aro.

"Anyways, it was as I was opening a present that I got a paper cut. In a house full of vampires. Vegetarian vampires at that. From the paper cut alone, I think that I would have been fine. However, it wasn't just a paper cut that I got. I ended up being shoved backwards so hard that I ended up flying through the air and into the table full of crystal plates and bowls. Like I said, a paper cut would have been fine, but I ended up needing to get stitches along my arm because the glass got stuck in me. Three days later, it was over. Edward and I took a walk through the woods behind my dads house and with a metaphoric knife to the heart, the future that I had mapped out for myself was gone. Disappeared with five small steps into the tree line and a more one sided conversation that played off of each and every one of the insecurities that a teenage human would have in any relationship with a physically perfect human being." I had to pause then, between the memories that were being resurfaced and the dry mouth that I got from all my talking and Aro seemed to notice.

Seconds later I had water and a chair to sit in. Nodding my thanks to Aro, I took both gratefully. There was a disdainful sigh to his right.

"That night, in the tree line behind my dads house, I wasn't left. I was broken. Being told that the Cullens were moving, I could have dealt with. Had I been told that it wasn't safe for me to be around them and that was the reason why they were moving, it would have been hard to accept at first, but I would like to think that in time I would have accepted the reasoning and moved on. It was the 'I don't want you,' that started the break. Just a small little fissure that one can never really be able to see if it's there or not. The continuation of 'not good enough' and 'time is like a sieve, and heals all wounds,' started the fissures to get bigger, enlarging themselves to cracks. I could have lived with that, gotten a psychologist and eventually moved on I'm sure.

"But no, it just got worse. It was ultimately the 'it'll be as if I never existed,' that was the straw to break the camels back. How could anyone forget the existence of vampires when they had seen and done all that I had? How would I have been able to cover the fact that I had a huge bite taken out of my wrist? Should I say that it was a dog bite even though it's clearly in the shape of a human mouth? Or what about why it was—is so much colder than the rest of my skin? There were so many questions going through my head after Edward just ran off, like the coward he is, that I got lost wandering in the forest." I ended up explaining in great detail how I was found – in the very forest that I was told to never go in alone because of the monsters that lived there – by a shifter from the tribe just down the road. I went on to further tell them about my friendship with Jake and then my friendship with the rest of the pack, touching briefly on the two weeks that I went without my best friend because he turned into a giant wolf.

There were growls for that one, but I'm not entirely sure why. None of my wolves had done anything to these vampires, unless you count their plotting for any of the Cullens that they see.

"And that brings us to now. I jumped off of a cliff to experience cliff diving, got dragged to Italy because, well I'm dead now, right?" It was a rhetorical question, but there were over exaggerated nods in response. " I was shoved out of a moving vehicle, going who knows how fast, and told to run towards the clock tower to save the one vampire who just couldn't live without me. Because he wasn't doing that for the last six months. I ran into that one there," I pointed off handed to Demetri, " and I got him to bring me to see you three," I finished with a smile.