A/N: I'm publishing this because I am bored. I leave it up to y'all, whether or not I continue. ~Angel

Bella shivered as her still half wet clothes clung to her. She knew running through that fountain was a bad idea. But she had no other way of getting to the idiot quickly enough. She had long gotten over her heartbreak of losing him, having come to the conclusion that he was nothing more than a spoiled brat allowed to run amok in his own coven. This whole thing started when she decided to cliff dive.

All right, she'll call it like it is. She wasn't cliff diving persé; after all, she wasn't doing it for fun. She wanted to see him again. The man who had been haunting her dreams since mid- July. Even before Edward had broken up with her. It was an interesting twist of fate that she always had the dreams when he wasn't watching her sleep. As such, she had had more of them since he had abandoned her in the woods. The man with a clean shaved head, olive skin, dark brown, almost black eyes, and a mischievous smile that brought a soft upturn of her lips every time she thought about him.

Jacob was adamantly sure that she was either trying to kill herself or that she was attempting to see Edward, and nearly dying was an unfortunate byproduct of that. But it was neither. It was for the as yet unnamed man of her dreams. A curious longing had also taken residence in her being since the dreams began. Strong enough to knock Edward clear out of her thoughts.

A longing that grew the closer she got to Volterra. It became painful as they were lead into a throne room with a high arching ceiling, and surrounded in marble. Her breathing became slightly heaver and more labored. She had to fight to stay in the present as a feeling of disconnectedness grew with astonishing strength.

"Sister. They send you out to get one and you bring back two… and a half. Such a clever girl," she heard, but only just. There was a low murmur, gradually getting louder in her ears. It was a soft, soothing litany. Like poetry or someone chanting. Definitely someone chanting.

"What a happy surprise!" said a man with paper white skin, and glowing ruby red eyes. "Bella is alive, after all. Isn't that wonderful? I love a happy ending." He approached them and gathered Edward's hand into his own. The hand that Bella had been holding on to for dear life to ground her to the present.

With out it's hold, she was immediately sucked into the trance that had been threatening to take over, causing her to fall to her knees.

"He is gone! His soul is no longer in the in between!" she said in a mournful tone. The fact that only the three rulers could understand her caused said three to freeze as the rest of the room looked on with mixed expressions of curiosity, apprehension, and slight fear. It was Marcus who answered her. In a tongue long forgotten, not spoken for the better part of 2000 years. The fact that this was the most interest he had shown in an equally long time was lost on no one.

"Who? Who is gone?" he asked softly.

"Imhotep. The second Champion and my one true love," she cried.

"Aro, call Amun," Marcus said, never raising his voice, as he rose from his throne and made as if to approach the young woman.. "Perhaps he can shed some light on how a modern 18 year old girl knows the Ancient Egyptian language so flawlessly."

"Bella? Bella, are you all right? What's happening? Alice?" Edward said, his voice nearly reaching panicking, when he couldn't break Bella out of her trance. "What have you done to her?!" he demanded of Aro.

"Peace, young Edward. We have done nothing. Indeed, we are just as surprised as you are. We will hopefully, now get some answers," Aro tried to placate as he turned to Demitri, who had his cell phone out and on speaker.

"Demitri," came the one word greeting in a thick accent.

"Amun. We have a situation," he said.

"And that situation would be?"

"Amun?! Amun, my love. Where are you? I hear you, but don't see you," Bella said, her glazed eyes looking around for the voice over the phone.

"Aro, you are there, correct?" came a slow, measured, and stunned voice of the head of the Egyptian coven.

"I am."

"Then listen to me very carefully. Nothing happens to that young woman. She is to be left as she is in your throne room. Do you understand? I promise you, if Jane so much as thinks of using her powers on that girl, your castle will be in rubble at your feet before the thought is complete."

"Is that a threat, Amun," Aro asked curiously.

"No, Aro. Not from me. Though I would find you after and destroy you regardless, the threat... is already within your walls, in the form of that young woman. We are on our way. We will be there in 4 hours." Then the line went dead. The entire throne room was silent, bar the continued pleas from Bella for Amun.

It was a tense 4 hours and some minutes. Some of the vampires present would say the longest of their unnaturally long lives. But the time did indeed come when Amun, his mate Kebi, and two other members of the coven, all but burst into the throne room doors.

"Aro," Amun said, as he took in the assembled immortals and lone mortal.

Bella's head whipped around at the voice, and her pleas, which had started tapering off, renewed themselves.

"Amun?! Amun, he is gone. His spirit no longer walks this life or the after!" she said urgently. If vampires could pale, Amun and those with him, would have; though the love in his eyes for the girl kneeling in the middle of the throne room was evident.

"Hail Aset, first of the divine amongst women! Your peace is with me, and I am with your peace.

Hail Aset, first of the divine amongst women! Your love abounds, your kindness grows and within me your spirit flourishes." Amun began to chant in awe as he slowly, step by step approached the kneeling girl.

"Hail Aset, first of the diving amongst women! Whatever I touch is touched by you, for there is no heart in all of creation that has not been touched by you.

Hail Aset, first of the divine amongst women! I am your lighthouse. The beacon of your justice, generosity, and salvation." By this time, his mate, and two fellow coven members were chanting with him.

"Hail Aset, first of the divine amongst women! Blessed are you amongst the gods. For the fruit that came forth from your womb was the Sun." Demitri, never losing the knowledge and stories the man he grew to love as a father, imparted to him, also joined in. An unearthly light began to shine out of Bella. Soft at first, then growing in power as the chant progressed.

"Hail Aset, first of the divine amongst women! Fill my hands with your purpose, and strengthen my feet with your divine power. For you are the shield of the weak, and the arm of the oppressed. And those that call upon you shall not fall to darkness, but be lifted into the embrace of everlasting life.

Hail Aset, first of the divine amongst women! Walk with my heart, and shape my life to your purpose. For from you I receive tenderness, mercy, solace, and light. And to all I bestow these virtues, for you, my mother," Amun was now kneeling with Bella, looking her right in the eye. The last two words he uttered, said in complete adoration, as he smoothed a lock of her hair around behind her ear.

"Are the mother of all."

Bella looked into the dark burgundy eyes of the ancient in front of her and fell forward into his arms with a sob.

"Amun! My beloved son!"

~~~~~~~~~)O(~~~~~~~~~

It took some time for Amun to calm the sobbing young woman. And even then, once she began to calm, she passed right out in his lap.

"Aro, could you possibly have a pillow and a blanket brought for this young woman?" Amun asked.

"Why not just carry her to one of the guest quarters?" Marcus suggested. Amun shook his head.

"Trust me, she won't be out for long, and it would be better all around if she just stayed here," he tells them.

"Very well. Though, I'm sure we would all like an explanation of what is going on," Aro put in, giving a non committal wave of his hand to have the order executed. Amun nodded, and sighed.

"I am the oldest vampire in this room," he began. Just then, Alec returned with Amun's requested items, to which he offered a smile and a nod in thanks, before making the young woman as comfortable as he could. "What is her name?" he asked.

"Bella. Isabella Swan," Aro supplied. Amun nodded, and started running his fingers through Bella's hair. A calming gesture for both of them, though at the moment, he was gaining more comfort than she, considering she was passed out cold.

"I am the oldest vampire in this room," he repeated. "But what none of you really know is that I am the first vampire." This shocked the entire present body.

"How is that possible? There had to have been someone to create you," Caius asked. Amun again nodded.

"And there was. But they were not vampire. But, truth be told, I was never born human," again, a shock. It seemed as though the vampires listening were part of the marbled room, they were so still.

"I was born of a woman full of life. Pure life. And a man closer to death. My story, begins in the early days of Kemet. What is now known as Ancient Egypt for those of you who aren't old enough to know the old name. In the days when Khafre was building the second of the three Great Pyramids, a seer foretold of when the two prominent gods of the time, Isis and Osiris, would both send a champion to their people.

How, like their patrons, they would fall in love. How, like their patrons, that love would be tested, though not in the same way, with Osiris's champion being hacked to bits. That would, after all, kill him. He would be mortal, not a god," Amun mused with a sad smile on his face. His mate and fellow coven members, Demitri included, gathered around him in a show of support as he continues to comb his fingers through Bella's hair.

"Not long after, both were born. And as foretold, they fell in love. The champion of the goddess of life, fertility, and magic, and the champion of the god and judge of the dead and ruler of the underworld. It was an unlikely match, but then again, so were their patrons. They lived happily, producing one child. Myself," he said simply.

"Where does my mate come in to all of this," Edward said petulantly. Amun sent him a sharp look.

"I am getting to that, child. Though I would watch my tongue if I were you. She is not your mate. She is destined for another."

"Liar! She is mine! She will always be mine!"

"Edward," Alice warned, seeing the angered looks of his coven mates.

"This is your one warning, Edward Cullen. And you only get that out of my respect for Carlisle. Don't make me destroy you," Amun said softly. Edward, having seen his potential future in one of Alice's visions, wisely kept silent.

"The two champions lived happily, and died within days of each other. But before she died, my mother made me a promise. That they would both be reincarnated to see their son again. Every few generations, so he wouldn't get lonely. She kept that promise, and the cycle continued unchanged for nearly eight centuries. Until the reign of Pharaoh Seti I. My father had been reborn as the High Priest Imhotep. Keeper of the Dead. My mother, Irisi, was reborn as the High Priestess of Isis's temple in Thebes. Blessed Lifegiver.

Seti had a mistress. Anck-Su-Namun. She was beautiful and a witch with the backing of Set. Seti had plans to make her one of his wives, though he wanted to be sure that she was untouched by any other man, so he ordered that every morning, her body would be painted. Whoever dared touch her, would smear the paint, making the crime known. Anck-Su-Namun, while loving the notoriety being the Pharaoh's concubine gave her, hated his possessiveness, and soon grew tired of her inability to touch those around her. So she set her sights on the second most powerful man in the kingdom. Imhotep."

Amun sighed here, remembering the time. The hot, dry, arid climate of an Egypt with the desert right at it's door, and the monolithic structures towering, casting umbrella shadows over the streets. Simpler times. More dangerous times.

"Anck-Su-Namun, through Set, managed to get her hands on Hathor's Tears. Shed in bitterness when her love, Horus the Younger, was exiled after his father's throne was usurped by Set. The Tears clouded Imhotep's mind. Making it easier to bend him to her will. He abandoned his love for my mother," he said softly, looking at Bella, sleeping in his arms. "She fell ill, not long after his betrayal, to the sickness that would kill her mere weeks later."

"Anck-Su-Namun and my father continued their affair, until one day, my father got careless. He smudged the paint on her arms. Seti knew immediately and demanded of Anck-Su-Namun who had touched her. I imagine he was quite surprised to find it was one of his most trusted advisors. They killed him, and then Anck-Su-Namun killed herself to ensure my father got away, sure in the knowledge Imhotep would resurrect her. He very nearly succeeded if the Pharaoh's guard hadn't stopped him."

Amun sighed. "They condemned his priests to be mummified alive. Imhotep was cursed with the Hom-Dai."

"That's impossible! No one was actually cursed with that spell!" Aro insisted, excited at the drama inherent in Amun's story.

"So history would have you believe," Amun stated. "But it is true nonetheless. It seems, some time in the intervening 3,000 years, Imhotep was resurrected, and then ultimately lost, if my mother can not find his soul here on the living plane or on the wondering plane. With him being cursed, he would never be allowed to move on. What I don't understand, is that there is only one way that her spirit would be brought to the fore without my father, and as far as I know, that way has been lost with the city of Hamunaptra."

"Hamunaptra?" Aro asked uncomfortably, having an inkling of where this was heading. Amun nodded.

"City of the Dead and home of the wealth of Ancient Egypt. Amongst that wealth, the Book of Amun-Ra and The Book of the Dead. Only with both in close proximity to her would Irisi's spirit, my mother's spirit, become dominant. Otherwise, she would feel out of place, but be able to live peacefully as a normal mortal."

"Ah-," Aro intoned. "Then there is the answer. You see… we have the books."

The heads of every member of his coven surrounding Amun, including Demitri, lifted their heads to Aro. The shock on the Egyptian coven's faces were expected, but in all fairness, Demitri wasn't privy to everything that was brought into Volterra's walls. As such, he had no idea they had the two relics, or he would have called Amun straight away, knowing some about the man's past and what the books meant to the man.

"You… have them here? In the castle?" Amun asked slowly. "You can not open them, can you?"

Aro shook his head, before stating petulantly, "No. It seems that a key is needed."

"Depends on who wants to open it. Retrieve the books, Aro. They are my mother's rightful property," Amun commanded.

"What makes you think you can walk in here and give us orders, Amun," Caius bit out.

At that moment, Bella awoke. She said nothing and made no sound as she sat up, sitting cross legged, her back to Amun, and looked directly at Caius. Her stare was so intense, holding a mix of reproach and disappointment only a mother can pull off.

"Do not think that just because I don't have the books in my possession right this moment, Childe, that I can not end your existence. Give them to me, now," Bella/Irisi commanded of Caius.

"Then prove you are who Amun claims you to be. Prove that you have knowledge of Life," Caius challenged. The young woman's eyes narrowed at him before closing.

She took in a deep breath, grounding herself, before she began to chant. She chanted for a full two and a half minutes before a trail of shiny gray dust wove itself into the throne room in a straight line, swirling in a small cloud along the marble floor. The dust coalesced into a small dust devil before it slowly settled, revealing at it's center a young woman with black hair, flawless porcelain skin, and ruby red eyes. The entire throne room gasped as Bella's/Irisi's chanting died down to nothing.

"Didyme!" Marcus said in a shocked and jubilant tone as he appeared in the next second out of his chair and in front of his long dead mate. He brought a hand up and cupped her face. She looked at him in confusion for a moment.

"Marcus?" she asked uncertainly. Her eyes confused as they flew over his face and focused on his every feature.

"D-Didyme..." Aro stuttered, for the first time in ANY memory, as he stared in awe at his long dead sister.

While the Volturi were busy recovering from the reappearance of a long lost family member, Amun brought forward his coven.

"Kebi, my daughter," Bella said to Amun's wife, as she kissed the woman's forehead in greeting.

"Amun and I wish to introduce our son, Benjamin," Kebi said softly, for many in the room, it was the first they had heard the young woman speak. Many thought it was because Amun was such a domineering mate, but in truth, it was just because she was a very quiet person. At her introduction, a young vampire, well, as far as vampires go, moved into her line of sight.

"Grandmother," he said respectfully with a bow.

Bella/Irisi smiled at Benjamin before holding her arms out to him as well, in an open invitation. An invitation he accepted as he stepped into her embrace. She kissed his forehead before smiling at him.

"My Blessing, young one. May you live a long and happy life," she said with sadness and love in her eyes. She then turned to his young mate, Tia, who approached, and bowed.

"My lady," she said simply. Irisi smiled, before placing one hand on her lower abdomen. Tia felt a small tug, and gasped as the force spread to be strong enough to push her back.

"I never expected to be a grandmother. Now, I give you the chance to be one as well," she told the still breathing hard young vampire. Benjamin's face broke into a bright smile as he joined his mate and held her as she regained her composure.

It was then the Volturi leaders made their presence known again. "Great mother," Caius said behind the reunited family. Irisi turned to see a contrite look on his face. "Please, forgive my obstinate rudeness. You have returned someone so precious to us," he said as he got to his knees, his head bowed.

"The Volturi is at your command," Marcus added, he too going to his knees. This seemed to be a catalyst, as Aro followed, then every single member of the guard. Irisi rose from where she was still kneeling beside Amun, and approached the leaders.

"I would never ask the impossible of my children. I could feel the pain this young vampire's death caused, and as it wasn't her time, I could petition the Great Osiris to send her back. As I am not his champion, but the rightful mate of said champion, that is all I could do. It was he, who saw fit to return her. All praise to Osiris," she said, bowing her head for a moment. She then continued. "I need the books."

"Then they shall be brought immediately," Aro stated, waving to Alec, who left to retrieve them.