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The Beginning

--Volterra, Italy, 12:01 AM, September 13--

"Aro!!" A deep, throated yell sounded through the ancient castle. A pale man with deep burgundy eyes was searching everywhere for the royal. His black cape was billowing in his wake as he moved at a speed much faster than a normal human pace.

At last he reached his destination, the infamous library of the Volturi. Marcus threw open the large wooden doors to reveal rows of ancient books, some the original copies, but his attention rested on a figure hidden in the shadows next to a window. In a few graceful glides across the expansive red carpet through the center of the library, Marcus reached the man he had been frantically searching for.

Marcus turned to him and spoke this time in an irritated tone, "Aro, are you unaware of the date?"

"Marcus, I am perfectly aware that it is September 13." Aro replied, softly, calmly.

"Then would care to explain to me WHY YOU ARE SO CALM!!" Marcus was near losing it. His voice was rising until he yelled the end of his sentence.

"Peace, brother. I could hear you if you were whispering across the castle." Aro told his brother. It looked as if Marcus were about to interrupt, so he continued. "I am completely aware of the event prophesied to take place today, but worrying will do nothing. The child will be impossible to find even if we tried, and we are not even sure she will be a threat to us."

"But, brother, she could completely destroy us!! You do remember that the last protector put us into power, the next could easily have the power to take us out!" Marcus responded.

"Ah, but what can we do, Marcus? The prophesy was made 2,000 years ago, who knows if the vampire who made it was even correct? We killed the prophetess before we could verify it, alas that was one of our greatest mistakes." Aro said solemnly, shaking his head as if in denial.

"It was one of the greatest questionings to our power we ever received, how could we let her live!" Marcus retorted. "This vampire comes in, tells us a new protector will return and will be more powerful than Lyla herself! And we all know how powerful Lyla was!"

"Very true, Marcus, but back to the point." Aro said calmly. "We were told that the child will be born on September 13, we were told the year, we were told the child would be a girl, and we were also told that this girl would be completely mortal at birth. After she mentioned that the child would be more powerful than Lyla, well, you know what happened." Aro looked out the window for a moment at the bright full moon. The sky was perfectly clear; it was the perfect night. After a moment Marcus grew irritated and brought Aro out of his musings.

"So how does this calm you brother? For it is surely doing nothing but increasing my worry." Marcus told him, frustrated.

"Remember what we were told, the child is MORTAL, Marcus. The little information Lyla did tell us about herself was that she received her full powers when she was 18, so we have nothing to fear for another 18 years, and remember, even if we wanted to do something, we have absolutely no way of finding her, she will simply be like any other mortal for 18 more years. So why should I fret about something that I can do nothing about?" Aro told Marcus, turning to face his brother. "When the time comes, we can create an army to fight against her, I doubt that this protector can face hundreds of vampires alone. Granted, Lyla never showed us her full powers, and her war was long before our time, but I still doubt she could take us all."

"Very true, but the entire vampire world loved Lyla over us. Surely they will love her successor?"

"Perhaps, but remember, there are only a handful of vampires who are alive that knew Lyla. The overwhelming majority of vampires only have legends, and legends are nothing compared to the fear they have of the Volturi." Aro stated.

"So, we simply force the vampires to fight with us?" Another tall vampire with chalky-white hair and piercing red eyes questioned, entering the room to join his brothers.

"Correct," Aro said, smiling at his brother Caius.

Caius thought for a moment before responding, "I believe that is the best option...but what if this protector simply joins us?"

"Then there is no problem." Aro stated. "We will just wait and see."

"Very well, that is what we will do." Marcus stated. Caius nodded his affirmation.

Aro smiled, "Good, then brothers, we need not worry." he briefly clasped a hand on each of his brothers shoulders, "And now, my brothers, I bid you both a goodnight." And with that, he turned and walked out of the room.

Shortly after that, Marcus nodded to Caius, and followed his brother out of the room. Caius simply stared out the window into the sky. In some ways, he felt sorry for this girl. She would live her life in a world she had no control over, with no one to help her. He felt strangely protective of this girl. It was odd, he had not even met her. She could be his ruining, but he still felt sympathetic for her. But then again, he had loved Lyla like a sister, he knew her burden and she had been his confident. Apparently all of the protectors had her same qualities, so why not this new child. Simply, deep down, he wanted someone like Lyla again. She had been happy, and free-spirited, as this new protector would be. Perhaps fate would allow him a new person to take Lyla's place. Aro knew nothing of Caius's relationship with Lyla, for she had used her powers so that any of his thoughts regarding her would be hidden. He whispered quieter than his brothers would hear. "Good Luck, new protector." With that, he turned from the window and walked out of the room.

Across the globe, Isabella Marie Swan had been born to a destiny bigger than anyone had ever anticipated.