You guys….. I have no words. I'm sooooooooo sorry I haven't updated in so long. The worst case of writer's block, work, RL, a long ass chapter, and that all adds up to this really long wait. But, I'm hoping it was all worth it in the end. I think this is the longest chapter I've ever done.

I can't thank Lola (LaurieWhitlock), my wonderful beta, and awesomesauce friend, enough for working on this with me. She's been a huuuuuggggge help throughout this whole story. Muahs!

And SM obviously owns it. Not I, sadlyL BUT I DO OWN A COPY OF BREAKING DAWN, PART 1! Lol

Anywhoozles, I'll see you all at the bottom for some important info.

Onward!

Chapter 28

They were all running through the woods, chasing after the vampire that fled.

It had been a few weeks since they had noticed the problem, and finally decided to take action.

They weren't thinking they would have to deal with something so huge this soon, but it obviously had to be taken care of. People's lives were at risk in their town. They didn't want anyone else to die. So they found themselves chasing them now. Garrett, Kate, Peter, Charlotte, Carlisle, Esme, Edward, Bella, Emmett, Rosalie, Alice… and Jasper.

~Flashback~

It all started when a vampire came into town. She was scoping out the town during the night, when Bella and Edward came across her.

They were running through the woods, on their way to hunt, when she jumped across a ridge before they came to it.

They both decided to follow her and see where she was going to.

When she came up to the Cullen house, they watched her closely.

She stood there, watching Esme and Carlisle around the house. Not much else, but she seemed like she was gathering information.

She took off into the trees again, and Edward and Bella followed her. The direction she went in was towards the McCarty house. When she got there, she did the same thing. Bella didn't like that she was going around to each of their homes, and scouting out who was there. It made her really uneasy.

She saw that Emmett and Rosalie were home, so she wanted to give them a heads up.

Em, we've got a situation. There's a vampire scoping out each of our houses. I don't know if she's just curious, but I don't like it. Stay alert and we're going to follow her.

She thought to him when his head snapped up. He didn't want to be obvious and look towards the woods, but couldn't help but perk up at the information.

I want to know as soon as you do. He thought back, and then went back to talking to Rosalie.

Bella and Edward stayed there, watching her, again. Bella didn't want her to know they were there, so they weren't quite close enough for Edward to get a read on her thoughts, very clearly.

Bella, I need to try and see what she's thinking. We can't be blind to whatever it is that she's planning. It could be nothing, but I don't want to take that chance. Edward thought to her, as they were sitting up in a tree.

I don't know… she could be a tracker and know we're already here. She could just be messing with us. She thought back to him, worrying her lip.

Bells, we need to know. He thought, trying to get her to understand with his eyes.

She thought for a while, and then finally caved.

Fine. But be careful. If she takes off, we need to follow her.

He leaned over and kissed her quickly, then made his way, quietly towards where the woman was still watching the house.

As he got to where he could hear her, he was disturbed by what he was seeing.

What he saw was a plan to take out the most powerful vampires in the world. Building an army to get rid of the threat to her, so that she could be the one on top. She was checking out where they all lived and how many people were going to be in the way.

He didn't realize his breathing was getting shallow and suddenly the woman took off into the woods again.

"Shit" He hissed and took off after her, with Bella on his heels.

What the hell happened? Bella thought, then looked into his mind, and panic took over. Oh fuck…

Yeah. We've got a huge ass problem. He thought back as they continued to run.

Em! Get out here and help us follow her. Bella thought to Emmett that was still in the house.

Emmett and Rosalie both bolted out of the house and followed the trail of Edward, Bella and the mystery woman.

Once they had caught up to Edward and Bella, Emmett had to know what was happening.

She saw that there was a huge group of us living in the area. She's been building up an army of vampires to take out the strongest of us so that she can be on top. I'm not sure how big the army is, exactly, but it can't be good for us. Bella thought to him as they still made chase. It was getting harder to keep up with her, but they kept following her scent.

Fuuuuck! Does she know about the six of us? Emmett asked.

They were getting close to Seattle now, and they weren't sure if they could go quite as unnoticed with there being so many of them.

I don't know. Edward? Did she know? Bella thought.

I'm not sure. I didn't see anything that says she knew, but that doesn't mean that she doesn't. Shit… we lost her. He thought as they came up to the piers, where she obviously jumped in to lose them.

"Damn it. She could be anywhere now. I have a strong feeling that she'll be back though. She didn't seem like she wanted to give up this area. This may be a huge problem for us." Edward said as they studied the water to try and see if they could pick up on her scent again.

"It's no use. She's long gone. We should have stayed closer to her. Let's head back. We'll keep an eye out for her, if she decides to come back to Forks." Bella said as she backed away from the water and towards the tree line.

Once they were back at the Cullen house, Carlisle and Esme were waiting.

"What happened? Kate and Garrett called and said Rose and Emmett bolted out of the house earlier with no word." Carlisle asked as they all trickled into the house.

"Call the rest of them. We need to have a family meeting." Bella said, and then turned to Esme. "Where's Jasper at? He needs to know about this too."

Carlisle walked out to call the rest of the family as Esme spoke. "He should be up in his room, asleep. We didn't want to wake him yet if it wasn't anything important."

"I got it." Edward said, and then ran up the stairs to Jasper's room.

Jasper had been living with the Cullen's ever since their mother died.

Edward knocked on the door and waited for Jasper.

The door opened to a half awake Jasper. "Dude, what the hell? I know you guys don't sleep, but come on."

Edward just chuckled. "Sorry little bro, but we've got a problem and you need to come downstairs. This affects you, too. Put some damn clothes on." Then he was gone.

"Vampires…" Jasper muttered as he turned around and looked for some clothes.

He felt a gust of air behind him. "Just remember Jazz, you'll be one, one day too." Emmett said from the doorway, then turned and ran back downstairs, laughing.

"Ugh, this is what I get for moving in with them when I'm still human…" He muttered again as he threw on some clothes, and then started down the stairs.

As he came into the living room, he could hear more people than usual coming in the house.

"Ok, what the hell is going on?" Jasper asked as he sat on the couch.

Everyone filtered into the living room and Bella and Edward headed up the meeting.

"Ok… we came across a female vampire when we were going out to hunt, earlier. And we found out some stuff about her.

"She obviously saw this house and the vampires that live here, and then she went off into the woods. We thought she was going to run off to wherever she had been before, but she went to Kate and Garrett's. She sat there watching the house for a while and I guess she sensed us and then she took off. That's where the four of us went to. We followed her to Seattle, and then lost her in the water. I don't know why she didn't turn to the reservation and go that way to the water. She may not have ventured that way yet.

"Edward saw some of what was in her mind, too. And that's where we will have the major problem." Bella started, and then turned to Edward.

"Her name is Maria. She seems to be planning a war or a take over of some kind. She's building some sort of army of vampires, and it looks like she's trying to get rid of any powerful vampire that won't be of use to her. Or follow her. She wants to be the one in control and I think she's going to get rid of most, if not all of them. Once they've done their job, she'll have no use for them. She seemed like she knew what we were, but wouldn't believe that we were actually around and becoming the powerful leaders. I think she wanted to see if we were 'completed', or if it was just other vampires blowing smoke about stories they've heard around.

"Which brings us to our first problem; what do we do about this if we aren't fully the powerful leaders?" Edward asked as he looked around the room.

Everyone looked deep in thought for a while. But Jasper was the first one to speak up.

"Well it's pretty obvious. We need to complete the group. Someone has to change me so we can be ready for her when she comes back."

Everyone just looked at him, shocked.

"Jazz, are you sure? Do you think you're ready for this? You would be doing this willingly. Not because there was no other choice." Edward asked his brother.

Jasper thought for a few moments. He wanted to tell them his thoughts.

"Yeah, I am. I've known for a while that I want to do it. I want to be with Ali. I've seen the difference in yours and Bella's relationship, and Rose and Em's. You seem to be more of a cohesive unit when you're both vampires. And I don't want that holding the two of us back. I want to be able to run with her through the woods, be able to understand what it feels like when she tells me stories of her past. I want to be her equal. And I want to be able to fight with you guys when this woman comes back. We need to be a united front, and that means equal footing. There's really no point in waiting. It's what I want, so who's going to do it?"

"I'll do it." Alice spoke up after a moment.

Bella and Emmett both looked up at her.

"Ali, are you sure you can do this? I know how hard it was when I did it, but I didn't have time to think about it. You'll be doing this in a more relaxed environment." Emmett asked her.

"…Yeah." She nodded. "I want to be the one to do it. You all have done it for your mates. I want to do it for mine. I'm pretty sure I can handle it, but I want one of you there, to be on the safe side."

Bella nodded as well. "Ok. So when do you want to do this? Jasper, it has to be up to you when you want to do it. But to be honest, the sooner we can do this, the sooner we're going to be at our strongest. I don't know exactly what it will entail once we're all vampires, but we need to be able to get you used to being one of us, and whatever comes with it for the rest of us. It could be nothing, but we need to be ready when that woman comes back."

"I'm ready when Alice is." Jasper spoke up, without hesitation.

Alice shook her head. "I need to hunt first. I was gonna go tomorrow, but I guess there's no time like now if we're going to go ahead with this."

"That's fine, Ali. Go ahead and hunt. We'll stay here and make sure Jasper's ready for all of this."

Alice made a run for the woods after she kissed Jasper. The others went through everything with Jasper, about what was going to happen, and what to expect. He didn't care, as long as he could get it over with, and be with Alice.

Once Alice came back, she noticed Kate and Garrett, and Charlotte and Peter had gone home.

"Rosalie, are you going to be able to control yourself? You've been a vampire for the least amount of time. Do you think you can handle the blood?" Alice asked as she came into the room where they would change Jasper.

Rosalie sat in the chair she was in for a few moments, thinking. "I don't know. I don't think I can. And I don't want to chance it, especially with Jazz. Em, can we go hunt? Maybe by the time we get back, the worst of it will be over." Emmett nodded and Rosalie hugged her brother then left with Emmett.

"Why don't you go downstairs with mom and dad, while I stay up here with Ali. She needs one of us, and I don't want you to struggle. We still haven't hunted." Bella whispered to Edward.

He nodded and headed downstairs with Esme and Carlisle behind him.

Alice changed Jasper without much of a problem. She did have a moment of unclear perception after she had bitten him. The blood in her system made her control slip for a slight moment, but Bella was there to stop her from doing anything.

When Jasper's heart finally stopped beating, a few days later, there was a gust of wind through the room and everything went silent.

"What the hell?" Bella asked after a moment.

"I'm not sure… maybe… could it be something with the power being completed?" Rosalie suggested from her spot by Emmett.

"Whatever it is, be on the lookout for any differences. Jasper needs to know too, Alice." Bella told them.

When Jasper woke up, he was thirstier for blood than Edward or Rosalie had been. They had to make a run for the woods almost immediately after he woke.

"Ali, this is brutal. Is this how it is with everyone?" He had asked her when they were on their way back, after hunting.

"Sometimes. You saw Edward and Rose. They were mildly tamed in their thirst. But with every person, it's a little different. No one knows why. But I do remember it being pretty rough when I became a full vampire. It will get easier, though. It just takes time, lots of feeding, and control." Alice told him as they walked through the back yard of the Cullen's house.

Upon entering the house, they noticed several pieces of furniture had been blown up and they heard voices coming from the other room.

Alice and Jasper rushed into the dining room and saw Edward holding Bella's hands, behind her, and Rosalie was also trying to keep Emmett's hands down and occupied.

"What happened? Did she come back?" Alice asked as everyone turned to look at them.

"Nope." Bella said as she looked at Rosalie, Emmett and Edward. Esme and Carlisle were standing back.

"Sooo…" Jasper drawled.

Bella looked back at Emmett and he saw what she wanted to do and knew he had to focus on this little experiment.

"Emmett…" Bella prompted him. He saw what she wanted to do and nodded his head.

"Bella, don't…" Edward tried to warn her off.

She picked up an orange and tossed it in the air, focused on it, and blew it up.

Just as soon as it exploded, Emmett focused on it, as well, and then froze the whole thing.

Everyone just stood there with their mouths hanging open, staring at both of them.

"So I think we found out what that gust of wind might have been…" Bella started.

"Wait, hold the damn phone. You guys have our powers now? Do we still have them, too? What the hell's going on?" Jasper sputtered off, trying to understand.

Edward moved his hand, motioning towards the exploding fruit, and moved it towards the back door, opened the door, then moved the fruit out the door, closing it again. Then he went back to Bella, holding her hands so she wouldn't blow anything up, again.

"Yeah, we've still got our powers. But it appears that once Jasper was changed, everything meshed into one huge cluster of powers and abilities. Bella can hear Rose's thoughts, on her own. Emmett heard mine. I'm surprised you two haven't noticed yet." Edward explained.

"No, we were more focused on getting Jazz fed and then getting back. We weren't really anywhere where he would need to use his powers. Wait… so I've got his powers, too? Holy shit…" Alice told them, and then looked back into the living room. "So what happened in there?"

Carlisle cleared his voice and took a step forward. "We all gathered in the living room when you two left to hunt, and Emmett thought he should have gone with you both. Bella was trying to calm him and they both got a little jumpy. The next thing we all knew, the couch had blown up, and so had the entertainment center. We finally deduced that it had to have been Bella and Emmett because Edward and Rosalie have their powers under control. So apparently this is part of the 'package', as it were, when you all finally became vampires, and the powerful leaders. I wouldn't be surprised if there was more that you all share, in the long run."

"Well… shit…" Jasper said, not sure what to make of all this information.

"Just… be cautious of the things you do. If we notice something different, we let the others know. Not that I don't think they'll know, since we can read each other, but you get the point." Bella told each of them. Then she looked back over her shoulder at Edward. "Can I have my hands back now?"

"That depends. Are you going to accidentally blow someone up?" Edward asked her, with amusement in his voice.

"If you don't let me go, I'll blow YOU up." She countered back.

"You can't. Those powers don't work on us." He smirked back at her.

"Wait, I thought you moved Rosalie out of the way when we were in Italy?" Bella asked which had everyone else curious about this information.

He let go of her hands and moved her so his arm was wrapped around her shoulders. "We can't be frozen or blown up. I guess its part of our 'make up', that those powers can't do anything to us. I think it's molecular, maybe. Something in our genes that can't speed up or slow down, which is what, happens when we freeze or blow up something. So I think since you each took blood from us, and then it affects you, as well. At least I'm hoping so. We haven't exactly tried to do that."

"Well why don't we?" Jasper asked.

They all went outside to test out what they could do with their powers. It started out being whether they could freeze each other, and then they went on to practicing with each other and learning the best ways to manipulate their gifts.

"You three are really good at catching onto this stuff. We shouldn't have any problems when Maria comes back." Edward told them.

They spent the next few weeks practicing, hunting, scoping out the woods for any signs of Maria, and figuring out a plan of attack. Not knowing exactly how big her army was, didn't sit well with them. Edward hadn't been able to see exact numbers. But they wanted to be as prepared as they could be.

~End of flashback~

It was about a month after Jasper's change, when they caught wind of Maria.

~Earlier on the present day~

Jasper and Alice had been out hunting when they could sense another vampire around them.

Jazz, do you feel that? Alice thought to him as they slowed down their pace.

Yeah, do you think it's her? He thought back to her. They looped around their route and made their way into the trees.

I think it might be. We need to let the others know. We're not close enough to reach their minds, though. Start back towards the houses, we've gotta get close enough. Hopefully, she'll still be in the area and we'll catch back up to her. Alice thought, as she started making her way through the treetops.

As they got closer to the Cullen's house, Alice's thoughts were screaming out to Bella.

BELLA! Get a move on! We've got a lead on Maria! Get Em and Rose and meet us! Alice thought as they turned back toward the way they had come from.

Without a second thought, Bella and Edward were out of the back door, with Carlisle and Esme behind them.

EM! ROSE! We gotta get going! Maria made an appearance! Bella thought to them, since she was still closest to their house. Alice had already run off in the direction that they had left off seeing Maria at.

Shit! Bella heard from Emmett's mind before she felt them coming through the woods to meet them.

"Does anyone else feel like this could end up being a trap?" Esme observed as they all ran through the woods.

"We can't afford for her to keep going with this plan to take over the vampire world. We don't need a tyrant who is going to kill all of us off. We're not going to be 'rulers' over our kind, but we also can't let vampires like her go on a rampage like this. I'm starting to not like it being called powerful sovereigns. I don't want to be like the kings and queens of our world. Can we find another name for it?" Bella rattled on, anxiously.

"Bells slow down. I know you're nervous about all of this, but we'll deal with all of that later. We need to find Maria and make sure she doesn't kill or change anymore innocent people. There's no telling how many vampires are in her army." Edward tried to calm her.

"Sorry…" Bella trailed off.

"It's ok, Bella. I was even thinking that the other day. We'll deal with that after we deal with Maria." Alice said as they all met up together to follow Maria's trail.

"I'm with Ali." Rosalie said as she and Emmett saddled up beside the rest of them.

~Back to present time~

"This way. I think her trail's getting stronger." Alice said quietly to the rest of the group.

As they ran through the woods, they could each feel like they were on the right track.

"Edward, can you pick up on her? She can't be that far away." Carlisle asked.

Edward felt out around them and he seemed to be able to hear more than just Maria.

"Stop, stop, stop…" He said, quietly with a certain amount of urgency.

Everyone came to an abrupt stop and looked over at him.

He could see that she was on her way to where the majority of her army would be. They were all in a large clearing between Forks and the coastline.

"So, she obviously checked out the rest of the area around here. She hadn't been this way before, when she was here." Edward said, quietly to the others.

They all tried to think of the best way to approach. A straight on attack would be too obvious. But Maria was expecting them to come after them, immediately.

So what they decided to do was wait high in the trees for at least a day and see what Maria did.

They strategically set themselves up around the tops of the trees, where they could get a good view from all angles. They were spread out in a large arch, from where Edward was place, closest to where the army was, to where Kate and Emmett were in a tree, furthest away.

As they waited through the day, they only noticed a couple of vampires getting even close to where they were perched in the trees. They never got close enough to attack them, but they were still venturing around. Most likely looking for them.

When morning was finally dawning, they figured they would go ahead with their attack.

"We need to surround them, first. Make sure they can't get away. I'm sensing, close to fifty vampires with her. We do need to be careful, but if we time it out right, we can get rid of them in one swoop. As long as we don't get stragglers. Does everyone understand what we're doing?" Edward asked, looking to each of them for confirmation.

They each nodded with an understanding of what they needed to do. Their numbers were helpful, but not necessary. They could take out the entire group without blinking an eye. But they needed to make sure there was no other threat from another partial group of Maria's army out there.

"Alright, let's go." Bella whispered where each of them could hear.

Alice, Jasper, Charlotte and Peter made their way to the far side of the clearing, in the trees. And Rosalie, Emmett, Kate and Garrett filtered onto either side coming back to where Edward, Bella, Esme and Carlisle were.

Everyone stay in the trees until one of us give the signal. We need to see if she'll give us answers. But if they attack, then we'll fight. If someone surrenders, then we won't kill them right then. The normal rules of war can be applied here. Bella thought to Edward, Rosalie, Emmett, Alice and Jasper. They would let the others near them know, but agreed.

Edward, Bella, Carlisle and Esme slowly inched their way towards where they could see Maria. As soon as she could smell the four of them though, she turned and went into a defensive crouch; as did the vampires around her.

They stopped where they were and Carlisle held up his hands, showing they didn't mean any harm.

"We just wanted to know why you decided to come here. We have a permanent residence here, and would appreciate you not hunting in the area." Carlisle said in a calm voice.

Maria and the other vampires didn't relax their stance, though.

Edward could hear her thoughts, even though she refused to say anything.

Fucking vegetarian vampires. I can't wait to get rid of them. They're a disgrace to our kind. I can't believe how many of them live like this. Maria thought.

"She thinks we're unnatural." Edward muttered to the others, causing Maria to hiss at him and act like she was going to charge at him.

"Whoa! Slow your roll, bitch. You're the one that strolled into town and scouted us out. You're in our territory. We have every right to defend ourselves. He's just telling us what we need to know. So don't get your panties in a twist." Bella snarled at Maria.

Edward turned and cocked an eyebrow at her.

"What? I'm on a roll here." She told him quietly.

He just snickered.

"I don't care! I came here for a reason. And I think I have an advantage over just a few of you." Maria mocked them.

"She obviously doesn't know who we are. She would have at least a little bit of fear in her, if she did." Edward said, never taking his eyes off of Maria, who snapped her eyes to him.

"What the hell are you? How do you know all of that?" Maria snapped at him.

"I thought you didn't want to know?" Bella quipped, to which Maria just hissed. "Ok, ok fine. Ever hear the Powerful Sovereigns?"

They saw something sink into Maria's mind when Bella said that. Edward could tell she knew what they were talking about, but she didn't care. She would let the others die first, and she would try to get away from the fight.

"Nope, you're not getting out of this one. You started something, you're gonna finish it." Edward said to her when he saw her waver.

"You have a couple of options here, Maria. You can leave here, and disband your army, or you can try to fight us. Make a decision quickly or we will make it for you." Carlisle said in a very diplomatic tone.

Maria mulled it over for a bit. She didn't want to let them win. She was determined to do things her way. She wouldn't be deterred. She also thought she had the upper hand over them.

"You four will not stop me." Maria hissed.

"Obviously you don't know your history. For one thing, there are six that make up the Powerful Sovereigns. And two, my mother and father aren't two of them. So you do the math. There are at least four others of us out there in the trees, and more. Do you think we wouldn't have come prepared?" Bella asked her.

"So you still think that eight or ten vampires can defeat fifty or more? You have nothing on your side. I've got the numbers." Maria sneered at them.

Bella, Edward and the others noticed that more and more of the vampires were putting their focus on them. And Emmett, Rosalie, Kate, Garrett, Alice, Jasper, Peter and Charlotte were sneaking in around them.

"Maria, don't be foolish. You and these vampires that you've turned don't have to die, senselessly." Carlisle tried again.

Maria didn't want to hear anymore, and charged at them, towards Carlisle. But he dodged her.

Many of the vampires from Maria's army ran forward to fight them. Some of them got their hands on the four of them, but soon the first vampire was blown up, and most of them were now paying attention. Though they still fought. They just fought with more caution.

Emmett and the others started on the other side and got several of the vampires by surprise. But soon, the vampires noticed them, and turned to fight.

Maria skirted out of the way and let her army fight. She wanted to get the job done and not get her hands dirty, so to speak.

There was a whirlwind of activity going on in the clearing. You could see the odd blowing up of a vampire here and there, but with the amount of vampires against Bella and her family was hard to keep up with.

We've gotta surround them again. We can't keep fighting them like this. Bella thought to Edward and the others.

Ok, what if we can't get everyone out? Alice asked as she was trying to run to the exterior of the group.

We'll have to take our chances and go with whatever happens. We have to do this. Bella thought back as she made her way out.

"Everyone out!" Bella shouted to the others, since they couldn't hear her thoughts.

As they made their way through the crowd, they took note of the numbers. There were still at least thirty vampires left.

When Bella, Edward, Alice, Jasper, Emmett and Rosalie were around the outside of the army, they looked for their parents and noticed that Peter, Charlotte and Kate were still in the middle of the mass of enemy vampires.

Aw shit… Alice thought, looking at where her parents were. How are we gonna do this?

Bella started thinking of ways to get Peter, Charlotte and Kate out, but was only coming up with one.

"Bella, don't… please, just don't. How is that going to work anyways?" Edward begged her, while still looking at the scene in front of them.

"Edward, just trust me. Don't aim for the middle." Bella told him. You guys, distract them so I can get in there. She thought to the others.

Bells, no… Emmett started to object, but Bella stopped him.

EM, JUST DO IT.

"Carlisle, she's watching. And there are a few in the trees that got away, that didn't want to fight. I need you and Esme to stop her from leaving, and we somehow have to get the others to not leave either. Maybe we can get some answers out of them." Edward whispered.

Emmett, tell your dad, too. Edward thought to him.

Got it.

Emmett and Garrett backed away from the group, serving as one distraction. Alice and Jasper moved in the other direction, just so the vampires would follow their movements.

While most of the vampires were distracted on the other side of the clearing, Carlisle and Esme slipped back into the woods to follow Maria.

Bella took the chance to take of running into the middle of the group of Maria's army, towards Peter, Charlotte and Kate.

She was quick enough, and the mass of vampires was small enough together that she could easily get there without the others realizing it until she was there.

"Alright, I need you three to duck down, and stay huddled." Bella told them quickly before she turned back to the other vampires in front of her.

She quickly remembered what she did once before, and threw herself over Peter, Charlotte and Kate.

"GO!" Bella yelled at Edward.

Edward took a huge intake of air, and decided to trust Bella.

Em, Alice, you know her. Just trust her and do it. Edward thought to them.

Fuck it! Emmett thought, as he took his aim.

The rest of them saw what Bella wanted to do, and knew they only had this one shot.

They focused on where to fire, and the five of them proceeded to blow up Maria's army, trying to bend the flames around the mound of their family in the middle. Bella pulled her arms up from her spot, and tried to block the flames that were coming their way.

It took all her strength, considering it was coming at them from all angles, to stop the onslaught.

Eventually, when the smoke cleared and Edward could see across to where Bella, Peter, Charlotte and Kate were last at, he saw a motionless Bella on the ground.

"BELLA!" Edward yelled as he bolted to her side over a huge ring of fiery ashes. "Baby, wake up. Come on, beautiful, don't do this to me." He brought her into his lap and shook her shoulder, trying to get her to wake up.

It was several moments later and a lot of pacing from Emmett and Alice, until Bella finally came around.

"Babe? You ok?" Edward asked her, cautiously.

Bella sat up and saw her mother and father struggling with Maria to get her back to the clearing, where they still were.

"Not quite…" Bella answered vaguely as she stood slowly and walked towards Maria.

When she stopped in front of the struggling woman, and slapped her as hard as she could, knocking Maria off balance.

"If you ever thought about making your peace with God, I'd start right now. Because you have two choices. You can die like a coward, or you can face your death head on. Which one is it gonna be?" Bella asked her with a cold voice.

"Fuck you, you little bitch!" Maria spat at her, still struggling.

"Well, you were a coward to run away from a fight that you wanted in the first place. So how about we flip a coin? Sound fair?" Bella asked kind of mocking Maria.

Maria just jutted her chin out in defiance.

"Fine. I was giving you the option." Bella told her. She then turned to Edward. Anything on why she was doing this?

Edward had been trying to feel Maria out to see what was going on with her, and then he finally saw it. What she wanted to accomplish by doing all of this.

"She wanted to expose our kind… not just vegetarians, but all of us. So she could start something like the vampire hunts from hundreds of years ago, but she would try to hide. Let the majority of vampires be killed off and she would be one of only a few left. She couldn't do it alone, all over the world, so she needed the help to get rid of what she could around here, and then she would let the humans come after us. She figured she'd try to live differently than most of our kind." Edward explained to them in a voice full of distain for Maria.

Maria just narrowed her eyes at him. "How the hell did you figure that out? What are you freaks?" Maria snarled at him.

"I can read minds. Anyone's that is within a few miles. And the six of us can read each other's minds, as well. Pretty cool, huh?" Edward asked her as she still struggled.

"Does it matter? You're just going to kill me, so why are you toying with me? Just do it and be done with it." Maria said, hoping that they would have some form of mercy.

Maria wormed her way loose from Carlisle and Esme's hold and made a break for it.

"Really? She wants to do it this way? Stubborn woman…" Bella muttered, and then took her aim at Maria.

The next thing anyone saw was a black cloud of smoke and dust.

"Well, she was a coward until the end. But at least we won't have to worry about her anymore. Hopefully there aren't any faithful stragglers of her army." Edward mused. Then turned to the rest of them. "Where are the ones that didn't want to fight?"

Garrett and Emmett pointed to the small group of vampires at the edge of the clearing. There were about six of them and they all looked terrified.

Everyone walked over to the surrendered vampires and stopped to take them in.

There were two females and four males in the group. All of them seemed young, in actual age and vampire years.

"You all decided not to fight, but you still followed her here. Did you all just plan to not fight, or did you not want to die a painful death when the others started to turn to ashes?" Carlisle asked.

The oldest looking man, probably about twenty-eight, spoke up. "We didn't have a whole lot of options. Maria said we either had to join her or die. She told us that if we went out on our own, that people would know right away what we were and we would be killed. So we all stayed. None of us standing here wanted to fight. We've always kind of been in the background. Maria was one crazy bitch, though. I don't know how she thought she could get rid of so many vampires and not have it bite her in the ass one day."

"Well, we have a small problem. If the six of you are going to try and do the same as she did, then we can't let you all leave here. We won't let vampires try to upset the balance in the world. As long as they don't overdo it feeding, and making excessive vampires, like Maria did, then we won't have to intervene. So, do we have a problem with you all, or can you be peaceful?" Carlisle asked them.

The guy shook his head. "No, we won't be any trouble. We just want to live a life where we're not subjected to someone else's ploy for domination."

"Ok… If there are any of you who are willing to consider the vegetarian life, where you only feed off of animals, then you are welcome to stay here for a while and let us teach you about it. If not, then you can be on your way. But if you see any signs of anyone causing trouble in our world, then let them know that we will be around to stop them." Bella let them know, not being at all menacing, but still getting the point across.

They all nodded at her and two of the men took off towards the woods, and the other four stayed where they were.

The oldest looking female in the group, since the guy that had been speaking before ran off to the trees, spoke up.

"We're willing to learn a new way to live. Killing humans always seemed to be the darkest part of being a vampire."

"There are many depths of darkness to being a vampire. You just have to choose what you're willing to fight against to live happily." Bella said as they turned to head back to the Cullen home.

THE END!

WOOOHOOOO! It's finally finished! *happy dance*

Now, I'm going to start working on a new story….or two… haha

The major one I'm gonna do will be very….. Wait for it….. Mobward! Yes, it will be mobward, but from BPOV. I'm getting away from the gd third person writing. It drives me nuts sometimes. And I'm taking a break from vampires for a little bit. Now I know some of you read 'The Greatest Man I Never Knew', and it will not be exactly like that. I'm gonna go a different route with it, but hope it will still be good.

On a personal note: I can't believe how many people read and absolutely love that story. I was shocked and honored that so many enjoyed it.

And this story as well. So many of you have 'favorite'd it, and that just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. (I don't do warm and fuzzy normally. Lol)

Anyways, keep an eye out for the new story. It should be posting in a few weeks. I've gotta start getting a jump on it. I've got the ideas for it, I just gotta write it.

Thanks again to Laurie for helping me out with this story, and my others. She keeps me sane most of the time :p

Hope you guys have enjoyed this story. And thank you soooo much for taking this little journey with me. Much love.

Oh, and huge news! It's my birthday tomorrow! Woohoooo! Ugh, I'm turning 26 *face palm*