𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐄𝐃𝐄𝐍, aro volturi ✓

𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐘 𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓

┏━━━━⋆｡‧˚ʚ ❀ ɞ˚‧｡⋆━━━━┓

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!"