200 Years Without The Cullens

Chapter 20-The Rebels Assemble

A/N

Hey there! I'm aiming to finish this by September, so updates should be frequent. I was planning on dragging out the impending doom that is the Volturi for longer, but I didn't know how to. Needless to say, I'm not going to force it. I apologise if you don't like the time-jump in the start of this chapter, but it's how it's going to be, so... *shrugs*

Enjoy!

Lucy xX

***

Let's face it, there's nothing in the world more terrifying for a human than being surrounded by a house-full of vampires. Except, perhaps, being surrounded by a house-full of vampires, some of which had red eyes. Quite frankly, I couldn't even begin to understand how Jacob and Katrina felt, surrounded by covens and covens of vampires.

It had been two months since Alice had had her vision of the Volturi coming and attacking us, and since then, we'd all been working very hard to gather vampires together that would be willing to fight against the Volturi with us. Carlisle had been collecting on his debts and finding old friends, Esme by his side, and Alice and Jasper had been trying to locate some that Jasper had known from his time with Maria. They'd been unable to locate the woman herself, unfortunately.

Rose and Emmett, along with Eleazer, had been discussing tac-tics for the upcoming fight, and Irina had been researching all things Volturi. Literally. She now knew far more than Eleazer, and was quick to correct any of us if we got our facts wrong. Irina was a surprising help, and had even taken to weeding information out of our guests.

Kate, Edward and myself? Not only had we been playing mediator between covens, and between Jacob and vampires, but we'd had the most difficult and tiresome job of persuading covens to join our cause. Kate had been an immense help with this task, owing mostly to her wicked sense of humour, and quick wit.

It hadn't taken long at all to track down the Romanians, and they'd been most willing to help. They even pulled some strings to find us some nomads, who were also extremely skilled fighters. Edward had caught me asking one of them for tips, this being the first time I'd actually fought any vampires, and had immediately begun stressing out. Jasper had remedied this by asking our guests to help me practise. It had been great, and had allowed me to release some of my frustration. You can hardly blame me. My life had been year after year of problems. I was ready for it all to be over.

The first coven we'd tracked down was the Amazon Coven, which consisted of three vampires. Kachiri, Senna and Zafrina, who could create illusions of her choice. According to Eleazer, she could be essential to our fight. Unfortunately, this all depended on taking out the right vampires of the Volturi guard at the right time.

Alice and Jasper had returned next with Peter and Charlotte, friends of Jasper. They'd kept to themselves for the most part, but apparently they were great fighters. I'd believe that when I saw it. They'd made no attempt to make conversation with anyone, and had turned their noses up at my practises. Alice and Jasper had also managed to find two mated nomads. Charles, who had a knack for sensing the truth, and Makenna. They'd also found a couple of lone vampires, by the names of Mary and Randall. They'd watched my practises, but hadn't contributed. The last of Alice and Jasper's vampires was a man called Garrett, who helped excessively with my training. He and Kate had also... Clicked. So to speak.

Unlike Alistair.

The Romanians had contacted him, and dragged him to us. He'd been reluctant, from what I understood, but he knew Carlisle, and was an old friend. He seemed to take great delight in watching me fall to the ground by his hands, to then have other vampires advise me. He was a fantastic partner to practise with, as he didn't seem to like me very much. According to Edward, he didn't really like anyone much, which comforted me a little. Not really enough though.