Twilight Imagines

The new Denali Part 4

Word count: 1724

A heavy glare came from Caius, staring with enraged disbelief at Kate and Garrett in the snow. Aro was watching the same two, incredulity the strongest emotion on his face. He knew what Kate could do. He had felt her potency through Edward's memories.
The Volturi guard no longer stood at disciplined attention - they were crouched forward, waiting to spring the counterstrike the moment we attacked. Behind them, forty-three witnesses watched with very different expressions than the ones they'd worn entering the clearing. Confusion had turned to suspicion. The lightning-fast destruction of Irina had shaken them all. What had been her crime?
Without the immediate attack that Caius had counted on to distract from his rash act, the Volturi witnesses were left questioning exactly what was going on here.
Aro glanced back swiftly while you watched, his face betraying him with one flash of vexation. His need for an audience had backfired badly. you heard Stefan and Vladimir murmur to each other in quiet glee at Aro's discomfort.
Aro touched Caius's shoulder lightly. "Irina has been punished for bearing false witness against this child. Perhaps we should return to the matter at hand?" Caius straightened, and his expression hardened into unreadability. He stared forward, seeing nothing.
Aro drifted forward, Renata, Felix, and Demetri automatically moving with him. "Just to be thorough," he said, "I'd like to speak with a few of your witnesses. Procedure, you know." He waved a hand dismissively. You zonder out, still holding Tanya close to you, her form shaking with anger and grief.

"There is no broken law," Aro said in a placating voice, bringing your attention back, but every vampire could hear that a qualification was coming. "No broken law," Aro repeated, and he started this long speech about the dangers off the unknown.
"You're reaching, Aro," Carlisle said in a bleak voice. "Peace, friend." Aro smiled, his face as kind, his voice as gentle, as ever. "Let us not be hasty. Let us look at this from every side."
"May I offer a side to be considered?" Garrett petitioned in a level tone, taking another step forward.
"Nomad," Aro said, nodding in permission.
Garrett's chin lifted. His eyes focused on the huddled mass at the end of the meadow, and he spoke directly to the Volturi witnesses. 'what are you doing, fool?' you thought as you watched your best friend step closer to the foes.
"I came here at Carlisle's request, as the others, to witness," he said. "That is certainly no longer necessary, with regard to the child. We all see what she is. I stayed to witness something else. You." He jabbed his finger toward the wary vampires.
"Two of you I know - Makenna, Charles - and I can see that many of you others are also wanderers, roamers like myself. Answering to none. Think carefully on what I tell you now. These ancient ones did not come here for justice as they told you. We suspected as much, and now it has been proved. They came, misled, but with a valid excuse for their action. Witness now as they seek flimsy excuses to continue their true mission. Witness them struggle to find a justification for their true purpose - to destroy this family here." He gestured toward Carlisle and Tanya. "The Volturi come to erase what they perceive as the competition. Perhaps, like me, you look at this clan's golden eyes and marvel. They are difficult to understand, it's true. But the ancient ones look and see something besides their strange choice. They see power. I have witnessed the bonds within this family - I say family and not coven. These strange golden-eyed ones deny their very natures. But in return have they found something worth even more, perhaps, than mere gratification of desire? I've made a little study of them in my time here, and it seems to me that intrinsic to this intense family binding - that which makes them possible at all - is the peaceful character of this life of sacrifice. There is no aggression here like we all saw in the large southern clans that grew and diminished so quickly in their wild feuds. There is no thought for domination. And Aro knows this better than I do."

You watched Aro's face as Garrett's words condemned him, waiting tensely for some response. But Aro's face was only politely amused, as if waiting for a tantrum-throwing child to realize that no one was paying attention to his histrionics. "Carlisle assured us all, when he told us what was coming, that he did not call us here to fight. These witnesses" - Garrett pointed to Siobhan and Liam - "agreed to give evidence, to slow the Volturi advance with their presence so that Carlisle would get the chance to present his case.
"But some of us wondered" - his eyes flashed to Eleazars face - "if Carlisle having truth on his side would be enough to stop the so-called justice. Are the Volturi here to protect the safety of our secrecy, or to protect their own power? Did they come to destroy an illegal creation, or a way of life? Could they be satisfied when the danger turned out to be no more than a misunderstanding? Or would they push the issue without the excuse of justice? We have the answer to all these questions. We heard it in Aro's lying words - we have one with a gift of knowing such things for certain - and we see it now in Caius's eager smile. Their guard is just a mindless weapon, a tool in their masters' quest for domination. So now there are more questions, questions that you must answer. Who rules you, nomads? Do you answer to someone's will besides your own? Are you free to choose your path, or will the Volturi decide how you will live? I came to witness. I stay to fight. The Volturi care nothing for the death of the child. They seek the death of our free will." He turned, then, to face the ancients. "So come, I say! Let's hear no more lying rationalizations. Be honest in your intents as we will be honest in ours. We will defend our freedom. You will or will not attack it. Choose now, and let these witnesses see the true issue debated here."
Once more he looked to the Volturi witnesses, his eyes probing each face. The power of his words was evident in their expressions. "You might consider joining us. If you think the Volturi will let you live to tell this tale, you are mistaken. We may all be destroyed" - he shrugged - "but then again, maybe not. Perhaps we are on more equal footing than they know. Perhaps the Volturi have finally met their match. I promise you this, though - if we fall, so do you." He ended his heated speech by stepping back to Kate's side and then sliding forward in a half-crouch, prepared for the onslaught.

Aro smiled. "Avery pretty speech, my revolutionary friend." Garrett remained poised for attack. "Revolutionary?" he growled. "Who am I revolting against, might I ask? Are you my king? Do you wish me to call you master, too, like your sycophantic guard?" you wanted to slap him so badly. This might make the whole situation a lot worse.
"Peace, Garrett," Aro said tolerantly. "I meant only to refer to your time of birth. Still a patriot, I see." Garrett glared back furiously.
"Let us ask our witnesses," Aro suggested. "Let us hear their thoughts before we make our decision. Tell us, friends" - and he turned his back casually on us, moving a few yards toward his mass of nervous observers hovering even closer now to the edge of the forest - "what do you think of all this?" Many of their witnesses left, trying to get as far away from them hoping it would save them some time before Demetri would find them.

"We are outnumbered, dearest ones," he said. "We can expect no outside help. Should we leave this question undecided to save ourselves?" "No, master," they whispered in unison. "Is the protection of our world worth perhaps the loss of some of our number?" "Yes," they breathed. "We are not afraid." Aro smiled and turned to his black-clad companions.
"Brothers," Aro said somberly, "there is much to consider here."
"Let us counsel," Caius said eagerly.
"Let us counsel," Marcus repeated in an uninterested tone.
Aro turned his back to your group again, facing the other ancients. They joined hands to form a black-shrouded triangle.

"Is there no hope, then?" Carlisle whispered. There was no fear in his voice. Just determination and acceptance. You turned around and saw Bella and Edward saying goodbye to Renesmee, and you knew in that moment what was happening. Your grip tightened around Tanya, knowing this would be the last time you could before the sweet kiss of death would consume you.

"There is absolutely hope," Bella murmured back. "I only know my own fate." Edward took her hand. He knew that he was included. When I said my fate, there was no question that I meant the two of us. We were just halves of the whole.

Esme's breath was ragged behind you. She moved past her family, touching their faces as she passed, to stand beside Carlisle and hold his hand. Suddenly, the ally group was surrounded by murmured goodbyes and I love you's.

"If we live through this," Garrett whispered to Kate, "I'll follow you anywhere, woman."

"Now he tells me," she muttered.

Tanya turned around in your arms and wrapped her arms around your neck. "I am so sorry our time wasn't much longer, my love." You said, holding her closely to you. "Shush and kiss me." Was all Tanya said before she placed her lips on yours passionately. You kissed back as passionate as you could, pouring all your love you had for this woman into it.

Rosalie and Emmett kissed quickly but passionately. Tia caressed Benjamin's face. He smiled back cheerfully, catching her hand and holding it against his cheek.

There was no change in the silent, still forms of the counselling ancients. But perhaps there was some signal you'd missed.

"Get ready," Bella whispered to the others. "It's starting."