Disclaimer: All things Twilight belong to Stephenie Meyer, I just play with her characters. No copyright infringement is intended.

Before us the final chapter of Parallax. I'd like to say thanks to all the readers, especially Lorraine Bubbleybear who guided me through the creative process of building this story. She was the mirror I needed to reflect my ideas in to test their viability. Special thanks also go out to JenRar who beta'd this puppy when my original beta couldn't do it anymore. In the coming weeks I'm going to replace all unbeta'd chapters.

This is not the end, I'm working on the third and last story in this trilogy. I'm asking you all to be patient though. It will take me a while, still working on the storyline. I know what I want, now I need to work it into how to get there.

Enjoy this chapter.

Chapter 23

EPOV

The box closed with a snap, and just like that, it was over. The most entitled being on the planet was reduced to an object that served a humble purpose: helping my mate to diversify her power. From megalomaniac to part of a spice rack. I had to stop the absurd paths my mind was taking and looked at Marcus for some guidance. I was glad when he took charge, his many, many years of experience taking over.

"That's that. I have to say that right now, I'm a little at a loss. I reached a goal I nurtured for over fifteen hundred years. All I can say is we need to regroup and make sure the true values of the Volturi are restored. Okay, well, yes… First order of business, the council.

"As you all are aware, I'm taking over from Aro, effective immediately. I will keep my brother Caius on the council with me, and not only because we are so used to working together that we don't even need to confer. I think he's proven his worth, and I think he can be considered a royal in his own right. Until her change is complete, my beautiful Didyme will not be on the council. I want to give her all the time in the world to prepare for that task.

"Now, there are two vampires in this room who can claim a seat on the council. I'd like to know if you are going to do that or if you need time to prepare yourselves too. Edward, I can completely understand if you would want to be away from the castle for some time after being hung like a side of beef for four months, always immersed in the vile mind of a dictator to cut off his plans."

I looked at Bella. We conferred inside our mind and decided we would take a few months off before we'd help Didyme on her quest. That's what I told Marcus. The council would be our destiny, but the quest we started on had yet another leg to complete. We would coach Didyme and be her companions on whatever trek she had to complete to become once again Didyme of the Volturi. Bella wanted to go back to Chicago and delve more into my mother's history. I concurred. My time there had been overshadowed by the ancients' visit.

I caught thoughts that were out of sync with the rest of the guards. Two of them were sulking in different ways. The first was Anthenodora. She stood next to a beaming Sulpicia and tried to get her attention.

'Why does she ignore me? She fell farther and deeper than I ever could. That stupid twit had me demoted even before Aro went bonkers. Now I know why. The asshole found his human mate, and it didn't even surprise me. I never thought he really mated me—I sure as hell didn't mate with him for real. The power was what lured me in. He just tolerated me next to him because Aro blackmailed him into it. Aro wanted him mated any which way he could, to prevent a disaster like what happened with Marcus. Human found mates are a liability; that's what Aro always told me. He would make me a queen in the vampire world. Well, that worked out like a house on fire with the vampire inside. At least I can try and disrupt things as much as I am able. I should still hold some of my power over the lower guards.'

The other was surprising and needed immediate action. The anti-tracker, Alistair, was confident he could run with Didyme and keep them hidden. In his mind, because she was still human, she would be meek and understanding. He would kill her if needed, sending Marcus into another tailspin. He wasn't old enough as a vampire to know Marcus before Didyme's murder, and his act in the throne room whenever Aro held audiences had him convinced Marcus couldn't be as great as Aro.

Bella had, of course, listened in, and before Anthenodora could start smoozing the guards, she had her in front of Marcus, telling him what we had overheard. Didyme took a step away from Rosalie and Emmett. Alastair sprang into action, only to collide with Emmett's solid chest and bounce back into my waiting arms. I brought him front and centre too.

"My, my, my. We didn't have to wait long to see the real heart of some of you, did we?" Marcus stated from his throne in the middle of the dais, right next to Caius's throne. Aro's chair had been broken up, and the pieces were thrown into the incinerator. "If you two thought you could get away with undermining this council, you're very mistaken. Our junior members can read minds without ever touching you. Now, tell the truth, or we will wring it out of you like we did with my late brother-in-law. Why were you two trying to act against a newly reinstated government without giving it a chance?"

Both of them didn't answer, not convinced that my mate was as powerful as was stated. I informed her that it might be advantageous to showcase her power once again, this time putting up the infractions of the two we couldn't have had prepared beforehand. Their inner motivations might be handy to decide their fate. Both of them had already, in the former leadership's eyes, committed treason, punishable by death.

Bella tried to use the number-four power but only found blood lust. The power bowl inside the head case had been starved for three weeks, and its reservoir was still empty. The power bowl couldn't function without sustenance. Bella asked the guard if any of them had their food kit on them. Several guards were eager to please the gutsy woman who'd walked into the throne room all alone and brought down their cruel oppressor with minimal help. One look with Marcus's power into the subconscious loyalties around the room showed her that beside the two traitors, every single guard had bonded themselves to Marcus and her. The second line was made up by Didyme and me, with Caius a close third.

Bella took a gallon of base from one guard and a box of additions from a second one. With practiced moves, she mixed up a basic human blood approximation without any of the taste-specific additions. She then blooded all head cases through their filling points, all while explaining to the guard that even though the power bowls would exist for eternity without sustenance, she would take care of her powers. Joking, she added that the powers would be less grumpy while being fed on a regular basis. The thoughts from the guard were synchronous, one loud voice comprised of many. They knew, with that explanation, that she was worthy of Marcus's implied seat on the council.

Marcus's mind was crunching a number of facts. His conclusion was surprising; he wanted to declare the death penalty a less severe punishment than incarceration. His meaning on it was that the perpetrator got off easy when he was destroyed. The perpetrator also could reincarnate right after being destroyed, thus living another life while the victims of his or her crimes had to live with it until they themselves were destroyed or chose death. He was, however, not a fan of stringing people up like what had been done to me. When he thought about it, the head cases flashed through his mind, and I was witness to the birth of a new punishment: the delayed death sentence. He would create his own head storage room, with automatic refills of the reservoirs. The perpetrators would be destroyed but for their heads. Those would be stored in the head room, for as long as their punishment was ordered, before the head, too, would be burned and the soul released to be reincarnated.

He addressed Anthenodora once again. She still refused to acknowledge him. This time, however, she was distracted by the flat screen that showed a new list of infractions against vampire law. The list was full of secretive manipulation behind the scenes, never dirtying her own hands. This perpetrator was the instigator of a lot of acts that the guard implemented. Due to their captive loyalties, they couldn't do anything but obey the orders received. Anthenodora's distraction was understandable because she was looking at the content of her own mind. Her whole master plan was on the screen, bullet points and all. It once again proved that every dictator had brown nosers who were only there to take over his reign.

"Anthenodora, before you, you see the content of your mind that had to do with your lust for power. You are devoid of any power, so repurposing your head for what's inside is ludicrous. I am not, however, keen to simply destroy you. That would be letting you off easy. Felix, I've got a remodeling job for you. We no longer have a need for a human-keeping pen. Those two rooms in the dungeon can be remodeled to our new prison. The pantry of the delayed-death-sentence heads. Because destruction means reincarnation, I'm no longer willing to destroy traitors and other perpetrators of death-penalty crimes right away. It wouldn't be justice. They are destroyed and jumping right back into a new life, while their victims have to live with the aftermath of the crime the rest of their existence. Well, my solution is to give those perpetrators the death penalty but delay the burning of their head for anything between a decade and a millennium. Anthenodora, because your proven crimes were high treason, your delayed death will be a millennium away. Demetri, please dismember and mount her head in a head container as soon as possible. I think Didyme would like to fill the incinerator when the parts are handed to her in the least threatening way."

Before Anthenodora's mind caught up with what exactly was said, she was in pieces. Her mind whirled. She hadn't thought that Marcus was as decisive as he had just shown to be. With her Masen-coven bodyguards, Didyme made her way over to the incinerator carrying a benign piece of the former companion of Caius, her forearm. Emmett had made sure that the twitching parts and the heavy torso were brought to the roaring fire by himself and Felix.

Marcus turned to Alistair when the last part besides her head disappeared into the flames. He opened his mouth to address him, but before any sound could leave his mouth, the doors to the throne room were thrown open and two excited girls ran to Marcus. They looked to be changed at the cusp of adulthood and acted that age too. When Emmett and Felix stepped in front of Marcus to protect him from this sudden attack, they stopped dead in their tracks in perfect synchronicity and rolled their eyes at the wall of muscle. Their thoughts came through, and those, too, were in sync. I heard one thought in a dual voice.

"Our God, why would his oldest friends not be welcome now? Did the muscle growth diminish your brain development?" They spoke as one.

"Ladies," Marcus said, "you'll have to excuse them. The miscreant I just started to address attempted to kidnap Didyme not so long ago. Please be grateful you followed your instinct and stopped as soon as you were challenged."

As if they were mirror images of each other, they each raised a hand over their hearts while the other hand slapped over their mouths, which emitted a synchronized gasp at the message. They were a conundrum. I had never seen two vampires as synchronized as they were. A look with Marcus's power showed a different kind of special bond shining between them. The yellowish color betrayed its origin. The pair were fraternal twins. Their twin bond had changed into something unique. It appeared to me as one soul in two bodies or two souls melted together.

"These two remarkable women are my oldest followers. They found me alone in the wild just after my sire had to leave. They knew I was Royal—how, even they don't know—and pledged their loyalty to me. They told me to find a trusted individual who was from a royal line. They made me change Caius to stand beside me. At my left, we have Loretta, and her twin sister is Paulette—at least for now. They reinvented themselves a few times in the three and a half millennia we've spent together. Here in Volterra, they act as the librarians who also keep the records," Marcus explained to us all.

"Now, let's conclude our business here in the throne room, then follow them to the library, because if they entered this excited, they have found something good.

"Bella, would you please harvest Alistair's memories to determine his motives for his unwarranted attempt to kidnap my Didyme?"

Not two seconds later, the blank screen started scrolling. What came up was fractured and repetitive. It showed very simple thought processes. Bella drew me into his mind to assess it. She couldn't understand how his mind was built. Looking around, I began to grasp what was wrong with his mind. Aro's power made it possible to roam around the basic structure of the mind; besides the memory hall, we also had access to the separate tracks in the mind. Alistair's tracks were special. Half of them were bricked over, inaccessible to him. That and the childlike thought processes had me draw a conclusion that wouldn't have been available when he was changed. This Alistair was changed despite the fact that he was autistic. I pulled Bella to a blank wall, and together we slipped into his subconscious.

We almost fell right back out. His whole subconscious foyer was filled by a gigantic statue of Aro cupping Alistair's cheek. It pulsed with energy, and we could feel that it was rooted deep in his mind. The throbbing energy coming off the statue made us withdraw from his subconscious rather fast. That kind of zealous devotion was irreversible. His memories showed he always worked to gain Aro's approval. His simple world vision had him unable to understand death. He couldn't grasp that Aro was removed from knowing history and demoted to being number four, the memory collector. The guard was quiet, shocked at the content of his mind. He was a genealogy savant. Everything was ordered by blood or venom lines. He had studied the mating registry and pieced together things we never thought about. I noticed that Bella had three tendrils busy with his memories because that info could be important. She was, however, convinced that he couldn't be saved. To be redeemable, his devotion to Aro had to be muted, but she had seen something in his subconscious that had her doubting the possibility of ever erasing it.

"Marcus, it'll take me another five minutes to extract all information, but his devotion to Aro will not go away. It is anchored in his being. He can't help himself; it is just the way his brain is wired. He needs to impress his father figure. Please be lenient to him. No delays. He deserves to be free of the oppression now ruling his mind. I know his infraction can't be overlooked, but his behavior won't change without destroying the fabric of his mind. My recommendation is death without delay."

"Alistair," Marcus addressed the cowering vampire, "do you understand what you did was wrong?"

Alistair looked up at Marcus and shrunk a little more into himself. "My sire has been destroyed. I'm his heir. That means I need to be taking over his place. He didn't like your mate. I was going to rectify her entering this castle against his wishes. He taught me right from wrong. Even though I didn't see him much, he is still the one I follow. I know of no wrong I did."

Marcus sighed. He, too, saw that no rehabilitation would remove the brainwashing Alistair had received. He looked at every member of the council—Didyme, Caius, and me—as he already knew Bella's mind. He received unanimous nods of compliance. As soon as Bella signaled she was ready, Alistair was ripped apart and incinerated without much fanfare. He would be able to go on in a new life.

Paulette and Loretta started bouncing on their toes again and grabbed Marcus's and Didyme's hands, trying to tow them out of the throne room. Marcus held his ground, and Emmett helped Didyme to hold hers.

"Ladies, please, we will follow you, but let us walk for ourselves. We aren't as in tune as you two are with each other," Marcus admonished them, holding back his smile.

He picked up Didyme bridal style and asked the council and its coven to follow him; the guard was dismissed to their own activities. At vampire speed, we strode to the library. Didyme still had to get used to the human reaction her body had to the speed. She hid her face in the crook of Marcus's neck. The twins led us to a back corner of the library. A large vase with silk flowers stood out between the bookcases. Paulette grabbed the only white rose in the composition and pulled it out of the vase—or did she? We all heard the click, and the wall behind the vase opened up to a secret room.

Every wall of the secret room was covered in floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, which were filled to capacity with everything from scrolls to CD cases.

"Didyme," Paulette said.

Loretta took over. "This is your library."

Switching back and forth, they continued.

"We gathered everything…"

"…we thought you could use to…"

"…continue the studies you started."

Marcus sighed, looking a little perturbed. "Ladies, switch, please. You're not the Romanians."

The girls giggled and continued their speech in the stereo speak they'd used in the throne room.

"We gathered as much as we could on language studies and diplomacy we could find. On the left are all your old books we collected from your quarters after you were temporarily removed."

Didyme squealed like the teenager she was until recently and stepped around the ornate vase and started to browse the books. "Well, this will keep me busy for quite some time. I see several dictionaries for languages long dead now. It's a shame my father turned out to be such a douche. He would have loved to work out the box with me… Oh, who am I kidding here? He would have taken over and belittled my knowledge."

Everybody but Marcus left her to her own devices and retreated from the library.

'Edward, Bella, take your jet and go anywhere. You two need alone time to reconnect. We'll call if you're needed, but scram for now,' Marcus thought to us, waving us off from our mental flat screen. The crafty bugger had figured out how to invade our mental home.

We retreated from the castle and went to the cave. All of the Masen coven gathered in the library. Carlisle sat vibrating near the door to the laboratory. Esme had taken her place beside him and tried to calm him down enough that he would be able to explain his excitement. After ten minutes of deep breathing, he had the feral part of his nature that had burst forth at his latest discovery under control. That feral part had been riled up even more by the action in the throne room.

"Okay, searching for the specialty additions, I've found an addition that will probably become part of the base. Actually, it's two additions that need to be added in a specific ratio to each other; I hit it by accident. Together they bond with the crystalline structure of our skin and subdue the reflective properties of that structure. At this moment, I don't know yet if it will be a permanent addition to our skin or if it will burn up like any other nutrition we consume."

Emmett sat staring at him with a dumbfounded look in his eyes. His jaw hanging open, he looked as if he had zoned out after Carlisle took the word. It took a few moments, but he shook himself out of it and pierced Carlisle with a suspicious look in his eyes.

"Did you use all those big words to tell us you accidentally found the anti-sparkle addition?"

Carlisle looked down at his shoes. He seemed embarrassed by being called out on his science speak. After a few moments, he gave one firm nod. Bella came to his rescue and complimented him on looking further than his goal of finding the specialty additions for those of our race who had special needs. Her mind was a bit disgruntled that he hadn't started on the humanitarian additions she needed to create her artificial singer blood.

"Okay, everybody. Are you able to find something to do for the next few months? After our semi-forced separation, Edward and I need some time alone. We are going to explore his Chicago home, because apart from needing to be close to each other, we also feel the need to dig into his resurfaced human memories."

Now it was my turn to study the toes of my shoes, lest I should give away my state of arousal. Nothing turned me on as much as my mate taking control; I knew my eyes had to be pitch black.

"Wait a minute!" Rose interjected. "What do you mean, semi-forced?"

Bella let out a pealing laugh. "You caught that, did you? Well, to bring Aro down, we needed a trusted spy inside the castle. Do you know of anyone more suited for that job than Edward? Aro thought he had a powerless wimp hanging in his dungeon, his thoughts not mine. Instead, he harbored the most powerful mind reader ever. A mind reader who purposefully stunned himself into unconsciousness by using number two's power on himself. He was a plant, there to ensure my power access to the inhabitants and an almost unlimited access to every secret in the castle."

She sat back, shrugging a shoulder in a nonchalant move of indifference.

"You're not serious. Why would you do that?" Esme exclaimed.

"Simple: because it was the unexpected. That's why it worked like a charm. It's not something we will do again willingly, because it does eat at the tranquility of our mind. It appears that even though we can be apart without separation pain, the physical contact is still a vital part of our relationship."

Emmett opened his mouth but stopped himself from saying anything. His mind was another matter. A whole slew of racy jokes flew through it. They all ended up rejected. He couldn't, however, stop his eyebrows from wiggling in response to his thoughts. I smiled when a mere raised eyebrow from Rose quelled even that symptom. He'd come a long way.

Jasper spoke up. "If you two go to Chicago, please send the database I made on the computer there to the cave system. When Kate and I come back from being alone for a while, we will start integrating the artificial-blood ordering system with the mating registry and that database.

"We also need to find out if there are still more royals around. If we integrate all three data sources, we should be able to start up a worldwide vampire population register. That'll have to wait, though. Now that we're mated, Kate and I need some privacy soon. We delayed as long as possible."

The whole coven nodded, including Bella and myself.

Jasper snorted and thought, 'Damn, was I that boring?'

Bella shot him a reassuring smile and said, "Well, that's obvious, and not to be delayed. That's torture. Emmett, Rose, I think you'd be the best chaperones for Didyme, for propriety's sake as well as to give her direction through Rosalie's power. Give her and Marcus space but never leave them alone to prevent them from getting carried away."

They accepted their assignment, and both looked happy to spend more time with Didyme. I took out my phone and informed Marcus of the arrangement and asked him to work his integrating magic on both of them to balance out the hard work they did on their minds.

"May I suggest something?" Esme asked, almost shy. "I'd like to work on the artificial blood sales website. It'll take me some time to work it all out without Jasper here to help me, but I would like to feel that I'm contributing to the greater picture you've all been working on, too. I'll just design it. I'll leave the security and all that to Jasper and Marcus. I just want to do something. I feel useless hanging around here."

"Oh, Esme, I'm so sorry. I've been so preoccupied that I didn't see that," Bella exclaimed. "Of course, the design job is yours. I wouldn't know anyone better suited!"

With that said, everybody started to go about their business, either packing bags to have some reserve clothing or shooting back into the laboratory to once again further science in the vampire way. Jasper gave his laptop to Esme and showed her all the programs she could need to build a website as well as a few tutorials for those programs—the same ones he used to learn them. He opened his browser and favorited a few websites that held manuals for the programs. At vampire speed, he made sure that everything Esme could need was set up, because Kate stood next to the exit, waiting for him. Bella and I were the last to leave. The fact that we were reluctant to have any space between us hindered efficient packing. There was also the fact that we had no schedule to keep because we could file our flight plan at any moment and the private airport guaranteed a departure within thirty minutes from filing. After about three hours, we were in the air and on our way to my roots.

Once in the air with the plane on auto-pilot, I allowed my mind to go over the four months I'd hung out in the castle. The change that occurred in those months was remarkable. It proved to me that the forced loyalty hadn't taken root in the core of the guard. They couldn't even think freely but still retained the morals Marcus had worked hard to set in the vampire world. The new feeding would make our kind less conspicuous, I hoped to the point that we'd be forgotten by humankind. Carlisle's enthusiasm was making us even less noticeable. To walk through the sun without causing a riot on the boulevards of Saint Tropez would open up the pieces of life, until now, forbidden. The fact that we didn't have to hide in the shadows any longer was a very freeing feeling.

I looked over to Bella, who was immersed in a thick manual of the plane. She wanted to be able to fly it too. She had come so far from the timid girl I'd met a year and a half ago; not only had she become a vampire but a leader of our kind. Her determination to succeed was only dimmed by her compassion. I knew she would be landing the plane flawlessly upon arrival in Chicago. Once she started learning, she wouldn't stop until she conquered the topic. Her determination taught me to start learning again. I'd existed for far too long in an easy compliance with the status quo.

The shift from doing the same mind-numbing thing over and over to blend in with a world we didn't belong in anymore, to thriving and learning to exist in our natural habitat, was life affirming. Marcus taught us to be one person, to blend human and vampire traits and characteristics into a coherent picture. Without the endless struggle inside, I knew I had grown into my own.

The future looked somewhat sunny. No more dictator with crazy ideas of propriety over individuals. The only mysteries left were the crazy mumblings of the ancients. To rediscover the origins of our kind.

Thank you for taking this journey with me. Please let me know what you thought. Please review.

My final recommendations are two of my absolute favorites:

Reboot by Diana Law. It's near the end of Breaking Dawn and the Volturi Confrontation does NOT end peacefully. They attack and Bella and Edward both die. So how come it's Bella's first day in Forks, all over again? Ffn 6222640

Elemental by TalluhlahBelle. When the Swans return to their birthplace, Bella learns she is no ordinary teenager, and Forks is no ordinary town. Can she fulfill her destiny with the powerful Edward Cullen, or will the dark forces that threaten their families destroy them all. Ffn 5241793

Enjoy reading, see you next time

Pien