Disclaimer: I do not own any characters from Twilight or from the Mercedes Lackey "Heralds of Valdemar" series. I only own Artemis, Apollo and Delphina and any other characters that you don't recognize. So, if you think I'm making any money from this, you are sadly mistaken. :p

Author's Note: Okay, so this is a cross over story between Twilight and the Mercedes Lackey series, "The Heralds of Valdemar". It came to me and I totally can't get it to go away, so I'm going to write this and post it. Updates may be sparse, since I am working on a couple of other stories, but I hope everyone likes it! Please read and review. Reviews are like crack to my muse. She can't live without it. Also, the story title comes from a Smashing Pumpkins song, so I don't own that either. :(

Chapter 1.

Echoes from the Past

"Aro! Aro!" the little girl squealed as her brother came into view. "Pony ride?"

The black haired child looked at the toddler who was gazing at him in adoration. "Sure, Arte, but my name is Aros," he told her, trying to get her to pronounce his first name correctly. He didn't expect her to, since she had just had her second birthday, but he did want to try.

Artemis nodded happily. "Aro," she said with a smile. Sighing, Aros gave up and let her clamor onto his back for her daily pony ride.

Artemis opened her eyes, the memory bringing back the all too familiar pain of her childhood innocence. The pain of how bright and sunny her world was as she grew up, the pain of knowing what she had to give up. She shook her head, determined not to let the memories overwhelm her as much as she had allowed in the past. She gazed at the setting sun, her golden eyes gleaming from atop her hiding place at the top of the trees in the Amazon rain forest. She knew that she was going to have to leave, sooner than later, but the she was reluctant to let go of her hard won sense of peace. She still didn't understand why those memories were still so strong after so many years.

Sighing, she gracefully jumped down from the tree as the sun vanished over the horizon, already making plans for her necessary journey north.

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Bella was waiting on Alice, somewhat impatiently, in the designer clothing store. "Alice? Are you done yet?" she called out. I hate shopping!

Alice stepped out of the dressing room, showing off the sophisticated outfit she had chosen. "I just love shopping," she giggled.

Bella sighed in defeat while nodding her head that she liked the outfit that Alice had chosen. She knew that Alice was going to keep her trapped here until she was satisfied that Bella had a wardrobe to make a starlet green in envy. "Really Alice, we've bought enough to clothe us for at least a year. Can we go home now," she almost whined.

Alice looked at her in exasperation. "Bella, you need to stop being a tomboy. We are shopping and you are going to like it!" she ordered as she thrust another handful of towards her.

"Fine," Bella said petulantly as she grabbed the clothes and started towards the dressing room. When she entered it, she stared morosely at the clothes that Alice had picked out for her. All dresses. Not that she didn't like to wear a dress every now and then, but she was more a jeans and T-shirt kind of girl. "When is she going to learn that I prefer to wear jeans?" she muttered to herself. She struggled into the dress, not sure if she was wearing it properly. Finally, with a last wiggle of her hips, she got the dress settled, but wasn't sure if she wanted to buy it.

"Alice?" she asked as she walked out of the room. "Is this on…" she trailed off when she saw that the older vampire's face was blank. By the stillness of her features, she was certain that Alice was having a vision. A few seconds later, animation came back to her face and she snapped out of her trance.

"That looks gorgeous on you," Alice gushed before grabbing Bella's hand. "But, we have to go." She quickly moved a stunned Bella to the dressing room and instructed her to change as quickly as possible. "I'll go pay while you get dressed," she said as she rushed out of the room.

Bella dressed somberly and by the time she walked outside, she saw that she wasn't quick enough. Alice was already in the car, the engine of the sleek yellow sports car purring gently. "What's wrong, Alice? What did you see?"

Alice just shook her head. "Just call Edward and make sure that everyone is there, including Nessie and Jacob."

Bella looked at her, wishing that she had Edward's ability to read thoughts. Reading Alice's face, she knows that she wouldn't get anything more out of her best friend, so she began to dial her cell phone instead.

When they drove up to the glass house in the woods by Forks, Washington, all the lights were on. Alice had driven as if the hounds of hell were chasing them and they had made it back home in record time.

Before Bella could open the car door, Edward was next to her, his gaze locked with Alice's as he obviously scanned her thoughts. Bella looked between them, sighing in frustration. "You know, it's not fair that you're letting Edward know and you wouldn't tell me," she said with a frown.

Alice laughed. "It's not like I have a choice," she shot back good-naturedly.

Bella's eyebrow rose as she smirked and quickly extended her shield to include Alice, effectively cutting off Edward's ability to read the pixie haired vampire's thoughts. "Yes, you do," she responded as Edward rolled his eyes.

"Let's go inside," he said, ignoring Bella's growing smirk. As they followed him, shopping bags in hand, Alice and Bella laughed. When they entered the living room, they were not shocked to find everyone standing, varying expressions of worry etching their faces.

Carlisle looked at Alice, knowing that in order for her to cut short her shopping trip, she must have scene something vitally important. "Alice, what's wrong?" he asked, his voice full of concern.

"The Volturi," she responded simply. "They are trying to find a way to destroy us."

Jasper nodded as he crossed the room and wrapped his arms around his wife. "I expected something like this after the whole thing with Nessie," he said as he looked at Edward and Bella's daughter, who was now fully grown. "They've lost face and probably some measure of control after we defeated them ten years ago."

Alice nodded. "From what I saw, there is no firm plan yet, other than to find a way to either make us join them or destroy us completely in order to reassert their control over the vampire hierarchy."

Shock shown on every face around the room. "We've got to fight," Emmett finally concluded as Rosalie nodded her agreement.

"Absolutely," she concurred. "They can't control us like that. We follow all the rules; they don't have a leg to stand on."

"Like that will matter to them," Edward said scornfully. "We barely made it through the last confrontation with him."

"When they do try to attack us, they are going to have overwhelming numbers," Esme pointed out. "We are going to have to find many more allies that we did last time."

"But, I can still shield everyone from the offensive mental attacks. That levels the playing field," Bella interjected.

Jasper nodded. "Somewhat, yes. But with their overwhelming numbers will soon take away that advantage. Remember that your shield only protects against mental attacks, not physical and if they get behind your line, the shield becomes ineffective."

Jacob growled softly. "The packs will fight with you," he assured them.

Carlisle shook his head. "No. If possible, I wan this confrontation to happen far, far away from humans."

Jacob smiled. "We will still want to fight," he assured him.

Carlisle nodded, knowing better than to argue with the werewolf. "I'll leave that to you and Sam then. Have whoever wants to fight be prepared to move north, as close to the Artic Circle as possible, but it would be wise to leave some protection here. I want to minimize the amount of collateral damage as much as possible."

"And by leaving a vanguard here, the people will still be protected," Jacob concluded.

"Alice, do you have any general idea of a timeline here?" Carlisle queried.

Alice shook her head. "Not much. Since they are still discussing things, I would say six months to a year at most. The Volturi are not ones to dally once they make up their minds. I'll keep an eye out, but they do know what I can do and they may try to scramble things up." She paused for a second, not sure if she wanted to reveal the rest of it. She caught the look in Edward's eyes and nodded slightly. "There is something else," she said hesitantly. "There is another vampire mixed up in this, but it's cloudy with her."

"What do you mean?" Edward asked.

"I'm not sure. I keep getting flashes of this female vampire, but when I try to focus on her, I can't," Alice admitted. "She just pops up randomly. I've seen her on our side and on the side of the Volturi."

Nessie tapped her lips thoughtfully. "Maybe she is a wild card?" she theorized. "A vampire that could turn the tide of the battle to either side."

"Then wouldn't it be prudent to find her quickly?" Rosalie asked.

Alice sighed. "If I knew more, then yes we could, but I just keep seeing her in a non-descript tropical forest and I've never seen her before in my life." She concentrated on the clearest images she remembered of the vampire and stared at Edward, hoping that he could place a name with her.

Edward studied the image that Alice was projecting thoughtfully. "No, I've never seen her before either. Her eyes are golden, so I'm going to assume that she is a vegetarian like us. She doesn't strike me as the type of vampire that would be with the Volturi."

"Yeah," Bella agreed, "they are all about human blood."

Carlisle looked at them. "I wish there was some way for me to see what you were seeing," he admitted.

Alice smiled as she walked over to the table and grabbed a piece of paper to begin to sketch the woman in her thoughts. When she was satisfied with the drawing, she showed it to Carlisle.

Carlisle studied it and then passed it around the room. "I don't recognize her," he said. The rest of the vampires nodded their head in agreement, so Carlisle thought for moment. "All right, let's start contacting our friends and see what we can do to prepare for the upcoming battle."

With a sense of purpose, the family members disbursed, reach running through a list of vampires that they knew could be trusted to come to their defense.