A/N: Just to address an issue someone posed in a review. How could the Volturi have snuck in so many vampires without notice?

They have Demetri. Not even Edward could pinpoint them all when he tried—Demetri was able to maneuver them around without detection. Remember his little rendezvous with Anu some centuries back? He's that good, after all. ;)

"Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the angels'

hierarchies? and even if one of them pressed me

suddenly against his heart: I would be consumed

in that overwhelming existence. For beauty is nothing

but the beginning of terror, which we still are just able to

endure,

and we are so awed because it serenely disdains

to annihilate us. Every angel is terrifying."

Rainier Maria Rilke, "The First Elegy."

Edward POV

Esme gasped while Carlisle's jaw slackened in surprise. Everyone in our group reacted with various expressions of shock and disbelief. If I thought we were dead before when facing just the Volturi guard, now we were really screwed.

At least it explained the cacophony that had been roiling in my head since they showed up. I had no way of counting how many minds I heard when the numbers were so high. The minds of the four-hundred or so Volturi guards made enough of a racket that four-hundred or four-thousand made no difference.

Alice cupped her face in her hands, and her shoulders sagged with the weight of the world. "I didn't see. How could I not have seen this?" she said.

"Aro knows how your power works. I'm betting he left the decision-making up to someone else, and since you've been focusing on him so intently, it's reasonably expected that this would slip through the cracks," Carlisle said as he wrapped a comforting arm around her shoulder. "Don't beat yourself over this, Alice. Fret not, my child."

Jasper hugged her closer to him, and she rested her head on his shoulder, her face crumpled with sorrow.

I wanted to turn to her and say something to make her feel better, but I wasn't able to. My eyes fixated on Bella and followed her every move. She stood in front of the band of Volturi minions, alone and vulnerable. I was terrified, and my legs kept trying to carry me over to her purely out of instinct. I had to protect her, but would I be more a hindrance than an asset if I joined her? I was frozen with doubt.

If there was one thing to be said about the vampires on our side, it was their courage. Not a single one flinched in the face of the fuckfest we were about to attend. Their bravery humbled me.

Even more astounding was the moment of levity that overtook everyone when Bella killed Felix, and even more rejoicing when Caius went poof. I guess they weren't too popular with the vampire crowd. They laughed and jeered, thrusting fists in the air in celebration. Yeah, we vampires are fucked up.

My legs were losing the battle against my heart. I was practically having a seizure with the need to go to Bella while trying to restrain myself until we knew what to do next.

"Carlisle, what are we gonna do?" I asked.

He still embraced Alice as he answered, "I think the best course of action is to follow Bella's lead. Whatever she decides to do, we stand behind her. We have no hope of fighting off that horde. Their numbers are too overwhelming."

I nodded once. Wait and see. It was as good a plan as any at this point.

The others behind me broke out into groups and discussed plans of action and which of the guards should be taken out first.

No one paid attention to me, and so no one noticed when I started walking towards Bella. I couldn't stand Bella being alone and defenseless. I still had enough sense to walk at a normal pace instead of running. Sudden movements might trigger an attack, and that was the last thing I wanted. Not before I could stand in front of Bella. I made it fifty yards before hitting something solid and warm. An invisible wall.

Bella's shield.

Oh no, no, no. She was keeping us back. We'd get to witness her death, helpless and caged. I splayed my palms over the shield, and the heat burned my skin, but not enough to physically damage them. In a frenzy, I ran my hands over the hot surface looking for a hole, a way through it. There was none.

Panic obliterated everything from my mind. "Bella! Bella!" I screamed, banging my fists against the shield. "Bella! Let me through!"

She turned around, and her fierce expression softened into sadness. She shook her head twice, and faced forward again.

The panic spiraled into full blown terror.

"Bella!" I pounded my fists harder against her shield and screamed my head off.

My banshee impersonation caught everyone's attention and all conversations stopped dead on their tracks. Carlisle, Jasper, and Rosalie ran to my side.

"Edward, are you all right? What's wrong?" Rosalie asked. She sounded sick with concern.

I didn't answer her.

"Carlisle, she's keeping us away." I slapped the shield a couple more times to drive the point home.

"She is what?" He began hitting the shield and yelling at Bella to take it down.

"Isabella Marie Swan Cullen, you take this shield down immediately!" Esme had joined us at the barrier and banged her fists on the shield like a cop would while shouting "Police, open up!" When she used your full name to scold you, you knew she meant business.

Emmett reached the wall and started punching it with all he got. He thought that with his incredible strength, he could break it and make us a way through it.

Boy, was he wrong. Two punches in, and he was cradling his hand to his chest. "Son of a bitch!" His hand cracked, but the shield held intact.

There was nothing else I could do except thump in my fists against her shield and scream her name.

Bella POV

Edward's agonized shrieks tore at me. I knew it'd be torture for him to not be able to stand with me, but that would be the only way to keep him alive. I desperately longed to have him within arm's reach, if only to touch him for a moment. As long as I kept the shield up, he'd be safe.

"Oh, Isabella, how you will pay for this," Aro hissed, his hands clenched into fists. Caius' death at my hands did not sit well with him to say the least, but I couldn't deny the burst of satisfaction at finishing that sadistic fool.

I could end Aro right now, but that would prompt the entirety of his forces to attack. I had no idea what my shield could do now. After visiting Anu, there had been no time to assess its extent and limitations. I wasn't sure whether I could keep over two thousand vampires at bay and kill them before my chest cracked with enough force for the fire to engulf me.

"I've been paying for this for years, Aro," I spat. "You were hell-bent on destroying me from day one. Not physically at first. You just sought to destroy who I was, to erase my identity and replace it with one of your choosing."

"And it would have served you better to accept it," he said, his upper lip lifted in a sneer. "If only you had, we wouldn't be here right now."

The deal we made never meant anything as far as he was concerned. It wasn't enough that I'd do his bidding. I had to surrender my soul, too. Too bad he destroyed it long ago, leaving nothing to give up after all.

"Enough of this charade, Aro. You knew what would happen when you blackmailed me into agreeing to join you. You can't be so naïve to believe that I'd submit to your will and be glad for it. I refused it for decades, and only agreed when you threatened my entire family. Do what you came here to do. Or at least, try." I was done playing his games. He would either annihilate my family, or I would annihilate his forces before I perished. There would be no half way.

"But know this," I continued. "I'm sure your scheme has no contingency plans for your escaping alive, and if it does, I will personally see to its failure. One way or another, you're coming down with me." My bared teeth accentuated the hatred in my tone. There was no mistaking my intent. I didn't threaten to kill Aro. I promised death.

"Bella!" Edward screamed from a distance. "Bella, let us through!" The fearful agony in his voice distracted me for a moment.

Aro used that very moment to sic the guard on me. Thirty of the highest ranked sentinels stepped forward in tandem, stalking forward with more care and focus than I'd ever seen them use before. They spread out in a circle, closing in around me.

Perhaps this could be an opportunity to show them the full extent of my power and thus discourage the rest from engaging me in combat. There would no love lost between us; I could kill them and not bat an eye. I only hoped I could control and harness my enhanced abilities—I still had no idea what I was capable of now.

My eyes skittered from face to face, cataloguing my assailants and their powers. The most dangerous one was Mele, who came to stand directly before me. I never dealt with her much; she was Sulpicia's personal guard and rarely left her side. Though not very active as a guard member, her powers were formidable—she had the ability to absorb another vampire's powers and use them herself or transfer them to someone else for a brief period of time. If she managed to do that to me, the results could be catastrophic. Would my shield protect me from it?

Without a doubt, Mele had to go first. I could not afford to be sidetracked by the others and give her the chance to use her powers on me. At the same time, I couldn't simply take her out without a plan to control the rest. They could still overwhelm me with their numbers.

No one moved but Mele. She walked back and forth around me in quarter circles, deciding on the best angle to attack so she could give the rest the best chance of taking me down.

I remained still, only my blood-filled eyes following her steps.

"Isabella," she began.

I shook my head slowly, still following her every move. "No more subterfuge. No more monologuing. No 'hail mary' passes. Make your move, Mele."

She nodded once. "As you wish."

Mele looked to either side of her with a sharp nod as guards swarmed me from either side as she charged me from the front.

I raised my arms to control the flanking assault, but it still left me open to her frontal attack. This was to be a game of speed and precision.

Faster than I'd ever thought possible, I scooped the vampires coming at me from the side and, slamming my hands together before me, their bodies moved in sync, smashing against one another and exploding in screams and ashes.

Aro squeaked in horror at the sight of his most gifted vampires' bodies raining down on us like bright confetti in some mundane Mardi Gras orgy.

"It's just you and me now, Mele." A triumphant smile spread across my lips.

Her grin matched my own as she jumped backwards to Boreas and landed on his shoulders, throwing her head back as she closed her eyes. Within seconds, her skin glowed blue—she had taken his power to manipulate ice.

I could see her logic. The antagonist to my fire would be ice, but as inexperienced I was going against other vampires toe-to-toe power-wise, I had no idea how to counter whatever plan she came up with.

Her body emanated an arctic breeze as she used the power she'd absorbed from Boreas when she ran at me, and while the cold aura around her raked my skin, it failed to put me out of commission. At close range, the temperature she gave off was at least twice as low as any naturally cold environment on earth.

The amount of focus it took was immense. Every part of her that touched my body sought to freeze me, and the fire of my shield warring with her glacial touch hurt me more than it did her.

Mele's strength surprised me. She was a beast, and as soon as I managed to find a good hold on her, she'd force me to relinquish my grasp with her stolen power. Perhaps it had been too arrogant of me, but I had never thought another vampire to exist who could best me.

Mele grabbed the base of my neck, coiling my hair around her fingers, and twisted my head backwards, the icy curls of her borrowed gift crawling up my face, seeping into my fire and hurting me from the inside.

From within the grayish-blue light clouding my eyes, I saw Edward's face. My love. My one true, eternal love. The man who had made all of this worth it, and for whom I'd suffer through it all over again. The only reason to do anything at all.

At the same time, a familiar voice whispered from somewhere in the distance.

"Love, Isabella. That's the only thing. Love. Take away what they love. That's all we have."

Demetri. The part of his mind I'd concealed under my shield remained closed off too all, but somehow he used it to connect his thoughts to mine. It hit me like a bolt of lightning.

Love.

I should have realized it sooner. Threaten or harm a loved one, and your foe's logical thinking was no more.

Take away everything they love as they had done to me.

Sulpicia was not Aro's mate. She was Mele's.

It all made sense. Mele never left her side. Sulpicia could go months without seeing Aro and not be the least bit bothered by it. A week after being without my Edward, I was ready to die.

Aro was not Sulpicia's mate. Though Aro's tie to Sulpicia held the strength of a mate's, their mating was unrequited. It was rare, but not unheard of. I remembered the way James spoke of Victoria's bond in the warehouse where he had held Edward. James had been Victoria's mate, but he'd failed to bond with her in the same way. Likely, Sulpicia agreed to Aro's attentions for the power he wielded.

They targeted my mate to get to me. Time to feed them their own poison.

The effort to gather my strength and throw Mele off me caused a crack on my neck to appear, but I paid it no mind. I had one thought alone.

As I flew through the air, my eyes never left Mele's face as my shielded hands wrapped themselves around Sulpicia's neck.

The change in Mele's face from stoic determination into abject fear and the scream of terror that followed confirmed the hint Dem had whispered.

"Bid your farewells," I said a moment before I twisted Sulpicia's head off her neck and torched it within my shield.

Aro made unintelligible noises somewhere the distance, but Mele came unhinged, as I'd hoped she would. She launched herself at me, her hands flailing before my face, trying to claw at me in whatever way she could.

I took advantage of her irrational state and extricated myself from her grasp. While holding on to her shoulders, I vaulted over her head and attached myself to her back, wrapping my legs around her waist and my arms around hers, locking my wrists and ankles in place.

No sooner did I have her in my grip, I ignited.

The chance I took bordered on insanity. She had taken my power for her own, and if it protected her in the exact same manner as it did me, I could never harm her. My one hope centered on it not protecting her from the inside as it did me.

Her grunts of pain echoed in tune with my own. I burned hotter than I'd ever had before, and while Mele's skin bubbled, she hadn't caught fire like my targets usually did. My shield held its own better on my behalf than on hers—my skin had yet to bubble and melt—but it protected her more than I'd hoped.

Mele's death was instrumental to my family's victory. If I died before her, I couldn't help them, and their death warrant was as good as signed by my own hand. I had to survive to take out as many of the faceless newborns as I could be before they overwhelmed me.

I hesitated for a moment before taking the next step. I'd intensified the fire as much as I could without doing permanent damage to myself, but it hadn't been enough. Mele still lived, in pain as though she might be.

Anu's words rang in my ears. Sooner or later, all stars go supernova. I knew it then, and I knew it now. When a star goes supernova…

It dies.

The gray-tunic-clad newborns dove for me as a team of football players would to bury an opposing player in a dogpile as I encased Demetri and Heidi in my shield and hurled them five-hundred yards away from here. I made sure to crash them hard enough against a cluster of boulders so it would take their flesh a while to heal, hoping they'd understand my meaning and stay away.

Mele exploded into a fistful of embers as the widest crack yet ran down my chest, and I felt a wide fissure run down my lower back. The pain was unimaginable, and luckily I didn't need oxygen, because wasn't able to draw a breath.

I staggered to my feet in time to see a mass of enraged vampires diving at me. I couldn't bring my shield up in time to every location and target everyone it needed to protect. My only consolation was that I'd shielded the family and my Edward from this horror.

My focus split into a hundred different directions trying to contain the legion that ran towards me. So many targets… But since before me stood only the enemy, I could pick them off a portion at a time, though those portions were so large, they demanded all my attention.

I had three hundred vampires locked down when I heard a rumbling of growls behind me. I turned my head and opened my eyes in time to see my family and their allies running past the barrier I'd put up and jumping into the fray. I couldn't keep the protective wall up while focusing on so many vampires at once.

No! NO!

I could handle a mass of enemy targets, but singling out individuals to burn and individuals to shield had always been my downfall. I never managed to master simultaneous offense and defense, not without severe casualties.

Fear washed over me as I watched my family and their friends mingling with our adversaries, making my job to eliminate and protect nigh impossible.

I didn't have much time to indulge in dread. I shot out my shield individually to each body in the clearing. It was like trying to play five pianos at once with both hands tied behind your back. Picking off the opposing army in groupings was no longer an option. I had to split my shield among the family and the more than two thousand enemy troops independently. The effort alone made my head feel like it'd split in two. It took a herculean effort to pinpoint Aro and encase him in a paralyzing shield. He was my prime target, and come hell or high water, he would not live to see the dawning of another day.

The strain brought me to my knees. I held out my arms to help guide my shield. It was too much to simply steer it with my mind. I needed the physical guidance to keep it from slipping.

My chest burned hotter than I'd ever felt it before, and the pain was tremendous. The agony blinded me. I closed my eyes; the blaze felt like it would burn my eyeballs right out of my skull.

Edward POV

Bella knelt before me, eyes unfocused, bathed in her own blazing venom, wobbling in exhaustion. We charged towards the newborns and Bella sagged onto her heels, one arm stretched out moving in tandem with the mass of vampires, the other clutching her chest like a human having a heart attack. She squeezed her eyes shut and bared her teeth—the universal expression of extreme pain. I forgot all else—every reason why we were here, every vampire I was supposed to be attempting to eliminate. All I could see was my Bella, suffering on the ground. Nothing else mattered.

I ran to her and smashed into her shield some twenty feet before reaching her. She rubbed her chest fiercely, but it kept on glowing brighter and brighter. The fire had destroyed her clothes, leaving her wearing only a suit like the ones surfers wore—fire-resistant, I presumed. Everything else had been charred into nothing, down to her shoes.

The ground around her held no snow. Not only that, but the earth was scorched dry to point of erosion. Bella was surrounded by desert.

"Bella! Please, love, please, let me in. Let me get to you. Please," I begged her from the very depths of my soul. "Please, Bella, let me in."

At my words, she opened her eyes to look at me, and I could kick myself for it. Drawing her attention must have made her slip somehow, because as soon as we locked eyes, she threw back her head and screamed. Her chest glowed brighter still, and her eyes teared up with red-hot venom. I'd caused her to burn even more. Stupid fucking moron! I wanted to hug her now, if only to have her fire cook my stupid, useless ass.

I still banged my hands against the barrier when a scrawny vampire in a dark woolen cloak tackled me. We wrestled on the ground for a few moments until he gained the upper hand and gripped my neck in a headlock. Fuck, was he strong.

He cackled, but it didn't last long. Bella's agonized screams intensified as the vampire trying to kill me burst into flames.

She locked her eyes on me, huffing and panting. The crack on her chest now oozed incandescent venom. The split was so wide, the very sight of it shocked me. The fire-resistant suit was starting to melt and stick to her skin, but the spot where she burned the hottest was devoid of clothing altogether. The gash down the center of her chest was visible for all to see, and it terrified me.

"Edward," she wheezed. "Edward, come to me… not too close … just barely inside … stay as far away as you can… "

I stepped through the shield, and it felt like being within arm's reach of the sun. The heat didn't harm me, but the proximity was scorching. The discomfort made me want to flinch, but I resisted.

Each step I took towards her increased the temperature ten-fold, but I couldn't stop. Once I reached Bella, I knelt, facing her. Bella's eyes were still closed, her face screwed up in pained concentration.

"Bella, what can I do?" I ran my hands over her without touching, afraid that any contact might cause her more pain.

She gritted her teeth and said, "Stay here. If you are safe, I can muster the courage to try." Her words came out in a strained huff. "Do not move from this place."

Her eyelids wrinkled even more as she shut her eyes tighter still. The hand she'd held over her chest was now stretched out to match the other one, both arms held out parallel to the ground.

The sleeves of her suit started to melt off her skin, leaving the molten cracks visible. The fissures crawled up her neck, down to her hands, and on every visible inch of her skin. She growled as the gashes widened. It looked as though Bella had a bomb inside herself going off in slow motion.

The break on her chest now dribbled blistering venom in copious amounts; it'd become a fountain of thickened venom that resembled molten lava. With every second, the gap widened, and Bella's agonized screams intensified along with it.

She was literally coming apart.

I turned to see what was happening around us.

Enemy vampires were evaporating left and right into ashes while the family and our allies remained safe. A number of them were taken out by our group, but the vast majority was being razed by Bella. I looked up and saw Aro, frozen, hovering a hundred feet above ground. He could watch what was happening, but he was rendered incapable of doing anything about it.

Bella. She was selectively shielding, burning, and keeping immobile more targets than she'd ever tried before. We didn't even know she could handle this many without destroying herself.

That thought only escalated my fear.

I threw my arms around her, twining my fingers at her back, and in that moment, her shield encased me within it along with herself. My skin fractured like flimsy plastic at the contact, and as my venom oozed out of the wounds to mix with hers, my cries of pain matched her own. Her body fed off my own in a desperate attempt to stay alive.

Though Bella's body consumed mine, I couldn't bring myself to let go.