The soft din of conversation around her was hard to ignore no matter how badly she wanted to pretend that she wasn't necessary to the conversation. With Edward and Carlisle going over last-minute details on their trip, they wanted her to explain the paths and trails that she's written out for them.

There wasn't anything new that she could tell them unless they've miraculously come up with a new lead in the last hour, but they still wanted her input regardless.

Roman didn't want to do anything more than sit with Bella watching as their children slept, curled together on the couch, Renesmee's pretty, auburn curls spread around her, her hand firmly pressed to Romulus' cheek as he slept -- mouth open with deep, heavy breaths.

We were leaving for South America any day now, the trip mostly set and ready. We would start with theTicuna's, tracing their legends as well as we could at the source. Now that it was definite that Jacob was coming, the idea was to get him to speak to the tribe in case they weren't willing to speak with the creatures that their legends warned them against. It was likely that they would be more willing to speak with Jacob anyway, even if he didn't speak their language.

If we dead-ended with the Ticunas, there were many closely related tribes in the area to research. Carlisle had some old friends in the Amazon; if we could find them, they might have information for us, too. Or at least a suggestion as to where else we might go for answers.

And though it wasn't mentioned to any great extent, or at not around her, Roman would come as a final resort, her ability to track, to hunt things or find whatever she was looking for, would be used to guide them when all else failed. She had no idea how that worked, being three-months into this new life with new abilities she wasn't all that confident using yet; she didn't know how she was going to find a trail to something that she hadn't yet encountered.

The only things she had found in this life with her fancy tracking senses had been animals and her family.

At least Emmett and Jasper were excited to be going. They were making their own plans, discussing which animals they wanted to hunt with the opportunity of new prey at their disposal.

It wasn't interesting to her, none of it was. She wasn't ready to leave just yet. She wanted to stay near Sue and Seth and Leah and the rest of the pack. She wasn't ready to leave them just yet, her heartbreaking at the vague idea of the future and how long it might be until she got the chance to see them again. It was different when she knew that they would have to leave and then actually leaving.

Logically, she knew that this time would come but Roman was hoping that since the pack was in agreement and that Charlie now knew that something was up that she would have a bit more time.

She hadn't even had the chance to see Emily or Sam yet, the members of his pack refusing to cross over the treaty line to come near them.

Thankful, she was glad that Embry and Quil joined Jacob's pack so that she was given the chance to see old friends again.

Staring at Renesmee and Romulus again, she brushed the hair from their cheeks gently, careful not to disturb them. They were excited at least, not so much to be leaving behind family, but they understood that where they were going was somewhere incredibly beautiful, somewhere that very few people will ever actually get the opportunity to see in person.

They were thrilled to be going and that, like he was some kind of pet, that Jacob was allowed to come -- since Seth wasn't permitted no matter how repeatedly Romulus asks for him to join, claiming that it wasn't fair that Ressie brought Jacob.

When they wouldn't permit Seth, he had tried to beg for Leah. She wasn't sure what Jacob had to say to him to get him to stop asking, but it must have worked in the end because he had finally done so, pleased with Jacob for now.

"Let it go, Alice; she's not our concern," Jasper says, a cloud of serenity stole silently and invisibly through the room, drawing Roman's attention enough to catch as Alice stuck her tongue out at her mate playfully.

Grinning at the small interaction, her gaze darts to Edward briefly, meeting his eyes before she pulls away to face the other couple once more.

Alice had been searching for Irina since the moment she got away. They had been unable to catch up with her before her tracks had disappeared into the sound, not continuing on the other side. She had been searching for Irina for three days endless through what she was able to around the kids and the pack's constant presence interfering.

She took the glass vase from the table. One of the white roses had the bearest hint of wilting that was only visible to their eyes, but it was enough to give Alice something to do as she gracefully floated around the home as she searched.

Her attention was perhaps the only reason Roman saw as the vase slipped from between her fingers, air wooshing past the crystal as it fell shattering into thousands of tiny diamond shards.

All was perfectly still as the fragmented crystal bounced and skittered in every direction with an unmusical tinkling, all eyes on Alice's back

She had never seen a vampire drop anything by purpose before, let alone by accident.

And then Alice was turning, facing them in a move so fast that it didn't even exist.

Her eyes were halfway here and halfway locked on the future, wide, staring, filling her thin face till they seemed to overflow it. Timelines overlap, crossing together and together, as she pulls dread from deep in her gut, drawing out the feeling tortuously until it felt like she was staring into the same horror, the same grave that Alice saw coming.

Edward gasps and it was a broken, half-choked sound.

"What?" Jasper growled, leaping to her side in a blurred rush of movement, crushing the broken crystal under his feet. He grabbed her shoulders and shook her sharply. She seemed to rattle silently in his hands. "What, Alice?"

"Gentle!" she gasps, rising slowly to her feet with a hand outstretched between them, hovering emptily and uncertain. "Alice, are you alright?"

She shakes her head slowly, coming out of her horror-stricken daze slowly. She looked so tiny, so fragile that she might blow away in a moment.

Emmett moved closer to the window, teeth bared as if prepared for an attack and she stiffened, hand fluttering back to her children that still lay silent and asleep.

One glance back assures her that no one was out there.

Jasper shook Alice again. "What is it?"

"They're coming for us," Alice and Edward whispered together, perfectly synchronized. "All of them."

Silence clings to the air as she finds herself frozen. Roman wants to demand who, wants to know when and how and where and whywhywhywhy because she was going to rip them apart. No one was going to touch her family if she had anything to say about it, and no one was going to touch her children -- her babies, her mates.

She burned like the fire of venom that had ripped through her those months ago, ripping her apart to put her back together.

Something was coming, something big and terrible. The terror was palpable, she could practically taste it in the air, could feel it worming its way through her system.

Every little sound had her jumping, ever little twitch brought her flinching and wincing as her thoughts were bombarded with maps flaring before her over and over -- escape routes, the different ways that they can escape even if they were chased all over.

She had always thought herself a coward while human and she would gladly believe as much again if it meant keeping everyone safe.

"The Volturi," Alice moaned.

Her thoughts stutter to a stop, routes in her head fading with the bit of information as she draws inward, dropping deep, deep, down. There were too many pictures, too many possibilities, as dotted paths and trails, marks across her perception twisted and locked, tangling together round and round until she felt like she was being pulled in different directions.

"All of them," Edward groaned at the same time.

It clears her mind in a moment, a chill like a bucket of cold water drops over her head. Demetri was coming. There would be no escape if he saw them, if he met them.

And he would bring the terrible witch twins that all feared.

"Why?" Alice whispered to herself. "How?"

"When?" Edward whispered.

"Why?" Esme echoed.

"When?" Jasper repeated in a voice like splintering ice

Alice's eyes didn't blink as she stared forward blank and unseeing. Only her mouth held her expression of horror, as it trembled as she spoke.

"Not long," she and Edward said together. Then she spoke alone. "There's snow on the forest, snow on the town. Little more than a month."

"Why?" Carlisle was the one to ask this time, voice soft though it held the power of his authority -- the oldest, the leader.

Esme continued. "There must be some reason, a catalyst."

"This isn't about Bella," Alice said hollowly. "They're all coming -- Aro, Caius, Marcus, every member of the guard, even the wives."

"The wives never leave the tower," Jasper contradicted her in a flat voice. "Never. Not during the southern rebellion. Not when the Romanians tried to overthrow them. Not even when they were hunting the immortal children. Never.

Edward shook his head, features still pulled into an expression of pain and horror. "They're coming now," he whispered hollowly.

"But why?" Roman finally speaks, breathing out the words in a shaky whisper. "Why are they doing this?"

"Go back, Alice," Jasper pleaded. "Look for the trigger. Search."

Alice shook her head slowly, shoulders sagging. "I can't. I wasn't even looking for them or us -- it came out of nowhere. I was just looking for Irina... she wasn't where I expected her to be. She was..." she trails off, mouth twisting with horror.

"She decided to go to them," Alice whispers. "It's like they were waiting for her, like they knew that she would be coming and were just waiting for her to come..."

"Is there any time to stop her?" Jasper asks.

"No," Alice and Roman said together. She continued on her own. "She would nearly be there by now, there would be no way to get to her in time."

"Roman's right. There's nothing we can do," Alice says dejectedly.

"But why?" Carlisle asks, golden eyes blown wide.

The chatter over one another, speaking up and demanding question, answers, to the same things that no one knew. Going in circles.

At her side, Bella sinks further into the couch, twisting herself so that she hovered over their children carefully, prospectively.

"Think of what she saw that afternoon," Bella said in a low voice. "To someone who'd lost a mother because of the immortal children, what would Renesmee look like?"

It comes like a strike, shooting up her spine in an electrifying sensation that overcomes her, flattering around red around the edges of her vision. The snarl that rips from her chest rattles through the room, tearing from her as she curls in and hands curl into claws.

"An immortal child," Carlisle whispered.

Edward's at her side in an instant, placing himself between her and Bella as he attempts to comfort them both.

All she wants is to hold her babies, to cradle them protectively in her arms. She twitches to reach for him even as a rumble continues to thrum in her chest.

"But she's wrong. Renesmee and Romulus aren't immortal children. We gave birth to them. They grow! Couldn't' we just explain that to her?" Bella argues.

"You can't reason with the Volturi. They won't stop to listen," Edward whispers, turning to whisper the words into Bella's hair, giving Roman the space to drop to her knees before her children, hands a feathery touch as they brush over their sleeping forms. "Aro has all the proof that he needs in Irina's thoughts. They come to destroy."

"But they're wrong," Bella cries.

"There has to be something that we can do," Roman voices, looking over to Alice with wide hopeful eyes.

Her expression doesn't shift as she meets her gaze unseeingly. "There's No way to stop them from coming."

"Is there some way to make them stop and listen?" She presses, searching for an option just as they were.

The room is silent when no one has an answer.

The fear on Bella's face, the terror in her eyes, drew the smallest sliver of hope that remained away, sucked the room dry until she was ready to crack and shatter just as the vase had as the wishes and dreams of a future -- all the happy moments that she's had all this time, with Edward and Bella, with Romulus and Renesmee -- were made to mean nothing. 

It was all going to be ripped away from them. 

Was this the price she was meant to pay for thinking she was allowed to be so deliriously content? For thinking that maybe now there was nothing left to go wrong once and for all? She wasn't sure what to think, what to say. 

And her babies, her poor babies... they haven't even had the chance to live? How cruel was it that only days ago she was fearing the aspect of time would steal away their childhood when now it seemed like they weren't destined to have one. 

It was Emmett that answered her question. 

"We fight," he said calmly. 

"We can't win," Jasper growled. 

"Well, we can't run, not with Demetri around--" Roman hissed at the words, feeling much like a cat defending their territory as they invoked his name-- "And I don't know that we can't win," Emmett said. "There are a few options to consider. We don't have to fight alone."

"We don't have to sentence the Quileutes to death, either, Emmett!" Bella snapped, just as Roman says, "Leave the tracker to me." 

She doesn't flinch as her mates turn to her furiously. 

"Chill, Bella, I'm not saying that the pack should fight, but do you really think that Jacob or Sam would allow for an invasion even if it had nothing to do with an invasion?" he says, using the same tone as he was earlier like it was the obvious answer. "And I wasn't talking about them anyway. I was talking about our other friends." 

Carlisle frowned. "Other friends we don't have to sentence to death." 

"Hey, we'll let them decide if they want to fight or not," Emmett placates. "Bella was right, if we could just get them to stall long enough, get them to hesitate, we might be able to make them listen." 

"It doesn't hurt to ask," Roman seconds, much more ready and willing to fight them head-on if she had to. She would take them out one by one, corner them alone and strike quick and without remorse. The twins would be first.

"Yes," Esme said eagerly. "All we need is for them to listen." 

"We would need quite a show of witnesses," Rosalie bites. 

Roman shakes her head, uncaring for her lack of faith in the matter as she swoops down to pepper kisses to the little ones' cherubic faces. This was going to work, it had to. 

"We'd have to do it just right," Alice says, voice light and airy as she looks to the future. "They would have to be shown carefully." 

"Shown?" Jasper asks. 

She turns in time to see Edward and Alice look to Renesmee. Then her eyes go dark and distant again. 

"Tanya's family," Alice said. "Siobhan's coven. Amun's. Some of the nomads—Garrett and Mary for certain. Maybe Alistair."

Jasper tenses. "Peter and Charlotte?" 

"Maybe." 

"The Amazons'?"

"Maybe," Alice says, voice tense. She turned to Carlisle sharply as she answers his question. "I can't see." 

"What?" Edward asks, eyes narrowed on her as he searches through her thoughts. "That part of the forest... what was that?" 

"I can't see," Alice repeated, not meeting his eyes. A flash of confusion crossed Edward's face. "We'll have to split up and hurry—before the snow sticks to the ground. We have to round up whoever we can and get them here to show them." She zoned out again. "Ask Eleazar. There is more to this than just an immortal child."

The silence is tense, focused as they all sit, watching as she squints out into the future looking for all that she can. It flickers in an instant, eyes returning to normal as she comes back to the present. 

"There's so much to do," Alice whispers. "We have to hurry." 

"What was that?" Edward demands. "It was-- it was too fast I can't-- what was that?" 

"I can't see!" she explodes, snapping at him harshly. "Jacob's coming." 

Rosalie takes a step toward the door. "I'll stop him--" 

"No, let him come," Alice said quickly, her voice straining higher with each word. She grabbed Jasper's hand and began pulling him toward the back door. "I'll see better away from Nessie, too. I need to go. I need to really concentrate. I need to see everything I can. I have to go. Come on, Jasper, there's no time to waste!"

We could all hear Jacob on the stairs when she suddenly stops her yanking on Jasper's hand, glancing a look over her shoulder at them one more time before finally landing on Roman. She flinches back from the intensity of it, ignoring the looks that Edward shoots both of them. 

"I need to borrow Roman," she says quickly, hurriedly. "There's no time to waste and I need her help." 

She swallows, hesitant to leave her family. "I- okay, yeah, I'm coming." 

"Hurry, there's no time," Alice snaps, itching to leave as quickly as she could. 

The couch shifts as she pulls away, a tiny hand grasping the bottom of her shirt tightly. Romulus sits slowly, the room still as everyone watches him with bated breath, hoping that he hadn't heard a word. 

"Mamma?" he asks, bottom lips wobbling as tears well in his eyes. He's reaching up to her and she takes him into her arms automatically. 

Alice groans, glancing at the boy with narrowed eyes before she huffs. "Just bring him, it should be fine. There's no way that Jacob's going to leave when he finds out. I should be fine with just him if I keep a distance for now." 

"Are you sure?" she asks hesitantly, echoing the confusion she saw reflected on Edward's face. 

"Let's go," is all she says, dragging Jasper out of the room behind her, curving around Jacob as he enters the room. "You have to find them all!" she calls back. 

A sniffling boy in her arms, she drops a kiss to Renesmee's cheek before turning to her husband and wife. "I'll see you both later," she says. Their arms lock around her in a brief embrace before they let her go with a swift peck. 

"Do you want me to take him?" Bella offers, small pout in place as she spots his tears. 

Romulus tightens his hold around her neck for one brief moment before relaxing to face his Bella. He shakes his head. "No, thank you. Mamma can't go alone with Aunty Alice because she's sad. I should stay with her." 

Her wife's smile is frail, gentled by sadness and fear and grief. "Such a smart boy you are," she says, placing a lingering kiss to their son's forehead. "You take good care of your mamma for us when she's out."

"Okay," his answer is small. 

"And don't forget you have to get more sleep," Edward says, the words aimed at them both, a gentle reminder to her about how late it is, as he speaks them into the soft black curls. 

"Yes, dad." 

Roman kisses them again quickly before brushing past the others to the doors as quickly as she dares with her son in her arms. "I'll be back soon. I'll call you to let you know if I find anyone else." 

Because really, what other reason could she be needed for other than to assist in tracking down the nomadic friends of the Cullen's? She couldn't see the future, but everyone believed that she was able to find anything if she put her mind to it -- and no one believed that more than Alice. Her sister-in-law had that much faith in her back when she was a human, after all.

Still, it didn't sit right as she left them behind, all faced with nothing much to do but sit and wait until Alice returned with more information. They were all stuck on her word, waiting for her to leave to find the others. 

The waiting game was fun for no one.

And telling Jacob about the danger... Roman shuddered at the thought and help her son closer, her hand cradling his head. 

They darted out the door into the silver night. 

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hey! so I've noticed that I've been getting fewer reads and comments lately and I was wondering if there was any specific reason? Is there something lacking in my chapters? Are they just not as interesting anymore? 

I know that the ones reading this are the ones that have stayed, but is there just anything that you've noticed?

anyway.... i hope you enjoyed this!! I hope most of you have figured out what exactly comes next for our dearest Roman :) 

unedited 

2020-04-21