A major hybrid problem? What the….? Zafrina nodded at our confused expressions and began to explain how the hybrids Joham created after Nahuel and his sisters; the ones that were acting up when she and Nahuel visited our house a few months ago. Basically, Zafrina who Rogue left in charge noticed that all of those hybrids had gone missing. They had all vanished from the Amazon. Zafrina, Senna, and Kachiri had followed their scent all the way to Forks where they saw them being destroyed by the wolves and Peter. Sam recognized Zafrina and the other two from the battle with the Volturi the first time around and once he phased back, explained what he knew about what had happened plus how we were involved. Zafrina put two and two together and with her two companions, ran here to Alaska.  

          Meanwhile, Amy had reached La Push and materialized in front of Peter and Sam who were holding Alyssa. Alyssa’s eyes bugged out wide when she saw the sudden appearance of Amy, as the fact that Amy wasn’t a vampire or hybrid or a wolf was quite obvious. Amy’s eyes narrowed at Alyssa.

“You’re coming with me.” She said matter-of-factly.
“The hell I am!” Alyssa said defiantly, still struggling to free herself from Sam and Peter’s grasp.
“That wasn’t a request.” Amy said darkly as she seized Alyssa by the throat and lifted her off the ground with one arm.

Alyssa struggled in vain against the hand around her throat but it was clutching her like a vice. Alyssa had never seen or witnessed anyone that strong. Vampires had that ability too but you could with enough energy get them off; here no matter how hard Alyssa tried to kick at Amy, nothing happened. And to her horror, as Amy was squeezing her throat, Alyssa actually started to lose consciousness! That wasn’t supposed to happen! Vampires could go without air unlike humans but this was different. The last thing Alyssa remembered was Amy’s hypnotic eyes then she was out cold.

Amy waited until she was sure Alyssa was out, and then stuffed her into a rope sack she produced out of thin air and with some words and a quick kiss and hug to Peter; she was off with her bounty back to Alaska. Amy arrived at the Denali’s front door in less than 2 minutes. She was very surprised to see Zafrina, Senna, and Kachiri who all acknowledged her with a nod and a halfhearted smile. Everyone then proceeded back inside the Denali’s house with the rope sack holding a still unconscious Alyssa. Mike was still tied to the chair with only Emmett guarding him. Kate repositioned herself near him now that she was fed as were the other three. Time to wake sleeping beauty. But before we did that, Tanya asked:

“Shouldn’t we get another chair with more barbed wire for her?” Gesturing toward Alyssa; both Rogue and Amy shook their heads.
“That won’t be necessary.” Rogue said with a small smile.

With a wave of her hand, Amy made the sack disappear and woke Alyssa up with the same gesture. As her eyes fluttered open and she took in her surroundings and those who were around her, she leapt to her feet and crouched into a defensive position ready to strike anyone who was closest to her, which happened to be Bella. But before she could even move an inch forward, she found that she couldn’t move at all other than to straighten out. She tried to take a step this way and that but couldn’t; her feet were rooted to the spot. It reminded all of us of what happened to one of the Children of the Moon; the one that bit Michelle and that Rogue let bleed to death but not before paralyzing it in its tracks. She read my mind and nodded which meant that’s exactly what she had done now to Alyssa.

“What did you do to me??? Let me go now!!” Alyssa screeched in anger.
“Not going to happen. You have a lot of questions to answer first.” Rogue stepped toward her with Amy right behind. Alyssa understood who was in charge of this duo very quickly.
“I’m not answering any of your stupid questions! Go to hell bitch!” Alyssa said defiantly. Wrong answer.

Rogue narrowed her eyes at Alyssa who started screaming and convulsing violently. The more she screamed and convulsed, the more her limbs and body contorted in a very unnatural way. This brought all of us back to the day we first encountered the Watchers on that field in NH when they saved us from the Volturi and destroyed them. Before making their presence known, the gifted and strongest members of the Volturi were thrown to the ground and also had these horrible convulsing fits. It robbed them of their strength and energy. For some it took a good 5 to 10 minutes to be even able to stand up again. Finally, Rogue waved her hand and Alyssa stopped screaming and convulsing. She was by this time on the floor, breathing heavily like she was hyperventilating.

“Do you want to try again?” Rogue asked coldly. She then looked at me and nodded toward her so that I could ask Alyssa the questions that needed to be answered. She still left me in charge even though she was obviously in control of the torture should it be required to get answers.

“Now Alyssa, we are very well aware of what Rogue and Amy are capable of and to spare you anymore of the pain and discomfort, please answer our questions.” I said stiffly. I know that ‘pain and discomfort’ were a gross understatement of what she just experienced but whatever.

“Al-alright…..I w-w-will…..just p-please no more of that!” She stuttered out looking quite fearfully at Rogue and Amy who were still staring at her with faces of stone.
“Why did you turn Mike? Who created you and for what purpose?” I asked calmly.
“I t-turned him because I was told to. We were going to turn all of your associates so they could attack you…..we didn’t expect that those wolves would find out! And whoever that vampire was with them.” I sighed; love the cryptic talk.
“In plain English, can you tell us who turned you and why did you or they want to destroy us. We never did anything to anyone!” Bella said. Mike was watching the whole thing with mortal fear in his eyes.
“What was the damn plan?” Emmett bit out angrily, startling everyone.

“From what I know, there are three of them in charge with a male vampire at the top. I never got their names either. We were careful not to think of them because we knew the future teller could see them then. I was changed by one of the females.” We looked at each other confused. Then I motioned for Alyssa to continue.

“The male made me a lieutenant because he saw how all the others listened to me, even the two females by his side. They seemed very meek and feeble but still exuded a quiet strength. I was told that the most powerful vampires of the race disappeared last year after going face to face with you. He didn’t know how that was even possible. But judging by what was done to me just now, I can figure it out.” She said, looking a bit more shrewdly at our two Watchers who just shrugged; then she continued:

“Since there was no one in charge so to speak of the vampires, the male said he wanted to be the new king. He said he wanted to get rid of all of the weirdoes first by recruiting the hybrid vampires to go against the people of Forks. He figured that they could turn some of the people while getting themselves destroyed in the process. So it would be a win-win for him. He got more natural vampires and the hybrids would be destroyed. He promised them that they would have a place in his future army. He was bluffing of course. He knew of the wolves existing but he figured if they were caught off guard, they wouldn’t be able to do anything or much of anything in regards of the people the hybrids were to change. He never expected the wolves to be ready for our arrival. My job was to oversee that his plan went accordingly. Obviously we know that didn’t happen.” She said with a scowl.

          So now we knew part of the story but there was more so we waited for her to continue. She sat up and looked at Mike who was looking at her for the first with real disgust on his face. I think he finally figured out that she had lied about pretty much everything and was willing to kill/turn even his own family members to be part of the leader’s army. Jasper felt his emotions shift and stared at him with a frown. Edward read both of their thoughts but continued to watch Alyssa with an expectant look on his face. He knew there was more, but wanted her to tell us otherwise we knew that he would.

“When we attacked, the wolves and that one vampire were more than ready for us. We only got to bite one resident but he didn’t survive. Too old. Why that hybrid picked such an old fart is beyond me. I guess he was just looking for someone to bite. But before we could go on with the rest of our plans, the hybrids were destroyed and I was captured. That’s the whole story as I know it.” Alyssa finished.
“But why us? There are plenty of covens out there. Why choose us?” Alice asked.

“The male wouldn’t say but the way the two women were speaking, it sounded like they wanted to get revenge on you for what happened to the Volturi. The male didn’t seem to care about the Volturi that much and that seemed to have caused a lot of friction between him and the two females. It seemed way too dramatic for my taste. But I honestly don’t know…..” Her voice trailed off just as Alice gasped.

“What is it Alice?” Jasper was in front of her in seconds.
“It’s Athenodora and Sulpicia. The two females that Alyssa is talking about. They had grown fond of Alyssa and are on their way here with their entourage to rescue her. They don’t know that we’re all here.”
“Athenodora and Sulpicia? But those are….Aro’s and Caius’ wives.” I finished softly as it all came together. Marcus’ eyebrows had shot toward the ceiling at that one.

The reason they wanted to destroy us was because we—or rather the Watchers—had destroyed their mates. But they definitely weren’t acting on their own. They weren’t that strong. So whoever the male was that was with them was doing all of the leg work so to speak.

“Th-they can’t be alone with a plan like this. It’s impossible.” Marcus stammered out as we all turned toward him. The last surviving former member of the Volturi couldn’t believe that his nightmare seemed to be continuing. Rogue walked over to him and put her hand on his shoulder in a manner to soothe him; he was after all her cousin-in-law.

“They’re approaching….almost here.” Alice warned.

          We all walked outside, save for Amy and Rogue who again became non-corporeal. Kate, Alice, and Emmett were still inside the house with our two captives. We stood outside with the Denali’s and the Amazons as we felt an approaching army of people. As they skidded to a halt, they hissed in almost unison and crouched into readiness. There were about 25-30 of them. Sure enough both Athenodora and Sulpicia were in the front. They had their blood red eyes trained on Marcus with a deep hatred laced throughout their faces.

“Traitor!” They both hissed at Marcus who looked at them with a face full of outrage and fury.
“You both are the traitors, of all vampires.” He hissed back.
“Now now, let’s not start a war…..yet.” A familiar yet extremely cocky voice spoke up from behind. As his army of soldiers parted to let him through, we all gasped as we saw who walked to the front of the group and stood next to the two women. It was none other than the vampire who left us in our time of need to save his own skin; Alistair!

“Surprised to see me?” He said with a flare of his arms in a grandiose manner.
“Alistair, what have you done?” I asked in a half whisper. He laughed evilly.
“Done? Why, I haven’t done anything. I am just here to claim what’s mine.”
“Yours? There is nothing here that belongs to you.” I said.
“I beg to differ. I believe you have two of my warriors in that house behind you, for starters.” He nodded toward the Denali house, just as Alyssa and Mike were brought out.
“I am not fighting for or with him!” Mike said vehemently. Alistair narrowed his eyes at him.
“You will do as I say, boy! You got that?” Alistair hissed.
“Screw off asshole! You don’t own me and neither does your ‘lieutenant’ here!” Mike hissed back. We couldn’t help but hide a smile; guess Mike has chosen his side.
“So let me get this straight, you amassed this army to get rid of us so you can become what? The new Volturi?” Edward asked raising one eyebrow.
“Bravo, my boy! You’re an intelligent one and I believe a mind reader as well. Care to join the real winners and rule over all of the vampires with me?” Alistair looked at Edward with a twinkle in his eyes.
“Alistair, if there was ever a mental institution for vampires; you’d be the first patient.” Bella grumbled.
“Along with those two idiots.” Marcus nodded toward the two former wives, who hissed angrily at him. As they advanced toward us, I smiled bringing most to a halt.

“Oh and by the way, we didn’t destroy the Volturi; that’s right.” I said with a sly smile. Before Alistair or anyone from that side could utter a word; Rogue, Amy, and Corin—who had flown to join the other two—materialized in front of us about 4 feet off the ground.

“We did.”

Rogue said with a royal gleam in her eyes as Alistair and his army scattered backwards as they beheld the sight of these three majestic beings levitating and wearing their fairy dresses. Rogue also wore her headpiece aka her crown. Only Athenodora and Sulpicia stood their ground though their eyes were round and their mouths open. Rogue looked at them and as their eyes met, the two female vampires’ faces turned into those of instant and scared recognition. Of course they would remember when the Watchers first visited them all those millennia ago. They also knew instantly just how much trouble they were in. Fighting other vampires was one thing, fighting Watchers was impossible; impossible to win that is.

“So the coward wanted to be a king, huh?” Rogue asked staring Alistair point blank in the face.
“C-c-coward? I’m not a coward.” He stammered indignantly.
“Yes you are! You left us high and dry before the battle with the Volturi over my daughter’s life!” Bella hissed at him as he avoided both her and Rogue’s ice cold stare.
“But now you’re the all mighty Alistair, creating armies and killing off hybrids for your own selfish gains. Sorry pal, but you picked a fight with the wrong coven. Even without the Watchers, we would have taken your ass out!” I said angrily. The other’s looked at me with a bit of surprise. What? I can get angry too!
“Taken my ass out? How dare you!!” Alistair screeched and charged at me. I took him on as we all scattered, a fight raged.

Even though we were very much outnumbered, Mike being a newborn took on his former brethren. On top of that Athenodora and Sulpicia ran to the side to stay out of the fight. They knew they would be obliterated if they even attempted to get in the way. The first person to lose her head was Alyssa as she squared off against Mike. She was no match for him no matter how hard she tried. Alistair and I were still going against each other and he was on top of me when screaming from his side got his attention for a split second. What he was looking at was at least 7-10 of his soldiers getting fried on the spot by our three Watchers. That evened out the odds in our favor and also let me rip Alistair’s head clear off his body!

“Thanks for the diversion ladies” I thought in my head to which Rogue looked at me and winked with a small smile.

They let us finish off the remaining members of Alistair’s so called army. I watched as Marcus stepped toward his old nemesis’ two wives. They looked at him for the first time with genuine fear. He kept advancing on them as they scurried backwards and didn’t look like he was going to stop. I looked at Rogue and she shook her head meaning let him do what he needs to do; the why was explained by Marcus himself shortly afterwards.

“I can’t let you two live any more. You knew what happened to Didyme and you never stopped him or told me. And you should have.” Marcus said with a raspy voice.
“M-Marcus…..we did-didn’t know! We swear!” Athenodora said with horror.
“I don’t believe you.” He said simply.

But his hands were shaking because he couldn’t even reach out to touch them. His face was a terrible mask of pain as he turned toward Rogue and just stared at her, pleadingly. She looked at him kindly, then as he stepped aside she refocused on the two standing against the icy wall in the Denali drive way and in a split second that we could barely follow, threw a sizable fireball at the two women who never saw it coming let alone feel anything as there was a small explosion and they were ash. She killed them. But did so in the most humane way possible; they never saw or felt anything. One moment they were there, the next they were gone. She did it for Marcus who nodded gratefully at her and went into Tanya’s arms and sobbed there as she held and soothed him. It was finally over for him.

We gathered the non-fried body parts of the vampires strewn all around the Denali driveway and put them into one giant pile which Amy then tossed a fireball into and talk about a bonfire. This one was huge. We watched it for a while, then had a giant group hug as our three main Watchers finally floated to the ground to join us. We thanked Zafrina and the other two and they ran back to their homeland. After another round of hugging, we got our clothes together and started the journey home. Mike joined us as he wanted to see Jessica even if was to be for one last time. We ran across the country as our three Watchers flew over our heads fully corporeal this time; there was nothing and no one to hide from anymore. Amy was holding Peter, whom she picked up from La Push.

When we got to NH, we saw Alexander close a portal where the rest of the family, wolves, and Watchers could watch the unfolding drama as we all came to a halt and/or touched down. They all shook their heads. Who would have guessed Alistair would be behind all of this? What a serious coward; have others do the dirty work for him as he sat back and watched. Jessica was released and when she saw Mike, she ran into his arms. They hugged for a long time. That’s when Rogue stepped toward them, just as she was about to say something, Amy reached out toward Rogue shaking her head again:

“No Rogue. You can’t! It’s against our laws!” She said. We all looked confused. What was against their laws?
“I understand that but he doesn’t belong in our future.” Rogue replied gently. Amy sighed and nodded.
“Um….can the rest of us find out what hell you’re talking about?” Jacob said while the rest of us smiled at him. He never beat around the bush. By way of explanation, Rogue turned back to Mike and Jessica who were looking at her with wide eyes.
“Mike, I meant what I said. You do not belong in our future. Which means you must go to the past. I will simplify it for you as I know how much Carlisle loves my cryptic talk.” She said with a wink and a smile at me as I rolled my eyes and the others laughed despite themselves.
“Yes please do.” Mike said clearly confused; welcome to the club!

“I am giving you a second chance at a human life. After I touch you on the head, you will lose your vampire self and become mortal once again. After I’m done with that, I will place both of my hands on both of your shoulders, Mike and Jessica. You will both forget everything you’ve experienced in the last few weeks especially all of this supernatural stuff. The Cullen’s will be exactly as you knew them in HS. Charlie already knows as I had Corin brief him as well as all of the La Push wolves and elders before she joined us in Alaska. Your parents will be told that you were hit by something and you were in a small clinic in Alaska with a serious case of amnesia. You have just recovered and were on your way home when you stopped to get Jessica. That’s all any of you will remember. Jessica, the only memory you’ll have is searching all around Alaska for Mike until he found you. When you open your eyes you will find yourselves on Charlie’s front porch.”

          When Rogue was finished with the explanation we all listened stunned. She was giving Mike his human life back! How was that even possible? Then again with the Watchers anything is possible. I could also tell that by Amy’s concern, this was NOT something done often if at all. So whatever Rogue saw in our future, Mike was definitely not a part of it. When they both had digested everything that was said to them, they nodded and Rogue proceeded with exactly what she had described to us and them. When she touched Mike first he started glowing red! Then as the vampire side left him, the glow changed to a pure gold color. His eyes remained closed as she continued with her work by placing her hands on both Jessica and Mike. They were both soon totally glowing and got brighter and brighter until they were invisible to us from behind the light.

          And then before we knew it, they were gone! Poof! Just like that. Rogue opened up a portal for the rest of us to see that Mike and Jessica were now just as she had said standing on Charlie’s porch as Charlie very nonchalantly walked out of the house and took the two kids back to Mike’s house to be reunited with his parents. It was obvious that he was alive and his heart was beating. He was human again as we all shook our heads with wonder. His parents were elated and thanked Charlie again and again for his efforts. After that, Rogue closed the portal. They were back to their human lives. And we were back to ours; no more mysteries, holes, or lies.

“It’s over now.” I said to my family.
“Not quite.” Kim who had been standing next to Michelle said. We had forgotten those two were even there. They’re very quiet. We all looked at her with raised eyebrows. As she turned toward Michelle, took her hands in her own and looked deep in her eyes and said:

“Michelle, you mean the absolute world to me. Nothing is ever for certain even in our immortal lives. But for me one thing is and always will be certain and that is how much I love you.” Before we could react, Kim was down on one knee and had a ring in her hand as Michelle gasped.

“I would be very honored if you would be my wife, my spouse, my partner in crime and in life. Will you marry me?” We all had tears in our eyes by then. Michelle’s were running down her cheeks as she answered:

“Yes.”

The ring was slipped on her finger and everyone cheered as she and Kim kissed long and hard. Our hard journey ended with a once in a lifetime proposal. And isn’t that just the best way to end awful, horrible, traumatic things?