16 16 Valedictorian and battle prep

The day after we came home from Italy, Bella convened a Cullen family meeting to discuss her becoming a vampire.

"You all know what I want.

And I know how much I'm asking for.

The only thing that I can think of for it to be fair is to just vote."

"You don't know what you're talking about."

Edward interjects.

"Shut up.

Alice?"

"I already consider you my sister. Yes."

"Thank you.

Jasper?"

"I vote yes. It would be nice to not want to kill you all the time."

"Rosalie?"

"I'm sorry.

I'm really sorry to both of you for how I've acted. And I'm really grateful that you were brave enough to go and save my brother.

But this isn't a life I would have chosen for myself. And I wish that there had been someone to vote no for me.

So, no."

"Emmett?"

"I vote hell, yeah. Haha. We can pick a fight with these Volturi some other way."

"Edythe?"

"I vote no, like my brother."

"Fenris?"

"Me? I'm getting a vote too?"

"Yes, you're with me Fenris. That means you're part of the family too. I thought we had already discussed this long ago, remember? When you cried?" Alice says jokingly.

Emmett starts laughing really hard at this.

"I DID NOT!

I vote yes, if Bella wants to be a vampire why not?"

"Esme?"

"I already consider you a part of the family.

Yes."

"And Carlisle?"

He doesn't really answer but walks towards Edward with an apologetic look on his face when Edward asks..

"Why are you doing this to me?

You know what this means."

"You've chosen not to live without her.

Which leaves me no choice.

I won't lose my son."

After the voting is done Edward takes me aside again to talk.

"Bella told me about everything that happened while I was gone. Thank you for keeping her alive when I didn't. It seems I keep coming in your debt."

"Like Alice said, I'm part of the family too. You don't owe me anything. Bella and I have actually become really good friends over the last few months."

A few weeks later at school we had final exams, which I finished at the top of the graduating class. Unfortunately this means whith my Grade Point Average I became Valedictorian, so I'm going to have to give a speech at graduation like Jessica did in the movie.

One problem with that.

I don't do speeches.

Even 2500 years ago, if me and my men went into battle the most exhilarating speech I ever gave was "Let's kill those bastards!".

And I'm pretty sure that doesn't count as a speech. I always motivated my men by being the first on the front line, and kick ass in ways no one had ever kicked ass before or since. Lead by example was my motto.

A few days after I found out I was valedictorian, Alice decided she was going to throw a party after graduation.

When she told us at lunch, Alice had a vision of Victoria coming to the forest.

'She's trying to distract us from the missing persons cases in Seattle, so we won't notice the newborn army being created.'

That weekend Edward and Bella went to Pheonix to see her mom.

Meanwhile here in Forks, the vampires and werewolves were working together for the first time in history, in order to catch Victoria.

Now that they worked together instead of fighting against each other, catching Victoria was much easier and we actually succeeded.

We killed her pretty easily. But besides me no one knew it wasn't over yet. She already turned Riley Biers and seduced him. He's convinced she loved him so now he will definitely use his newborn army to avenge her.

A week later, he came to Bella's house.

The wolves and the Cullens started keeping an eye on her and her father for protection in case he came back. Unlike the movie, Jacob and Edward didn't fight or argue, they were actually amicable towards each other.

Meanwhile the situation in Seattle was starting to get out of hand and the Cullens finally figured out that a newborn army was being created.

A few days later at graduation I had to give my speech.

"It's easy to feel hopeful on a beautiful day like today. But there will be dark days ahead of us too.

There will be days where you feel all alone.

That's when hope is needed most.

No matter how buried it gets or how lost you feel, you have to hold on to hope. Keep it alive.

We have to be greater than what we suffer.

My wish for you is to become a source for hope to others. People need that. The world needs that.

And even if we fail, what better way is there to live?

As we look around here today, at all the people who helped make us who we are, I know it feels like we're saying goodbye. But we will carry a piece of each other into everything that we do next.

To remind us of who we are, and of who we are meant to be.

I've had a great few years with you, and I'll miss you all very much."

That night at the party I was hanging out with Alice when suddenly she got a vision. This attracted the attention of Bella who was talking to Jacob and they came to us.

"Alice what's wrong?"

"A decion has been made, we're not going to Seattle, they're coming here."

We quickly take the conversation to a more private place with all the Cullens and Jacob, Quil and Embry.

"They'll be here in four days." Alice says after explaining her vision.

"This could turn into a bloodbath. Who's behind it?" Emmett asks.

"I didn't see anyone I recognized except maybe one." Alice says.

"I know his face. He's local. Riley Biers.

He didn't start this." Edward says after seeing Riley's face through Alice's memory.

"I think Victoria did, and for some reason Riley is continuing even though she's dead." I explain.

"Either way the army is coming and there aren't enough of us to protect the town." Jasper says.

At this point Jacob interjects into the conversation between the Cullens.

"Hold up. What damn army?" Jacob asks confused.

"Newborns, our kind." Edward answers.

"What are they after?" Quill asks.

"They were passing around Bella's scent." Alice explains.

"They're after Bella? What the hell does this mean?" Jacob asks.

"It means an ugly fight. With lives lost." Carlisle says, looking worried.

Jacob looks at his pack mates who nod in confirmation. Then he looks toward me and I do the same.

"All right. The wolves are in."

"Jacob no. You'd get yourselves killed. No way." Bella says.

"I wasn't asking for permission Bella."

"Jasper?" Edward asks, wanting Jasper's thoughts on the matter.

"They'll give us the numbers and the newborns won't even know they exist."

"We'll need to coordinate."

"Carlisle, they're gonna get hurt." Bella says, worried for everyone's safety.

"We'll all need to train. Fighting newborns requires knowledge that Jasper has. And maybe Fenris?"

"Yes, I've fought plenty of them back in my day."

Jacob starts laughing at this.

"Back in my day? You even sound like a pop-pop now. Haha."

The next day we gathered in my part of the forest for training.

Unlike in the movie, every wolf shows up in their human forms.

Carlisle starts the session as soon as the wolves arive.

"Welcome.

Jasper has experience dealing with newborns. He'll teach us how to defeat them."

Jacob immediately asks..

"What makes them so different from you?"

"They're stronger than us. Their human blood still lingers in their tissues.

Our kind is never more physically powerful than in our first several months of this life."

Jasper then takes over.

"Carlisle's right. That's why they were created.

Now the two most important things to remember are, first, never let them get their arms around you. The'll crush you instantly. And second, never go for the obvious kill.

Emmett."

The Cullens then all start sparring, which I allow to continue only for a few minutes before I stop them.

"Alright stop, stop, stop. I've seen enough."

"What's wrong?"

"What's wrong?? I'll tell you what's wrong.

You guys keep making these fancy moves, you throw each other away, you do cartwheels and saltos and backflips. I can no longer tell if you're preparing for a fight or a cheerleading tryout."

This earns a few laughs from among the wolves. And even Alice was laughing.

"Life or death combat is not about fancy moves or looking good while fighting. It's about deadly precision, lethal efficiency. It's about killing or otherwise neutralizing your enemy in the least amount of moves as possible.

If you were fighting 1 on 1 maybe you can play around a little, but even then I wouldn't recommend it unless you're really that confident.

But if you're fighting multiple enemies you neutralize one, move onto the next and then repeat until they're all defeated."

"That actually sounds reasonable."

"Thank you Carlisle."

"So how exactly do we take them out as efficiently as possible?"

"Jasper was right about not going for the obvious kill. So don't go for their head right away unless you have a clean shot. Try to rip off an arm or a leg, something that really hurts even for a vampire and then while they're distracted by the pain, make the killshot by going for the head.

And Carlisle, can you get your hands on human blood from a bloodbank? You are a doctor after all."

"Yes, that should be possible. Why do you need it?"

"We can put it in water balloons. When they come close we throw them straight at them, it'll make them frantic. I realize that it would then also be harder for you guys to control yourselves but I used a similar method in the past and it worked perfectly. We were outnumbered 10 to 1 but we didn't lose a single man."

"Alright, we'll have to try it then. As long as we're well fed before the fight we should be able to handle it."