The Unmatched Beauty (Twilight/TVD Crossover)

Or in this case Irinas

With a small clicking sound, the fire shooting from Caius's hand disappeared. A gasp rippled through the mass of witnesses behind the Volturi.
We were too aghast to make any noise at all. It was one thing to know that death was coming with fierce, unstoppable speed; it was another thing to watch it happen.
Caius smiled coldly. "Now she has taken full responsibility for her actions."
His eyes flashed to our front line, touching swiftly on Tanya's and Kate's frozen forms.
In that second I understood that Caius had never underestimated the ties of a true family. This was the ploy. He had not wanted Irina's complaint; he had wanted her defiance. His excuse to destroy her, to ignite the violence that filled the air like a thick, combustible mist. He had thrown a match. And she lit it.
The strained peace of this summit already teetered more precariously than an elephant on a tightrope. Once the fight began, there would be no way to stop it. It would only escalate until one side was entirely extinct. Our side. Caius knew this.
So did Edward.
"Stop them!" Edward cried out, jumping to grab Tanya's arm as she lurched forward toward the smiling Caius with a maddened cry of pure rage. She couldn't shake Edward off before Carlisle had his arms locked around her waist.
"It's too late to help her," he reasoned urgently as she struggled. "Don't give him what he wants!"
Kate was harder to contain. Shrieking wordlessly like Tanya, she broke into the first stride of the attack that would end with everyone's death. Rosalie was closest to her, but before Rose could clinch her in a headlock, Kate shocked her so violently that Rose crumpled to the ground. Emmett caught Kate's arm and threw her down, then staggered back, his knees giving out. Kate rolled to her feet, and it looked like no one could stop her.
Garrett flung himself at her, knocking her to the ground again. He bound his arms around hers, locking his hands around his own wrists. I saw his body spasm as she shocked him. His eyes rolled back in his head, and his hold did break. I rushed over and tackled her to the ground pinning her in place taking away her strength. Her voltage not even once hitting me directly just adding more energy for me, as we sparked and it crackled around us.
"Zafrina," Edward shouted.
Kate's eyes went blank and her screams turned to moans. Tanya stopped struggling. "Give me my sight back," Tanya hissed.
And then Garrett was in command of himself again, crouching next to Kate in the snow. "If she gets off of you ,will you knock us down again, Katie?" he whispered.
She snarled in response, still thrashing blindly.
"Listen to me, Tanya, Kate," Carlisle said in a low but intense whisper. "Vengeance doesn't help her now. Irina wouldn't want you to waste your lives this way. Think about what you're doing. If you attack them, we all die."
Tanya's shoulders hunched with grief, and she leaned into Carlisle for support. Kate was finally still. Carlisle and Garrett continued to console the sisters with words too urgent to sound like comfort.
And my attention returned to the weight of the stares that pressed down on our moment of chaos. From the corners of my eyes, I could see that Edward and everyone else besides Carlisle and Garrett were on their guard again as well.
The heaviest glare came from Caius, staring with enraged disbelief at Kate, Garrett, and I in the snow. Aro was watching the same three, incredulity the strongest emotion on his face. He knew what Kate could do. He had felt her potency through Edward's memories. But then again Vanessa is the most powerful vampire in the world. Even though he himself would never far utter it aloud.
The Volturi guard no longer stood at disciplined attention—they were crouched forward, waiting to spring the counterstrike the moment we attacked.
Behind them, forty-three witnesses watched with very different expressions than the ones they'd worn entering the clearing. Confusion had turned to suspicion. The lightning-fast destruction of Irina had shaken them all. What had been her crime?
Without the immediate attack that Caius had counted on to distract from his rash act, the Volturi witnesses were left questioning exactly what was going on here. Aro glanced back swiftly while we watched, his face betraying him with one flash of vexation. His need for an audience had backfired badly.
I heard Stefan and Vladimir murmur to each other in quiet glee at Aro's discomfort.
Aro was obviously concerned with keeping his white hat, as the Romanians had put it. But I didn't believe that the Volturi would leave us in peace just to save their reputation. After they finished with us, surely they would slaughter their witnesses for that purpose. I felt a strange, sudden pity for the mass of the strangers the Volturi had brought to watch us die. Demetri would hunt them until they were extinct, too. I slowly got up Kate's arms in a vice grip that would outweigh a boa constructors. She slumped forward as if she's exhausted. I gave her her strength back as I passed her to Garrett's arms and then I made my way to the front line. Paul's nose rubbed against my arm as a silent praise. I also felt pity for our sir as well. For Jacob and Renesmee, for Alice and Jasper, for Alistair, and for these strangers who had not known what today would cost them, Demetri had to die.
Aro touched Caius's shoulder lightly. "Irina has been punished for bearing false witness against this child." So that was to be their excuse. He went on. "Perhaps we should return to the matter at hand?"
Caius straightened, and his expression hardened into unreadability. He stared forward, seeing nothing. His face reminded me, oddly, of a person who'd just learned he'd been demoted.
Aro drifted forward, Renata, Felix, and Demetri automatically moving with him.
"Just to be thorough," he said, "I'd like to speak with a few of your witnesses. Procedure, you know." He waved a hand dismissively.
Two things happened at once. Caius's eyes focused on Aro, and the tiny cruel smile came back. And Edward hissed, his hands balling up in fists so tight it looked like the bones in his knuckles would split through his diamond-hard skin. My own face hardened as well as I came to realization.
While Caius had blundered through useless accusations and injudicious attempts to trigger the fight, Aro must have been coming up with a more effective strategy.
Aro ghosted across the snow to the far western end of our line, stopping about ten yards from Amun and Kebi. The nearby wolves bristled angrily but held their positions.
"Ah, Amun, my southern neighbor!" Aro said warmly. "It has been so long since you've visited me."
Amun was motionless with anxiety, Kebi a statue at his side. "Time means little; I never notice its passing," Amun said through unmoving lips.
"So true," Aro agreed. "But maybe you had another reason to stay away?"
Amun said nothing.
"It can be terribly time-consuming to organize newcomers into a coven. I know that well! I'm grateful I have others to deal with the tedium. I'm glad your new additions have fit in so well. I would have loved to have been introduced. I'm sure you were meaning to come to see me soon."
"Of course," Amun said, his tone so emotionless that it was impossible to tell if there was any fear or sarcasm in his assent.
"Oh well, we're all together now! Isn't it lovely?" Amun nodded, his face blank.
"But the reason for your presence here is not as pleasant, unfortunately. Carlisle called on you to witness?"
"Yes."
"And what did you witness for him?"
Amun spoke with the same cold lack of emotion. "I've observed the child in question. It was evident almost immediately that she was not an immortal child—"
"Perhaps we should define our terminology," Aro interrupted, "now that there seem to be new classifications. By immortal child, you mean of course a human child who had been bitten and thus transformed into a vampire."
"Yes, that's what I meant."
"What else did you observe about the child?"
"The same things that you surely saw in Edward's mind. That the child is his biologically. That she grows. That she learns."
"Yes, yes," Aro said, a hint of impatience in his otherwise amiable tone. "But specifically in your few weeks here, what did you see?"
Amun's brow furrowed. "That she grows... quickly."
Aro smiled. "And do you believe that she should be allowed to live?"
A hiss escaped my lips, and I was not alone. Half the vampires in our line echoed my protest. The sound was a low sizzle of fury hanging in the air. Across the meadow, a few of the Volturi witnesses made the same noise.
Aro did not turn to the noise, but Amun glanced around uneasily.
"I did not come to make judgments," he equivocated.
Aro laughed lightly. "Just your opinion."
Amun's chin lifted. "I see no danger in the child. She learns even more swiftly than she grows."
Aro nodded, considering. After a moment, he turned away. "Aro?" Amun called.
Aro whirled back almost desperate it seemed. "Yes, friend?"
"I gave my witness. I have no more business here. My mate and I would like to take our leave now."
Aro smiled warmly. "Of course. I'm so glad we were able to chat for a bit. And I'm sure we'll see each other again soon."
Amun's lips were a tight line as he inclined his head once, acknowledging the barely concealed threat. He touched Kebi's arm, and then the two of them ran quickly to the southern edge of the meadow and disappeared into the trees. I knew they wouldn't stop running for a very long time and I got one am glad. Never did like him.
Aro was gliding back along the length of our line to the east, his guards hovering tensely. He stopped when he was in front of Siobhan's massive form.
"Hello, dear Siobhan. You are as lovely as ever."
Siobhan inclined her head, waiting.
"And you?" he asked. "Would you answer my questions the same way Amun has?"
"I would," Siobhan said. "But I would perhaps add a little more. Renesmee understands the limitations. She's no danger to humans—she blends in better than we do. She poses no threat of exposure."
"Can you think of none?" Aro asked soberly.
Edward growled, a low ripping sound deep in his throat.
Caius's cloudy crimson eyes brightened.
Renata reached out protectively toward her master.
And Garrett freed Kate to take a step forward, ignoring Kate's hand as she tried to caution him this time.
Siobhan answered slowly, "I don't think I follow you."
He stopped in front of Rebekah.
"Rebekah, my dear! We have all missed you!" He greeted enthusiastically. Marcus face peeking slight interest.
"Hello again, Aro." She greeted formally as if she wasn't speaking to her brother. Embry growled and stood in front of her slightly as Aro made a move to hug her. Aro looked down his face intensifying with wonder. "Ah yes. Your mate. How delightful. Niklaus will be pleased. He will be delighted to know of this. For your sake I hope he loves longer than the others." Rebekah was now white as a sheet and threw a fearful glance in my direction but I was too busy drilling holes into Aros back hoping something would just come out and rip his greedy fat head off.
Aro drifted lightly back, casually, but toward the rest of his guard. Renata, Felix, and Demetri were closer than his shadow.
"There is no broken law," Aro said in a placating voice, but every one of us could hear that a qualification was coming. I fought back the rage that tried to claw its way up my throat and snarl out my defiance. I hurled the fury into my shield, thickening it, making sure everyone was protected.
"No broken law," Aro repeated. "However, does it follow then that there is no danger? No." He shook his head gently. "That is a separate issue."
The only response was the tightening of already stretched nerves, and Maggie, at the fringes of our band of fighters, shaking her head with slow anger. Aro paced thoughtfully, looking as if he floated rather than touched the ground with his feet. I noticed every pass took him closer to the protection of his guard.
"She is unique... utterly, impossibly unique. Such a waste it would be, to destroy something so lovely. Especially when we could learn so much . . ." He sighed, as if unwilling to go on. "But there is danger, danger that cannot simply be ignored."
No one answered his assertion. It was dead silent as he continued in a monologue that sounded as if he spoke it for himself only.
"How ironic it is that as the humans advance, as their faith in science grows and controls their world, the more free we are from discovery. Yet, as we become ever more uninhibited by their disbelief in the supernatural, they become strong enough in their technologies that, if they wished, they could actually pose a threat to us, even destroy some of us.
"For thousands and thousands of years, our secrecy has been more a matter of convenience, of ease, than of actual safety. This last raw, angry century has given birth to weapons of such power that they endanger even immortals. Now our status as mere myth in truth protects us from these weak creatures we hunt.
"This amazing child"—he lifted his hand palm down as if to rest it on Renesmee, though he was forty yards from her now, almost within the Volturi formation again—"if we could but know her potential—know with absolute certainty that she could always remain shrouded within the obscurity that protects us. But we know nothing of what she will become! Her own parents are plagued by fears of her future. We cannot know what she will grow to be." He paused, looking first at our witnesses, and then, meaningfully, at his own. His voice gave a good imitation of sounding torn by his words.
Still looking at his own witnesses, he spoke again. "Only the known is safe. Only the known is tolerable. The unknown is... a vulnerability."
Caius's smile widened viciously.
"You're reaching, Aro," Carlisle said in a bleak voice.
"Peace, friend." Aro smiled, his face as kind, his voice as gentle, as ever. "Let us not be hasty. Let us look at this from every side."