The Volturi had always prided themselves on control. Discipline. Legacy. For over a millennium, their dominion over the vampire world remained unchallenged.
Until now.
--------------
Deep within Volterra, cloaked figures gathered beneath cathedral-like arches. Aro, Marcus, and Caius sat upon their thrones. A faint chill brushed their skin, unnatural even by their undead standards.
Then the scream came.
A shrill, warping screech from a lower chamber.
The guards rushed down. What they found was worse than death.
Demetri, once the tracker without equal, lay twisted, his limbs contorted in reverse. His skin was blotched with obsidian marks. His eyes? Swirling voids.
He looked up at them and laughed.
Caius snarled. "What magic is this?!"
Demetri stood, bones snapping into unnatural angles. "The end is seeded, my lord. Your court will fall like dust in a thunderstorm."
Aro stepped forward, touching Demetri's forehead — and screamed.
Visions assaulted him: winged serpents of ink devouring Rome, Raiko's eyes glowing like twin stars, and Nyxothar's silhouette rising over the earth like an eclipse with too many mouths.
Aro collapsed. "It has begun."
--------------
Meanwhile, in Forks, Raiko stood before an ancient mirror — a relic unearthed by the werewolves beneath the old woods. When she gazed into it, her reflection glitched.
The mirror whispered. "Your enemies have seen the void."
She clenched her fist. "Then I will show them lightning."
--------------
Alice, ever observant, picked up the flickers of darkness threading through her visions. "Something's infecting the fates," she whispered to Rosalie. "I see hundreds of timelines, but they all bend toward a singularity… Nyxothar."
Rosalie frowned. "We need allies. Even ones we'd never trust before."
Alice nodded. "Then it's time we meet the witches of La Push."
--------------
Back in Volterra, Marcus watched his guards fall one by one. The corruption spread like mold through thought, bleeding into instinct. It twisted hunger into madness.
He stood before the main hall and raised his voice. "Bring me the Blade of Dusk."
A guard hesitated. "But... that blade has been sealed since the dark reign."
Marcus's voice cracked like thunder. "Now it must be wielded again."
---------------
The Blade of Dusk — forged by a human archmage, bathed in phoenix blood, and dipped in the tears of a banshee — shimmered violet-black. Only one who could walk between life and storm could wield it.
He handed it to Sulpicia.
His last words to her: "If I fall, take it to the storm-born goddess."
---------------
That night, Raiko stood atop the hill overlooking Forks. Lightning circled around her like a crown of burning serpents.
She turned to Alice and Rosalie. "We need to end this at the root."
Rosalie grinned, sword slung over her back. "You mean a romantic getaway to Volterra?"
Alice smirked. "Let's paint the Volturi red."
Raiko closed her eyes, focusing her storm-core.
And then they vanished in a burst of violet light.
--------------
In the court of the vampires, thunder cracked the marble as the storm goddess arrived.