*Disclaimer* I do not own Vampire Academy. All rights and privileges go to Richelle Mead.

The Miracle of Death

Chapter 1

Dimitri's POV

My eyes fluttered against the stark white light that bore into me from the ceiling above. I opened my eyes and immediately regretted it as I felt a pounding against my skull.

"Where am I?" I exclaimed to no one in particular.

I felt groggy as I tried to pull myself up having no recollection of the previous days. As I sat up I found that not only were the lights startlingly white but so was the rest of the room as well.

"The hospital?" I thought to myself. "How did I end up in the hospital?"

A figure appeared in the doorway apparently having heard my previous outburst. She was a petite little Moroi who scurried over to my side when she saw I was awake. She didn't look familiar to me at all, which didn't help with the growing mystery of how I had ended up here. It was apparent however from her clothing that she was part of the hospital staff so maybe she could answer my questions.

"Why am I in the hospital?" I managed to rasp.

"Shh.." she soothed while slowly laying me back down. "You've lost a lot of blood, and we don't want you to exert yourself."

"I don't understand… what happened, how did I lose blood?"

"Please, I need you to relax," she responded. "We don't want you to make your condition worse.

Her inability to respond to my questions only infuriated me further.

"What. Happened. To. Me." I growled at her, fighting against her small hands.

"Please," she squeaked back, evidently scared but continuing to hold her own against me. She had obviously been telling the truth about the blood loss. Usually no one, Moroi or Dhampir got the better of me. The fact that I was a 6'7" combat trained Russian usually helped this case. "Please," she squeaked again getting desperate. "I can't answer your questions. I can get the doctor in charge, but I need you to relax. I don't want you to hurt yourself."

I sighed. It was adamant I would get no information from her unless I complied, so I stopped fighting against her but I refused to lie back down. I couldn't allow myself to be vulnerable. She may have been trying to help me, but I still had no idea what kind of situation I was in. She tried to persist that I should lie down, but eventually she realised that it was to no use and she withdrew through the doorway; hopefully to bring me some answers.

I sat and waited becoming less frustrated from my unresolved questions and more focused on the consistent pounding which had not let up in my skull. Eventually after what had seemed to be a large amount of time, but was most likely to be just a few minutes I saw Dr. Olendzki emerge through the doorway.

"Dimitri, you're almost as bad as Rose. We need you to lay down and conserve your energy, you've been through a great ordeal, and you're lucky to have come out alive." My attention perked at the mention of Rose, but Dr. Olendzki didn't seem to notice and she proceeded to lay me back down on the bed. I grumbled at her towards this, but I no longer continued to fight against seeing a familiar face. I may have complied to lie back down, but I refused to continue without the knowledge that I was obviously missing.

"Dr. Olendzki please, I don't understand why I'm here."

Dr Olendzki froze, shocked at my outburst. "You don't remember what happened?" She questioned me.

"No." I proceeded to shake my head, wincing from the pounding in my head. "No," I repeated, "I only know that I woke up and I have this killer headache which refuses to stop pounding against my skull."

I saw the Doctor's face slip from shock into concern. "I had assumed blood loss to be your only issue, but it seems that I may have been wrong. It's possible you could have sustained a blow to the head as you were taken down. Most likely you'll just be suffering from a concussion, and small amount of Retrograde Amnesia due to previous events being unable to consolidate in your memory. I'm going to ask you a few questions to rule out any permanent damage. Is this okay with you Dimitri?"

She looked at me, obviously concerned from my lack of memory, and I managed to stiffly nod at her, not fully understanding everything the Doctor had said. Amnesia was obvious, but Retrograde? Consolidate? I was trained to recognise combat terms, not medical ones. Dr. Olendzki proceeded to ask me stupid questions, I now understood Rose's annoyance at these questions being asked of her on one of her many previous visits, my heart gave a pang at the thought of Rose. I hoped whatever I had gotten myself into had nothing to do with her. I need her to be safe, always.

"Can you tell me your full name?"

"Dimitri Belikov" I replied apathetically.

And so it went on, 'How old are you?' 'Where were you born?' 'What are your parents names?' Et cetera, et cetera.

"Can you tell me where you are right now?

"I'm in the St. Vladimir's Academy hospital."

"Can you tell me why you're here?" Dr. Olendzki raised her eyes to meet mine with this question. She had previously been making notes of all my answers on a clipboard.

"I -," still unsure of this answer I racked poor beaten brain for the answer to this question. There was something niggling at me, just out of my grasp –

"Strigoi!" I exclaimed. "They attacked the school!"

Dr. Olendzki nodded apprehensively at me "Yes -," she dragged out the word; apparently I was still missing something. I was unable to provide more of an answer for her and she must have noticed my look of confusion and decided I hadn't suffered any permanent damage as she proceeded to tell me the events of the past few days.

"The Strigoi came out of the woods, no one was expecting it, Rose's warning gave the guardians the precious few minutes to organise and protect the dorm's, but it still wasn't enough to protect everyone…"

Slowly it came trickling back; the Strigoi, forcing Rose to run, fighting off as many as I could in an attempt to hold them back from the inner grounds of the school campus.

"People were taken." I interrupted her. She nodded slowly, pain becoming obvious within her eyes.

"Thirteen on top of the twenty-seven that had already been lost," she murmured.

Shock ran through me just as hard, if not more than when I had originally experienced it a few days before. Things like this just didn't happen. Sure, a few Strigoi might pick off a few Moroi or two and that was devastating in itself, but to have that level of organisation? Twenty-seven of our own dead, let alone the casualties? It was unthinkable.

"You were a part of a rescue mission to retrieve the thirteen stolen," Dr. Olendzki's words pulled me out of my thoughts.

"They were holding them in the caves," I stated as much to myself as to her.

She nodded again absently; it was obvious that her mind was no longer on me. I thought back to the rescue. It had all been going to plan until a group of Strigoi had come up behind us and caved the wall in. With the wall down it was easier to defend ourselves as the Strigoi could only come at us from one direction, however it had also put us at a disadvantage as we had no way to escape without exposing ourselves.

We had been outnumbered by our seven Guardians to their ten Strigoi and we had only just been holding them off until Stephen and Rose came up behind them, herding them between us.

After staking them all and crawling through the cave in, it had looked as though we were all going to make it through, even when we came against three more Strigoi fighting against Ms Carmack and Guardian Hathaway we easily outnumbered them and put them down.

We were retreating when seven more Strigoi jumped us. So many variables contributed to the already bad situation. Maybe if we had of noticed them sooner, we could have been more prepared. If we were more vigilant, and not already exhausted from being up all day and night. Maybe if the tunnel had been just a little wider then more of us could have reached the Strigoi and helped to fight back. It was impossible though; too many variables were against us, and our group started dropping in numbers again. Alan was the first to go down, and we continued to lose more.

Rose was amongst the ones to retreat towards the exit. She was safe, and in that moment that was all that mattered to me.

We took the Strigoi down and immediately went tearing after the others. The exit to the caves was within our sights when once again more Strigoi jumped us. There were only three this time, but it made no difference. It was all too fast.

One of them grabbed Celeste and her strangled scream was enough to distract me for only a moment, but a moment was all he had needed. I had no time to take in anything, only that I had been pulled to the ground and I was grappling with all my strength and life, but it was hopeless. No matter how hard we train, the Strigoi would always be stronger. My position was weak, vulnerable. I had no time to think or wish for anything or to even register Rose's blood curdling scream before his teeth found his way into my neck and I was entrapped by the power of his bite. All there was was pure bliss, before finally, I blacked out.

*Author's Note* This is my first published Fanfiction, please don't be afraid to give me feedback both constructive and/or positive. I find it's easier to look at a story from a Third Party perspective to be able to pick up on things which are wrong or could be improved. As I am central to the story it's harder for me to pick up on these things as I know in my head where the story is going whereas you guys are left in the dark until I provide you with more.

For those of you who don't know, Universe Altercations (UA) is a play on Alternate Universe (AU). Where AU has the main plot line and characters, but it's set in a different universe, UA is where it is set in the same universe but there are slight altercations to the story line; e.g Dimitri does't turn into a Strigoi.

Hope you guys enjoy this chapter, I will be continuing and you'll find out more about what happened to Rose in the next chapter.