The Revolution

Beep, beep, beep!

I sighed as I rolled over and turned my alarm clock off. My first day back after spending the past month in Baia with my family the first day back was always the hardest. I looked at the time, 5pm. It was early but I needed to get some gym time in before my shift with Lissa today. We had a long day of meetings today and I needed to be alert and ready for anything.

Now Lissa was on the council the age decree had been disallowed. She'd fought tooth and nail to halter the new law in its tracks but it couldn't be stopped completely. So now it was due to be enforced from the next school year, which was crazy. It was lucky Lissa had a seat at all and again that was thanks to Rose. She'd helped our world even if she wasn't here to witness it.

I thought about my dream from last night of Roza held in my arms after our night in the cabin, it was a magical memory. That was both the best and worst day of my life. I'd finally given in to my feelings for my Roza but then it gave birth to the day that I died.

The day I was taken forcibly from Rose. Then I was strigoi killing without mercy, only thinking of one thing, Rose. And if I got her to join me, I would be unstoppable. I had nightmares of how I'd bitten her and seduced her over and over again, of how I had withheld sex in a bid to sway her to change.

I remembered when were on the bridge and how she'd staked me but instead of dying I was dhampir again. All my guilt, all my memories haunting me, surrounding me and swallowing me in the darkness. I'd dream of how, as a dhampir, I pushed Rose away of how I crushed her so completely, thinking she would run to the safety of Adrian. But instead of doing as I thought she would, she had run to her father that I didn't even know existed. And finally how her father wasted no time in taking her away from court. Away from me.

It was always the same dream, of my past coming to haunt me. I got dressed and headed to the nearly empty gym, as I ran my circuit I thought over the past three years since Rose left.

Back when Rose left Lissa had been trying to fight the age law but as she had no relatives she didn't have a right to a vote and the sudden appearance of Jill had blown the court up. She was late Prince Dragomir's illegitimate daughter. Jill had explained to Lissa how Rose had found out about her from an anonymous tip, how she'd tracked her strigoi aunt, Sonya Karp, down and changed her back to a Moroi. How she'd convinced Jill and her mother along with Sonya to come to court to help change the fate of dhampirs. Jill had arrived with three Mazur guardians, I still don't understand why Zmey would hire guards for her.

Then weeks after that Victor Dashkov had been found after an anonymous tip had led the guardians to him. He had been tied up in a motel room with his half crazed brother. I heard from the guardians involved that he had lost some of his memories and couldn't remember escaping the prison and everything since then. Since Rose left Lissa had told me everything, now I knew how Victor had escaped prison and felt proud that Rose had accomplished the impossible but I also felt guilt, she'd done all of that for me and I pushed her away.

As I ran I wondered if Rose had finished tying up loose ends. She was trying hard to make sure her friends were safe even though she wasn't here.

And even though Rose hadn't come back to court in the years she'd left I knew she still kept in contact with the others. I did know that Adrian had visited Rose over the years, even if they were no longer in a romantic relationship, they were still close. I also knew that the few times I've taken leave Lissa and Christian had visited Rose with Eddie being my replacement.

Yes it hurt to know that Rose had seemed to forget about me, I suppose it was what I wanted. For her to move on. I still missed her immensely. Since I first met her she'd been an enigma, one that I wanted to spend all my time solving. Knowing she wasn't here but out there somewhere was hard, I often found myself wondering where she was, what she was doing, if she had found someone new to love and if she was happy.

After I'd been dhampir for a few months I had an unexpected visit. My family had travelled from Baia to court to see me. I hadn't contacted them since my transformation, hoping I'd stay buried to them. Too ashamed to acknowledge my family I was afraid of their reactions. I'd hurt so many people as a strigoi and didn't want them to look at me like I was a monster. But instead had opened their arms and hearts for me to love and to heal.

They had spent 4 weeks here with me. When they'd settled in I asked mama how they afforded it. But she told me that she had an unexpected visitor themselves.

Vika told me how Rose visited with tickets for the whole family to America. Rose had told them how they'd managed to find a way of changing strigoi back. She'd told them I would too ashamed to contact them, that they had to come to me and that she'd arranged everything. Flights, accommodation, spending money and extra money for bills as Sonya and Katrina had to take time off work.

I asked what Rose had told them about us but all they would say was that she refused to speak about our current relationship. The only thing they really said was that she'd mentioned that I needed help to forgive myself and sending my family here was a part of that.

My family tried not to speak of Rose, Paul told me she had asked them not to but sometimes they'd slip up. They would speak of when she had come to Russia to look for me. In the few weeks that Rose had stayed with my family they had fallen in love with her, as I knew they would have. I just always thought I would've been there to witness it.

Rose was right. Having my family around me helped immensely. I even managed to speak to Mama about what had happened to me.

"Mama, what have I done? I thought I was gone, lost to the monster. I thought I was unable to open my heart again after the things I did when I was… you know. I know now that it wasn't that I couldn't love, but that I wouldn't. I closed myself off but I realised too late. Now she's gone and I can't do anything about that." Tears fell down my face; I couldn't force myself to hold them back. My mother said nothing as she held me as I cried.

"It'll work out Dimka, our time for dawdling is about to cease. All of our futures are going to change, together we need to stand or it will all be for naught. Stay strong child, for you will unlock the key to the worlds change." Yeva said from behind me.

I looked at her puzzled, what the hell did that mean?

Now Vika or mama were able to fly here to see me every few months or so. Apparently my father had died leaving money to us, so mama used it to see me when they could. Usually it was Vika who would visit, she loved court but I hadn't seen her in a good 6 months. I'd have to phone soon if no one contacted me. And that's how my life went on, I was content maybe not happy but it was bearable.

I finished my run and made my way to the weights. I saw Eddie and a couple other court guardians already at the weights, so I did some stretching as I waited for the equipment.

"Isn't she a friend of yours Castille?" A dark haired guy asked Eddie.

"Yeah, she is. And I'm not introducing you. She'd beat the crap out of you." Eddie smirked at his training buddy.

"What I wouldn't have given to be there when she burst in."

"Yeah well if she's not careful, they'll try to take her out." Eddie looked pissed off at his own statement.

A blonde guy walked over to them and joined in. "No, they won't try to do that again, it'll make her a martyr. She took out the last assignation attempts too easily. She's gaining too much attention for them to do something like that.

I heard that Europe are refusing to cooperate with court. My younger cousin who is at Copperfield in England, said it's now compulsory for all Moroi to take combat training this year and their added more weapons training." His eyes glistened while the guardian I didn't know looked at him like he was crazy.

"I'm not shitting you. She has a lot of pull over there, her and Mazur. I mean she saved the London court from that huge attack and those new fire bullets that are being rolled out? They're her design. If it wasn't for her a lot of people would be dead now.

Her argument is valid though isn't it? Guardian numbers have been dropping considerably for years as we stand in front of the Moroi. And as we keep dying the strigoi numbers have been rising. The age law is proof that the current way isn't working sending children to fight monsters. It is time for change.

I don't want my little brother or sister to go fighting strigoi at 16, they should get a choice what they want to be when they grow up, just like Moroi. Hathaway and Mazur will come stateside soon, you'll see. You just wait Hathaway will bring change for all of us and I for one can't wait." The blonde smiled as he walked off. I approached Eddie.

"Are you talking about Rose?" Eddie nodded. "What's going on?" I asked.

"Haven't you heard?" He looked at me incredulously. I shook my head.

"Rose has been fighting the government for dhampir rights. She's calling for a reform on the monarchy, stating that out of date laws have no place now and that dhampir's and non-royal moroi's should all get a right to vote in our leader and if the government can't change to allow the common people a voice that a coup will be inevitable.

She's right though. Too many non-royals are calling to be heard. I mean guardians are leaving left right and centre, most novices are choosing not to become guardians, making us weak and more likely to be killed. In fact a lot have headed over to Russia where Rose is based, you do the math.

There so many rumours floating around, I heard that some dhampirs are beginning to have children together. Obviously I don't know what's real or not, but that's the point. The royals are trying to stifle the influx of information making it into the area, making people more interested to find out what's going on. I'm surprised you haven't heard of this before. I mean you're guarding Lissa, she would have been in meetings about this, I assume."

I shook my head no, "Lissa doesn't talk about Rose in front of me." I didn't clarify any more than that. Lissa used to talk about Rose when I was around but soon noticed that I'd leave the room, so she stopped. I suppose she just kept that up over the years.

Eddie told me how Rose, was the one that saved the European court from a full scale Strigoi attack. I knew that there was an attack but the guardian council declared that it was the great training and teamwork of their guardians who prevailed and took down a large number of strigoi.

"It's bullshit, they don't want it known that Rose and her team took them down. There's video footage of her in action, you seriously haven't heard of this? I mean she's everywhere!" He looked incredulously at me.

"I don't really socialise." I told him as he nodded. He got his phone out as he looked around making sure no one was paying attention.

He handed it to me along with his ear buds.

The video showed strigoi in a ballroom, rounding up the guests, the guardians were vastly outnumbered as they stood on front of the guests. Then there was a flash of smoke and a bang and before it cleared I noticed four strigoi were decapitated on the floor.

As the smoke cleared more I could see Rose stood right in the centre of the strigoi. She looked like she was wearing a vest top and skinny jeans as well as boots, her hair held back in a braid of some sort, she looked at beautiful as ever. And on her face she wore her trademark smirk.

She stared at the strigoi who growled and attacked her, closing in around her form. My heart thundered thinking she'd get hurt but remembered she was alive and well. I was in awe as I saw how she dodged them all and as she twisted around her attackers she beheaded another with a sword in her hand. She was now stood in between the strigoi and the guardians making a barrier with her body.

As one the group of about 20 strigoi advanced towards Rose stood her ground and smiled. She pulled a gun out of a holster on her hip and as she raised it the strigoi in front of her laughed, they actually laughed at her.

I could just make out their voices on the video.

"Guns won't kill us, you are outnumbered. I'd like a taste of you guardian. I'd like your name before I drain you." The strigoi reminded me of Nathan, which made me shiver slightly.

"Oh but my gun makes me feel all sexy." She gave him a man eater smile, she was playing with him. "Rose Hathaway."

"Oh yes I had the pleasure of meeting a red headed Hathaway. She tasted like strawberries, I wonder if you will? She escaped me but you will not."

"You're the one that attacked my mom?"

"Your mother? I look forward to seeing her again."

Rose glared at him and as he threw his head back in laughter, she shot a bullet out of her gun and in to the heart of the chatty strigoi. He smiled momentarily before he burst into flames and exploded.

"What can I say? You don't touch my mama." She said to the room.

The other strigoi in the room gaped at Rose who actually blew on the end of the gun before smiling again.

"Who's next?"

I watched in amazement as the strigoi moved at the same time, they were all trying to escape and as they all struggled to leave strigoi were exploding all over the place as more people flooded into the hall.

The new group were a mix of Moroi and dhampir all working together as the remaining strigoi were taken down. Some were even shot with arrows as they exploded. I gaped even more as I noticed two of the figures coming to stand next to Rose. Natasha Ozera and my sister Vika.

The video ended as I looked up at Eddie who was smiling.

"Was that real?"

"Oh yes, there's plenty of eye witness reports and videos from phones and security. There were 30 strigoi who attacked none of them escaped and no Moroi, human or dhampir were killed."

He stopped letting it all sink in then he carried on.

"And that's not all; there are videos of her team taking out strigoi nests. There was a massive one outside Omsk, apparently there were hundreds of strigoi there. She went in a killed every last strigoi then she burnt the house to the ground. Apparently the alchemists have been going through the paperwork found and because of it they have found nests worldwide and moles in the Moroi, dhampir and humans."

I defiantly knew of the place. The last time I was there I had vowed to either turn or kill Rose. I left the place without a leader, I expect someone took over when I didn't return. I'd told the council about it given them details that would help take it down but they deemed it too dangerous to intervene now. They always took the defensive route instead of just tackling the problem head on.

If Eddie was right, Rose was taking the fight to the strigoi. She was changing the world.

I spoke to Eddie asking him to tell me every detail about what Rose had been doing. According to Castile over the years she had kept busy training in katanas, throwing knives and stars, she excelled at archery and could use a multitude of weapons. He told me how she travelled learning skill sets from across the world. I'll admit it again, I felt pride thinking of my former student.

I left Eddie I needed to talk to Lissa, I needed to know more about this. And now I was aware and paying attention to others conversations her name was everywhere. Always in hushed voices and mostly within dhampir circles.

I knocked on Lissa's door, I hoped she was in. I knocked again, I heard rustling as someone started opening the door. I didn't wait for a greeting.

"What's happening with Rose?" Lissa was barely awake, I'd obviously woken her up.

"Well it took you long enough." She said opening the door wider for me to enter. She moved to the kitchen and turned the coffee machine on as Christian entered. Both were in their night wear but I couldn't wait for answers.

"What have you heard?" Lissa asked as she placed a cup in front of me and sat opposite with her own.

"How she saved the European court, has been taking down strigoi nests, including the place where I took her. I saw the video of court along with Tasha and my sister! Why wasn't I told?!"

"Look Dimitri, it's all changing. I was just telling Christian that we needed to talk to you about this. The queen tried to assassinate Rose, she was lucky this time, she fought them off, but she's been left with a scar across her back and shoulder. I heard talk about making sure we couldn't leave. What with Tasha being Christians aunt and Rose being my bondmate. We need to be careful, Viktoria was on that video too, they could come after you."

"But my family.."

"Are sate. Do you really think Rose would leave them unprotected? She moved them to somewhere safe, that's why you haven't heard from them. We couldn't tell you, if we did you would go thundering around but now with this video and the impact it's had Rose is worried they'll retaliate against us."

"Then why don't we leave?"

"Because it's not as simple as that. They have Jill! I don't know where she is and I can't just leave her behind!"

Just then there was a crash from the door, I stood telling Lissa and Christian to run to their room. From the door came crashing the queens guardians and Hans Croft, the head guardian.

"Come with us or we will force you." Hans spat.

"Not until you tell me what this is about!" I ordered.

"You, princess Vasilisa Dragimir and Christian Ozera are under arrest for treason." What the hell?

"Treason? What treason?"

"For conspiring against the crown."

"Conspiring against the…" But I didn't get to finish my sentence as suddenly I was surrounded in so many guardians I couldn't fight them off. I heard screams from behind me from Lissa and Christian as guardians forced their wat into their room.

I struggled as they placed cuffs on my wrists and was led out of Lissa's building and towards the cells.

When they locked me up I noticed Eddie in a cell opposite as well as Jill and the blonde guy from earlier. Lissa and Christian were led into cells next to me. An hour later Mia and Adrian joined us followed closed my Mikhil Tanner and Sonya Karp. If they brought anymore in we would be doubling up.

The next day I was surprised to see Alberta and Stan being led into the cells, as there was only ten cells they placed Alberta in with Lissa and Stan in with Christian.

We had been here for three days and in that time we'd heard that there was a mandatory lock down on the court and that every dhampir and Moroi were being told they had to attend a court announcement.

From the others I heard that anyone with an affiliation had been locked up. The queen was going to war with Rose and wasn't taking chances on anyone telling her information. I was still shocked she'd locked Adrian up.

On the fourth day we were led to the court room, all of us. As we were led through court there was a mix of reactions. Royal Moroi were hostile towards us while I could see protesters were being led away.

As there were so many of us we took up the front row of the court room. In front of us the queen sat on her throne looking down at the room.

Nathan Ivashkov called for order as the noise quietened down the queen spoke.

"You are here to answer to the allegations of conspiring against the crown, against me. The punishment for this is either life imprisonment or death. Do you deny these allegations?"

"We have no idea what you are talking about! It just seems you want to get rid of anyone who has had contact with Rose!" Alberta spat.

"You won't get away with this!" Lissa shouted.

The queen laughed. "I already have. Rose Hathaway and her, 'team' are outlawed, they are to be shot on sight. Anyone seen helping the criminals shall be punished in the same manor. We do not take lightly to terrorism and threats. That blood whore will not step foot in court while I breath."

"Well that can be arranged." I heard a gasp as Rose walked through the court doors, being flanked by a lot of people armed to the hilt. She looked miraculous, she had on dark brown real leather trousers with brown boots that ended at her knee and on top a brown bra wrap, I could see a red lesion on her right shoulder disappearing around the back. On her wrists were cuffs of some sort and around her waist, legs and hips I saw holstered weapons in place. I could see katana handles sticking out from her back, her hair was in a braid. She looked stunning and dangerous.

"You! You are not welcome!" The queen spat.

"But you invited me."

"I certainly did not."

"By imprisoning innocent people you invited me, by not stepping up and leading all your people you invited me. By sending half assed assassins you invited me, by trying to force children and mothers to die for you and you invited me by just being a plain cunt."

Rose smirked as a gasp went through court.

"Come on you knew I'd come, you knew I'd see it when you look Lissa and that I'd come for her. So come on, what's your next move grandma?"

The queen looked enraged. "Guards!"

In marched about 20 guardians, the queen looked at her soldiers. She looked even more pissed.

"Not as many as you thought ay? Seems a lot of dhampirs don't want you in charge anymore, seems you've lost the faith of your subjects queenie." Rose walked down the aisle daring any one of the crowd or guard to attack. She reached the row where we were being held. He pulled a knife out and cut Alberta's flexi cuffs off and passed her the knife as Alberta worked on cutting us loose.

"Despite what the queen says, I don't want to hurt anyone, hell I don't even want to hurt her. But look what our 'leader' does! She wanted to execute her own nephews for knowing me. Yes I said nephews I know who Randall's children are."

As she turned around I could see the cut that started on her shoulder go down her back and ended at her opposite hip. She was wearing it on show as a sign on honour and as a warning. She wouldn't go down without a fight.

"Our queen is willing to send our children to fight enemies she isn't willing to fight herself. For too long we have suffered. And now we can have our own babies, we do not need Moroi to survive anymore, we are now two species."

"Lies! Everyone knows dhampir can't reproduce, you need us!"

"You keep telling yourself that. You've known for years that our biology has been changing, we evolved. And you! You got tried to destroy any evidence of dhampirs being pregnant! You killed babies and dhampirs to try and keep us enslaved!"

Alberta cut my hands free and passed me the knife, leaving me to cut Lissa and Christian's hands. I noticed some of Roses team spread around the outside of the room.

"It was necessary to keep us alive! We must be protected!"

Rose stood there, head held high, looking defiant, strong and incredible. The fire in her eyes spoke to me, telling the queen that she wouldn't back down.

"No you must now protect yourselves. Anyone that wishes to leave with us, well now is the time."

I watched in awe as all of the dhampirs that were in the room stood to leave, guardians and all. Rose indicated for us to move now. I led Lissa and Christian towards the exit, when they were safely outside with Tasha I turned back towards Rose but was stopped by Tasha who told me not to re-enter. I stood by the door watching and listening. Only royal moroi's were left and not all of them stayed.

Rose waited until everyone had left who were leaving. "You have no one but yourself to blame. How long did you think you could keep it secret?" She held her arm up with a fist at eye level, her group around the edges started retreating.

"We will be leaving now, if you try to stop us you will be met with force." She was the last one left, she'd reached the door just in front of me as she looked at the queen for the last time. She bowed dramatically.

"AS always your majesty, it's been a pleasure." She gave a wicked smile and left. She noted me as she went to walk past but instead of walking past me she grabbed my hand and pulled me along with her.

"Come on comrade, we need to leave." I watched in wonder as she barked orders to her troops. In what seemed like minutes we arrived at the air strip when there were planes waiting.

"How?"

"We're 'borrowing' the queen's fleet." Rose smirked. Already a plane had taken off, another one was lining up and another was just closing its doors. I saw another five planes filling up. This was crazy, why were we fleeing why didn't we take court and stay.

Rose looked at me with a frown.

"We aren't staying because there's hundreds of strigoi in the area. We can't take them all and they will attack court. They've been fleeing Russia and as the queen insisted everyone should be in one place, the congregated here." She answered my unspoken question.

Rose made sure everyone was on a plane before she led me to one at the back, it was a smaller one and inside I found mostly people I knew. Vika, Tasha, Abe Mazur and most of the prisoners. The door was closed and we buckled in ready for take-off.

I held on to Roza's hand as I took off into the unknown.