A/N:
Hiya guys! This is my first VA fanfic, one that's been floating around in my head for a while, and I made myself write it before Last Sacrifice came out and it became completely useless :P
WARNING! READING THE BELOW SUMMARY IS VITAL FOR YOU TO GET WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON IN THIS STORY!
Anyway, it's set after Spirit Bound. As you know, Rose was locked up and ready for trial, feeling scared etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. I'm going to let you figure that out because it's not the focus of this story. Rose, before the trial, breaks out of the Court prison with the help of Zmey knowing that there was no way she'd not be convicted as a murderer. As to how she did that, it's your choice, but the key points about it are:
Nobody else helped except for Abe.
It was done in the unawares of Lissa, Dimitri, Adrian and everybody else who matters (not including the Guardians who found out she was gone.
Basically, she's fleeing, and that's all her friends know and that's from common sense.
Rose went back to Siberia to get some guidance from Oksana and Mark, and to rendezvous with Sydney for info about the illegitimate Dragomir child, but she is sidetracked in Baia...
Oh, and also, she has a stolen stake.
Thank you!
Disclaimer: I do not own anything from VA, except for a paperback copy of Spirit Bound. I do own the plot for this fanfic, but not the characters or the places. Those belong either to Richelle Mead or the world in general.
Third Person POV
Viktoria and Nikolai faced the two Strigoi advancing on them in the back alleyway in Baia, knowing that there was a slim chance of their survival as their backs hit the wall under the dim twilight. Well, actually, Nikolai was the one in front, protecting Viktoria from the threat though she stood fast for the fight. To an outsider, one who knew of the whole vampire world, it would have looked like he was on the offensive because he was the only one with a stake, but they both knew why he wanted to put his life on the line for hers.
It wouldn't matter in the end though, would it? Because there was no way they'd live through this. Icy fear crawled up their backs when they finally understood that they most likely would never see their families again. The Strigoi were old, strong and powerful, and it would be impossible for them to be killed by a Dhampir and a Guardian fresh out of training with only one stake between them.
The Strigoi on the right attacked first. He went for Nikolai, the threat, but between the two fighters he was overwhelmed and killed for good. It took a while but without the interference of the other un-dead it was not too much of a challenge. In fact, it was too easy.
And yet the other evil vampire stood and watched his companion be staked, not even bothering to flee. It was unsurprising that it did not help, for who heard of loyalty from such a creature? It wouldn't save its own skin by running away, though it had a sly look in its eye.
The two Dhampirs faced the last Strigoi, hoping that they had a fighting chance not that they had numbers on their side. That hope was crushed when within the first thirty seconds of sparring the stake was knocked out of Nikolai's fist. This one knew what it was doing, then.
The two wordlessly looked at their attacker, knowing that now was the time when they would die. Their families would understand. It was not uncommon for the vampires of the un-dead variety to pass through the town now and then, and even if both had finished their training, they were young and Strigoi were difficult to kill, even the newer ones.
Viktoria's hand found Nikolai's, consoling both of them as they backed further against the wall and looked into the face of their attacker's cruelly smiling face.
Then the impossible happened.
The Strigoi spined around, shock causing him to become vulnerable to the shadowy figure behind him. It happened so fast – it had to be or they would all die. The two Dhampirs saw the shiny glint of a stake come out the other side of creature that had almost killed them before it was retracted in a skilled fashion. As the now dead body of their would-be murderer slumped to the ground at their feet, their saviour stepped into the light of the streetlamp that had turned on during the fight.
Nikolai's jaw dropped while the last of his newly-found Guardian composure diminished. The loudest reaction came from Viktoria, who gasped. Both stared in disbelief at the person in front of them.
"Rose?"
Rose POV
"Victoria? Nikolai? What are you doing here?" As soon as the words left my mouth, I felt stupid. Of course they were here. They lived here.
"Screw that, Rose. What are you doing here? How are you even alive? Drew saw it with his own eyes. He saw Dimitri-" Viktoria paused for recovery, showing that she was still grieving, "Knock you out of the street. There's no way you can be alive right now." She was trying hard to keep a straight face, but gave up and flung her arms around me. It took her a moment, but she stiffened and drew away. I think she remembered what happened last time we had seen each other.
That wasn't something I wanted to delve into right now. I didn't want her to hate me, but I also didn't want her to die. "It's a long story," I told her and Nikolai evasively, "But I think we should go inside before we explain it. There could be more Strigoi." Both nodded in agreement and we, with mutual understanding, headed in the direction of the Belikov house.
Victoria fiddled next to me. I had the feeling that she wanted to say something, but rather than just tell her to spit it out like I usually would have done, I let the words come at their own time. Soon enough, she muttered, "I'm sorry."
Okay. That wasn't something I expected. "For what?" I was confused completely.
She sighed and a long string of speech came out of her mouth at a hundred miles per hour. "I'm sorry for a lot of things. Most of all, I'm sorry that I said all those things to you – about you not belonging to the family. I was really mad. I didn't find out that you gave up staying in the town to get Abe to make me come out, and I gave you such a hard time before you left.
"Actually, I'm sorry for not listening to you the most. I was so blind – I didn't see that what you could be saying was a possibility. A few days after you left, I talked to Sonya to make sure that I was right and you were wrong, but we found out that it was the same guy even though he gave her a different name. After that I felt so guilty, and I still wanted to hate you! And when you told me that Nikolai liked me, I didn't believe you either. So the day after I talked to Sonya I confronted him in a last act of defiance – just to be proven wrong again. And what do you know?"
She looked over at Nikolai and smiled, and it was a like-like smile. I was happy to see both of them together and used the opportunity to stop Viktoria from guilt.
"I never blamed you for any of it, you know. You liked him. It wasn't something that I wanted to get in the way of, not something that would make you hurt. But I didn't want you to end up like them." I jerked my chin toward a Dhampir girl who was so obviously a blood whore. "And if leaving could do anything to stop it, then I would rather leave. He was a bad guy – I wasn't lying when I said that he was hitting on me."
Viktoria flinched and I automatically wished I hadn't said that. She was still upset. "When we thought you were dead, we had a memorial for you. A few people got mad at Oksana and Mark when they said you were still alive. Most were just sad."
"Well," I said, "I'm still alive aren't I?"
It was then that we'd stopped outside the Belikov house. Nikolai opened the door and went in, while Victoria wiped the stray tear under her eyes and went in after him.
"We have a visitor!" She exclaimed at her family in the living room just before I took a deep breath and followed her in.
The room was silent when I they caught sight of me. They were all there, almost the whole family. Nikolai was already on the couch, sitting next to Paul and Katrina. Her baby was giggling on the floor, where Sonya sat with her own. Yeva was sitting on the armchair, and I never thought I'd ever see her surprised but it was so ingrained in her expression it was almost comical. Olena had just walked in holding a few metal pots in her hands, that all went crashing to the ground when she noticed me.
They pretty much all had the same reaction as Victoria. "Rose?"
"Rose!"
"Rose."
"Rose?"
"Roza?" It was hard not to flinch at that one, but I didn't have to suppress it long before I was enveloped in hugs from almost half a dozen different people. It felt nice to be welcomed back to a place that I never thought I'd ever see again.
"You have a lot of explaining to do, you know."
And so we all sat at the kitchen table.
"We were all sad to see you go, you know," Olena told me while making me something to eat. It smelt so nice that my stomach rumbled. I hadn't eaten all day. "So, where have you been all this time? What happened after you left?"
I made a vague reference to wanting to hunt down Dimitri and the reason, and his capturing me and my escaping. There were no details, and I didn't mention my failed staking. I summed it up in three sentences because I didn't want to give them any reason to hurt. From their faces, they did, even Nikolai. It made me feel guilty.
Nikolai changed the subject not so subtly, but it made us all relax a bit. "Where have you been recently though? That happened months ago."
I started to get uncomfortable. "Ah, yes, well I've kind of been at the Royal Court." In prison.
"Really? What would you be doing there?" They sounded genuinely confused. I felt the same. Didn't they know?
"The Guardians...assignments..." Oh yeah. They didn't know. "I went back to school and did my finals, and got my Guardian mark." I turned and lifted up my hair to show them the new mark on my neck. "I was getting my assignment."
Sonya sucked in a breath. "Did they let you back in?"
"Yeah. It was really weird. I didn't think they'd let me back in either."
"Wow then. You must know what's going on in there now. There have been some crazy rumours going about and you would know if they're true, won't you?" Thank the Lord for Viktoria and shifting the attention off me.
"Well, of course. Tell me what you know."
"For starts, the Queen's been murdered and the suspect is Vasilisa Dragomir's best friend, Rosemarie Hathaway, who slit the Queen's neck and flung blood all over the walls." Karolina had put this forward and I flinched.
"No! It was definitely not like that. Yes, the Queen Tatiana's been murdered. No, she was killed with a stake put through her heart but-"
"And the murderer is on the loose?"
"Yes, but the suspect is not the murderer!" There was something wrong here. A mismatch in information. It had to be...oh...
The Belikov's (and Nikolai) looked at me with trusting expressions. It confirmed my suspicion.
"Oh God, you don't know, do you? You really don't. I thought you'd have figured it out by now." I shifted under the confused expressions."
"Know what?"
"Know who I am." Would they hate me when they found out that I was a totally infamous Guardian?
"I don't understand. What's going on, Rose?"
I looked up at Yeva, silently sitting at the table. She knew.
I had to tell them. I'd told them hard things before, should this be any harder? I didn't know. "You should know that I've had a very scandalous history. You already know that I've left school, but you didn't know it was my second time. The first time I broke out for two years with Lissa, before we were tracked down by the Academy." Sonya knew by the look on her face. "She's my best friend, and we've known each other since kindergarten. I was in the car crash that killed her parents and her brother." Karolina and Nikolai knew. "She's also a royal Moroi, the Dragomir princess. We're bonded. Oh, and my full name is Rosemarie Hathaway." My tone was extremely bitter by the last word.
They were all shocked. They may as well get it all straight now.
"I did not kill the queen. I did, however, break out of jail so I didn't get executed. Right now, I'm on my way to get help from Oksana and Mark, because I think they might be able to help me with something."
Still silence.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner, but I thought you already knew. It's just been a really messed up last couple of months."
Silence.
"Hello?"
"I'm sorry, Rose, but it's just a lot to take in." Olena was finally sitting down, looking exhausted. "I think we should talk more about that later," she added. There were murmurs of agreement around me, and I felt relieved myself.
Paul talked next. "So, is it true that your friend healed a Strigoi back into a Dhampir?" Waarning glances were shot in his direction, but I could answer that one. No, I couldn't.
I slammed the table. "Does nobody tell you anything around here?" I all but shouted, making everybody flinch. Feeling kind of bad about that, I tried to reign in the anger. It had the distinct feeling of Lissa's darkness, which I had been taking away as a repayment for leaving without a word to her.
Paul looked upset. "I'm sorry, it's okay, really. And a good thing for you guys to bring up, since nobody told you. I'm just disgusted by the way things are managed in this world. First, they never even told you that Dimitri was Strigoi. Now this?" I had to breath to calm myself down. Calm Rose, Calm.
"Are you okay?"
"Yes," I lied. Then, bluntly, "The Strigoi who was healed was Dimitri."
Mixed reactions occurred. Crying, laughing, disbelief. I dealt with the disbelief, gave the story that was fed out to most of the Royal Court, and sat back. It was nice to know that they knew, even if it gave me the pain of remembering he didn't love me. That was life, wasn't it?
It was building up, the pain. And the reminder that I wasn't part of this family, who could go to court. Would go to court, they were even considering it. I was being selfish by leaving, but time was ticking out.
"Victoria," I whispered in her ear, "I need to leave now. It's endangering your family that I'm staying here too long, and remember, there are Guardians on my trail. Please don't sell me out."
She frowned. "Please stay, Rose, you haven't even eaten. I'm sure it won't make a difference if you stay for a while, will it?"
"No, Viktoria, it's better if I leave now and leave your family to their planning. You don't need me here."
"But we want you here. Please? We'd like to hear how you are, and how Dimitri is."
I gave a sad smile. "You already know how I am. Running away and in heaps of trouble – as always. And, as for Dimitri, you can find that out yourself when you go. Have a good trip. Oh, and say bye to the others for me. They're a little busy right now."
Viktoria let me go, and I slunk through the dark streets stealthily. I had left unfinished business in this town, but who knows? Maybe I'll be alive enough to come back one day.
So? Good? Bad? Please review! This is my first fanfic in agggggeesssssssssssss, so please give me encouragement to do a little more. I don't mind flames, but I love to hear how I can improve my writing. Thank you.