A/N: TRIGGER WARNING! There is some sexual violence in this chapter! If you do not want to read it, please skip the line-break in RPOV part! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!


"So, can you finally tell me about your tattoos?" Abby was practically bouncing in her chair as our plates were pulled away.

Rose laughed and looked at her with amusement, "well, I'm impressed with your amount of patience. You could rival Lissa when it comes to getting her way on, just about anything."

I snorted into my coffee cup and shuddered, thinking about Lissa being even more impatient than Rose when it came to getting her way, and Rose's impatience is practically legendary. Rose turned her head around and pulled her shirt down slightly then motioned for me to point out each mark and their meaning, "this one is the most common on a Guardian. We get it at our Promise ceremony. It's a mark that indicates we took our oath to guard and protect Moroi with our lives," I outlined Rose's Promise Mark and smiled, "Rose's is a bit differently placed than most because she had kills already under her belt before she got it," I turned my head and lifted my hair so they could see the difference between Rose's artfully placed Mark against my own. I turned back around and pointed to the next one, "this one is common for many a dhampir, even unpromised ones. This is a molnija, which each shows a single Strigoi kill. Finally, this one is a Zvezda or battle mark. It indicates that the owner was in a battle where the kills were too high or too hard to count individually," I unconsciously placed my hand against Rose's battle mark, remembering that night: both the good and the bad. I pulled away the second I felt Rose flinch under my touch-she rarely opposed to me touching her tattoos, but she was already on edge and I knew her mind was recalling that night as well.

She turned back around, looking around the shocked expressions that filled the table, "and the questions may begin."

DiNozzo whistled, "you've got quite a few marks there. When did you make your first kill… or kills?" Ziva shot him a look of contempt as if what he asked was the most offensive statement on the planet. Rose snorted at his question but I felt her tense slightly. Despite everything, she still felt responsible for what happened when she made those kills.

"I don't mind answering, Ziva," she turned to DiNozzo, "I made my first two kills when I was seventeen."

DiNozzo nodded but McGee piped up, "what happened? Can you tell us? Unless you don't want to. I mean, that's probably not easy to talk about."

Rose shook her head and straightened up, there had been a rather large-scale attack, for us, nearby. It put a lot of parents on edge and since Christmas was coming soon, the school decided to take the students to a ski lodge. There would be plenty of room for the students, guardians, teachers, and parents. It was a lot of fun!" She smiled wistfully before her face turned serious, "we had heard that there was another attack at another house and the guardians had found a potential lead where some of the Strigoi were: Spokane, Washington. It was near enough, a few hours away, but the guardians couldn't do anything without approval, especially since preemptive strikes weren't sanctioned back then, but they were deciding if we should check it out anyway. I had found out and, in a rather tactless moment, let slip to Mason where the Strigoi were. He was an old friend of mine…" I squeezed her hand and she took a breath, "anyway, he decided to take Mia and Eddie to the hideout and take them down. I took Christian to get them back and yell at them for being that reckless. I'm reckless, but I'm not stupid… well… not completely stupid… So, we decided to check out the hideout anyway since it was the middle of the day, found no Strigoi and left. We, unfortunately, got captured and were held for a few days. We managed to escape when we tricked the humans holding us but… the Strigoi who had held us there were at home when we were leaving. I stayed behind to give the rest a chance to escape but Mason… he came back for me and was killed. I sort of fell into a rage? Of sorts, and beheaded the two Strigoi. Well, I beheaded one and Mia came back to distract the other until I could do the same to it…" she trailed off as her head dropped and she looked at her lap, but a few moments later, she looked back up with her usual Rose "fire" back and smiled.

Abby threw herself at Rose, tears glistening in her eyes, "oh Rose! You poor, poor thing! Losing your friend like that! Did you know him long?"

Rose soothed her quickly and I smirked, leave it to her to comfort others, no matter how she felt. She would always put others first, no matter who they were and I loved her all the more for it. Gibbs was watching me and an understanding look crossed his face. He even looked at me with sympathy before it was quickly wiped away into his usual slightly sarcastic yet blank stare. McGee seemed to be a little pale as he processed the story and even DiNozzo seemed at a loss for words. Ziva, however, seemed to be unfazed at the idea of losing someone that young but her eyes showed that she felt that pain at losing someone before their time.

Rose grabbed her wallet out and pulled a picture out from it and began to point to the figures in it, "you already know Lissa and Christian. This is Eddie and this is Mason," everyone passed around the picture, "that picture was taken at the ski lodge just after Christmas. We had just come off the slopes and had a snow ball fight, me, Eddie, and Mase. Christian and Lissa met up with us a little later."

Everyone fell quiet for a bit longer before DiNozzo Sr. made a comment under his breath which DiNozzo scoffed at him, turning bright red, much to Ziva's amusement and, just like that, the conversation began to flow like normal around us.

An hour or so later and we were on our way back to Gibbs' house. Gibbs had yet to say much other than a word or two but as we pulled up into his driveway, he turned to me, "tell me about why that battle mark bothers the two of you so much. I'm not one to judge, especially when it comes to others and their past, but that star and the marks right next to it seemed to be, separate, somehow and they look different than the others and I want to know why."

Rose made a sarcastic noise from the back seat but it was clear that Gibbs would not let this go so I agreed and we all walked into his house. Gibbs went to the fridge and grabbed a bear for myself and him and brought a soda for Rose.

"Alright, what do you want to know?"

"Everything."

So, we told him everything, from the beginning of the battle to when she followed me to Russia to my eventual Restoration and even to Lissa's coronation. I had no idea why Rose felt so compelled to tell Gibbs the whole story, but she did and I offered my input where I could. I had to leave when she explained why she had gone to Russia and made those kills, the marks that were separate from the others by the star on the left side of her neck. I felt almost claustrophobic and had to get some cold, fresh air while I could. I closed my eyes and forced my fears and nightmares back, feeling my anxiety beginning to spike. I heard the wood under my hands protest at the pressure of my palms, but I felt nothing, focusing on my breathing and the cool night air. Before I could lose myself to my own thoughts, I felt the brush of a soft, small hand trace over my knuckles and I relaxed slightly looking down at Rose. Despite it all, she was my rock and constant, and she held me together when I deserved nothing less than to shatter apart and fade into the darkness.

"Gibbs wants you to come back in, I think he wants to share a thing or two and probably tell us how stupid and dangerous it was for me to do what I did and yadda yadda…" Rose smirked up at me, her eyes reflecting the porch light as she led me back into the living room.

Gibbs was staring at his fireplace where he had coaxed the flames to life. He didn't look up as we walked to sit back on the sofa where we had been before, both of our drinks now abandoned on the coffee table, "I know you didn't divulge every moment in between nor would I ask you to, but thank you for telling me what you did. I do not like to break my rules, ever, but it appears that might have to be the case to get things done from here on out. I know Ziva, Tony, and Tim went over a few with you but there are plenty more to learn. After we solve this case, I think I will have to spend some time teaching them to you and you will have to learn them. I do not trust easily and less so with those who hide things from me on purpose. However, after what you told me, Rose, I can say that you two have earned my respect and that is harder to earn than trust with me. Because you told me what you did, I will do two things: first, I will let you in on some of my life and why I know better than anyone, how much we suffer before we find any happiness in this world. Second, I will let you lead this investigation. That means, you can do this your way because I'm pretty sure that we will have no way of catching these guys without using some rather conventional ideas and ideas that I doubt would be approved by the higher ups on our end."

We sat down once more and by the end of the conversation, we were shocked into silence. Gibbs' whole team seemed to be like our little family back home: full of broken souls who found a way to move forward and do the best they could to bring justice and closure to others.


Three days. It had been three days and we were no closer to finding Robert and his group of Strigoi. It was like he had completely disappeared off the face of the Earth. Rose was currently giving me the cold shoulder after a rather heated discussion on the next course of action. We were of two minds: seeking him out or waiting for him to slip up. We already had 2 more bodies added to the list, two more Moroi and we were no closer. We had decided to split up and Rose went with DiNozzo and McGee to gather clues around the scene and check for witnesses while Ziva and I were to talk to a local branch of a gang who frequent the area in hopes they had seen something out of the ordinary. I sighed and rubbed my temples as I listened to the smug "ring leader" practically brag that he was untouchable to the US government.

Ziva muttered something under her breath and I watched as her hand twitched on top of her gun and smiled, despite my headache-she reminded me of Rose, deadly, beautiful, loyal to a fault, and very impatient. She glared at the man whose hand had been inching its way towards her and looked like she hoped he would touch her, just so she could break his fingers. We were about to up our "interrogation" techniques when Ziva's phone rang. She picked it up and her usual blank face morphed into one of worry and anger: something was wrong, very, very wrong. Her eyes flicked towards me and I knew something must have happened to Rose and the others and I felt my blood run cold. We left without another word, despite the cajoling and insults being thrown our way and slipped into Ziva's car, which sped off the second the doors were closed. I felt my anxiety spike as Ziva raced back towards headquarters without telling me much of what was going on. It was all I could do to keep from screaming at her to tell me what was going on and hoped we wouldn't find more bodies when we returned, especially one that would send my world crashing down.


(RPOV)

My head felt like it was going to explode and I carefully sat up, trying to take in my surroundings. I groaned as I took stock of my body: I hurt everywhere and I think had at least a few broken bones. My skin felt like it was on fire and was oversensitive to the cold ground I sat on and my arms were numb from being forced behind my back. I looked around the room I was in and saw two other heaps in the ground next to me. I stood up as best I could and carefully shuffled over to the first heap I saw. I poked it carefully with my toe and saw, despite the lack of light, that it was Tim. I saw he had a few nasty bruises and cuts and one rather large burn against his neck that disappeared into his shirt. I nudged him with my foot, trying to shake him awake then, once he began to stir, I turned towards the other pile-which I was assuming was Tony- and did the same to him. I saw them both stir and walked around the room, taking in what we had, or didn't have as I recalled what had happened to us:

We had been heading back from the latest crime scene. I was listening to Tim and Tony arguing over something stupid that had happened with a book that Tim apparently was writing. I was staring out the window, thinking about what Dimitri and I had been arguing about and I had to agree with him: we couldn't just go rushing in, we needed a plan. The problem was, that we were running out of time and I was worried that Robert would come after us first. Being caught with your pants down would be so much worse but I had to trust that we could catch him and his associates: they had to screw up, they would screw up. I sighed and tuned back into the conversation when I noticed a car that had been parked a few blocks away from the crime scene we had just left- I only noticed it was the same car because it seemed too flashy to belong near the marina we were at and it had an odd license plate cover. I thought I was being too paranoid until I felt the car jerk to the right then left: Tony had noticed it too. What he didn't notice, however, was that there was a second car that had been ahead of us. I pointed to the car but it was too late; Tony turned the car to avoid the truck heading for us, but it T-boned us, causing the car to flip and I hit my head hard, blacking out.

"Dammit, dammit, dammit!" I slid down against the wall I was leaning against and closed my eyes against my building irritation and headache, trying to calm myself down and find a way out.

"Oh, my head… I feel as bad as you look, Probie… And I mean that on your best of days," Tony groaned as he managed to sit up, wincing as his arms were pulled even further behind him as he forced himself up.

Tim just glared at him for a moment before turning his attention to me, "so, what are we going to do now? Since we're kinda stuck in here with no real way out?"

I sighed and looked at the two men sitting in front of me, "we wait, we gather, and we pray that Dimitri and the others are able to find us before it's too late, or that we're able to escape."

They both looked at me for a second before I saw the resolve slip onto their faces, showing me that either they had been in similar situations as this or they were just that good at hiding their emotions and, despite myself, giggled at the thought, "wow, you two would make great guardians with those emotionless masks and all!" They both stared at me before Tony managed a snicker and Tim even cracked a smile. I was about to say something else when the door to our prison opened, revealing a pale face that I made me groan internally, not because we were in danger, but because I would rather be passed out than have to listen to what was coming next.

"Ah, the bloodwhore and her shit-faced lackeys are finally awake! I'm surprised at you, Rose, that you managed to coerce two human men to help you out," the man snorted, "although, maybe not so much. You always were way too easy, but I guess a Moroi's bite wasn't enough for you anymore, huh? You just had to whore yourself out to a few humans on the side too?"

I rolled my eyes as Tim bristled at the statement, "oh please, like you could have ever kept up with me. I require someone who can actually to the distance, and can handle being a little rough…" I sighed, knowing working him up wasn't the best idea but when in doubt-sarcasm it out, "I would have hated to break you or something… you Moroi always seem so… fragile," I whispered the last word with disgust, screwing up face up mockingly. I knew I had overstepped when his hand flew out, smacking me so hard that I thought my neck was going to break from the force, but I managed to turn back towards him, a smirk on my face at the dangerous glint in his eye.

"Yeah, I suppose that's true. I'm sure you got the best of both worlds from Belikov when he was in Russia, huh? Got to have someone play rough with you and got the high of a Strigoi bite, much more potent, wouldn't you agree?" I saw triumph flash in his eyes when I felt my body betray me as my heart sped up in anticipation of that bite.

I felt the others move next to me, but refused to look at them when I knew they would have questions and probably look at me with some twisted form of disgust or confusion-or both- and looked at the man in front of me, my ever-present guardian mask slipping over my features, turning them bored and sighed, "oh Jesse, you had so much potential. You could have just been a normal douche who had some dhampir lover while you got married to some snobby royal just to please mummy and daddy but no. You and your pasty white coward ass just had to get drunk and run smack dab into a Strigoi. I'm sure they have regretted Turning you, why else would you have to play baby sitter to an unarmed dhampir and two humans? Don't worry, I'm sure you'll work your way back up into your boss's good graces, if you can manage to keep your mouth shut at least."

His eyes turned steely and I was waiting for another strike, but he seemed to get an idea in his head instead as a cold smile slowly creeped its way onto his face, "no, I think the boss would be okay with this… I mean, he did say keep you alive, not undamaged…" I flinched as he made his way over towards me and I felt my body being pulled in two very different directions: part of me was hoping, praying, for a bite while the other was begging to get closer just so I could inflict some damage on his stupid face.


I, unfortunately got neither as his hand snaked down and sliced my shirt in half, exposing my bra, before he ripped that off too, leaving me only clothed from the waist down. I felt the two men behind me shift and kept my face trained forward. I was never bothered about being exposed and I wouldn't start now, especially when I knew this was just a humiliation tactic that Jesse wanted to use.

"Ah, there we go, there's my little bloodwhore now. Except, you're face isn't right either…" he leaned down and roughly grabbed one of my breasts and squeezed it to the point of pain. I refused to react or make a noise as he squeezed and pulled on it, leaving a bruise in the shape of his hand over it. He smirked and leaned down to the other breast and I let out a small gasp as he bit hard on it, drawing blood and filling my body with the high, that high I secretly craved and revolted against ever since Russia. Jesse looked behind him and through my hazy vision, I watched as two other Strigoi moved forward and grabbed Tim and Tony, roughly biting down on each of them and pulling them from the room, "now that we're alone my little plaything… I think it's time we finished what we started back at St. Vlads, what do you think?"

Despite the euphoria I was feeling, I felt my body cringe away from him in revulsion as bile rose in the back of my throat. He pulled away and laughed before slapping me again and walking behind me, grabbing me by the throat and pulling my head back so I was forced to stare at the ceiling, "what, no quips or barbs now, Rosie? No quick wit nor sarcastic jab? Not even a punch or kick? Well, I can say I'm disappointed, I would have thought that that Belikov shit would have trained you to have some stronger resilience, but maybe he didn't want to. Maybe he liked you being his little plaything, but that's okay, because now you get to be mine."


I felt cold metal against the back of my neck and guessed that a blade was pressed there. I gasped as Jesse yanked at my hair and pulled it tight, then I felt almost nothing except a soft brush against my neck where my hair now lay, cut short and ragged. I felt myself fall forward and my arms shot out, now cut loose from their bindings, to catch myself. I was weakened from the blood loss and the bite as well as lack of proper sleep and food since the guys and I had agreed we would get some breakfast after we checked out the scene. I forced myself to sit up just as Jesse moved to the corner of the room to pick up something sitting there. As he opened the door, I noticed what he was grabbing was a camera, and it had been recording the entire time. I knew what would happen and I prayed that Dimitri would be strong enough for me, for him, to get me and the others out of here, before it was too late.

DPOV

We had arrived back at NCIS headquarters and were being informed of what had happened. Apparently, Abby had gotten a call from McGee saying that DiNozzo had suspected someone was following them when they were on their way back from the crime scene. She had been on the phone with him until there was a crashing sound then the line had gone dead. She had tried to call him back again and again, but to no avail and she even tried calling DiNozzo and Rose but got no response their either. We had been sitting around, trying to wrack our brains for any clue we could think of, when Abby's phone, literally, screamed. I jumped at the sound, startled, as Abby grabbed it and answered quickly. Her eyes grew wide and it was clear whoever was on the other side was not who she hoped it would be.

"Why would you want to talk to him…" Abby's gaze flickered to me as she nodded, quietly moving towards McGee's computer and typed something in, "okay, okay! I'll give him the phone! D-Dimitri… for you…" she held out her phone and I made a point to sound curious and walked quietly towards her as Ziva purposefully made noise in the background as if the phone was moving away, not that I was moving towards it.

"Belikov," I stated into the phone, staring at Abby who mouthed keep them talking. I nodded and turned away, feeling my mask slip on so I could play the role I needed to in order to get Rose and the boys back.

"Dimitri, what a pleasant surprise! I was wondering if our little show here would garner the attention of her Royal Majesty or not! It's so wonderful to know that she cares about her people so much that she would send only the best to take care of things here!" I internally flinched at the cold voice, recognizing it instantly as Robert Doru.

"What do you want from me, from us, Robert? To make me suffer? Rose maybe?" I stopped myself, knowing that getting angry would solve nothing and would probably play right into Robert's hands.

He chuckled, the cold sound of it raising the hair on the back of my neck, "not at all! Well, it didn't start out that way. I wanted to build my own little empire, and I thought that Washington DC would be perfect. I mean, it IS the capital of this fine country and would be an excellent place for a proper ruler, don't you think? So, I gathered some followers and made some children… well peons really… but you know how children get, so unruly and so temperamental. I suppose they did get a bit carried away a few times," he sighed and I cringed, forcing myself to not break Abby's phone, "but they did receive their punishments, just like any child should. I digress, we aren't here to chat about that, I'm sure you're all VERY worried about Timothy, Anthony, and Rosemarie, correct?" I said nothing, practically shaking with fear and anger but if he noticed my silence, he ignored it, "I was hoping to snag you, but I decided this would be even better, especially when little Miss Rosemarie has yet to face her crimes. I only find it fair that I be her judge, jury, and executioner, don't you?"

I forced myself to breathe and gripped the phone as tight as I dared, "don't you dare hurt them… If you do I'll-"

"You'll what? You think you can hurt me? Actually, I should be thanking you! After you and Rose murdered my brother and left me to die, I thought that would be the end of it for me. Instead, a rather lovely couple found me and brought me back into the motel and nursed me back to health. Or, so they assumed. I was half crazed with hunger by then and when they fell asleep one night, I decided to get stronger and rid myself of my own mania. It worked, for a time, and being Strigoi is so much better than being a half-crazed shell of a man who could barely function," I turned my head towards Abby who was staring at the computer screen, her eyes narrowed. I hoped this was enough because I wasn't sure how much longer I could keep this up.

"I'm sure you are just a wonderful and powerful man now, aren't you, Doru?" I bit out the statement, the anger within me now caged and cold, turning almost menacing. I felt, for a moment, as if I was a Strigoi myself, that caged and dark anger was only there when I was Strigoi and I flinched, forcing myself out of that. I had to be strong for Roza, I had to get her back and I couldn't do that if I was debilitated by fear and grief.

He chuckled again and I heard a noise on from the computer Abby was working on. She looked at the screen then dragged something from the screen to the larger one, "that file that was just sent to you should give you the… encouragement you need to find what you're looking for… I should warn you though… the clock is ticking and I think I've given you all enough time to find me, if you can. I hope for your sake you do, because your friends' lives depend on it."

The line went dead and I nearly dropped the phone before shutting it and placing it on the desk next to me. Ziva snatched the remote next to the large screen and clicked it three times. In quick succession, the files opened to reveal pictures and a video of DiNozzo, McGee, and Rose. My heart nearly stopped when I saw them and, for the first time in a long time, I wished I could run the other way because I wasn't sure if I would survive this long enough to save them.


A/N: Sorry for the delay on getting this out, I've kept busy at work and school but here's a slightly longer chapter for you guys patiently waiting! Thanks for the follows and reviews, keep them up, they help me improve! I'll get the next one out soon as I can!

Sincerely,

strangemind