Alright, here is the next update for this story. I'm glad to see that you guys still like the story, even after all these edits and everything. It's really nice to see how passionate you are about reading this fanfic. Thank you again for my sister/beta, DragonGirl323, for editing this chapter so quickly and I will try and update the next chapter soon.

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Disclaimer = I don't own Vampire Academy or anything mentioned in here!

Chapter 6

Back to Reality

Adrian's Point of View

My eyes opened and I was once again inside the car, surrounded by the other Moroi and guardians looking at me expectantly. Guardian Hathaway, Alberta, and Lissa…all Rose's family and friends… All of them waiting to see what I had learned in that single—but probably long—dream connection.

"So? Were you able to get into her subconscious?" Guardian Hathaway asked, her gaze locked on mine.

With a very small nod, she let out the breath she had been holding so dearly. She was happy to know that at least her daughter was alive. But Rose was not in very good shape… Wonder how she would take it if I told her that her daughter was being tortured for information…

"Is she alright? What have they done to her? Where did they take her?" Lissa started firing questions in my direction and I turned my eyes toward her. What did Rose mean when she said that Lissa wouldn't want anything to do with her? Something had happened between them and it wasn't good… "Well?! Tell us!" she exclaimed.

"What did you say to Rose before this all happened?" I asked, ignoring her questions, although my mind badly wanted to tell them the truth of the situation.

Lissa looked at me with a confused expression that lasted only a few seconds before her features turned grim and she looked down at her lap. Obviously, the little princess knew what I was talking about. And she was trying to hide it.

"Well?" I prodded.

"I… I said some things that I'm not proud of. And it really hurt Rose…" Lissa started, before falling silent again. We all waited patiently for her to continue, to enlighten us about what she had said to Rose. "Well, I wanted to keep my thoughts private, but Rose was worried and she peaked into my emotions… I never wanted her to find out. None of this would have happened if I hadn't been thinking that… God, I was so stupid to even begin to think that in the first place."

"Come on, Lissa, spit it out," I said impatiently, still staring at her. What was she trying to hide? Was it really that bad? "We all are dying to know."

Lissa looked at me sadly before returning her gaze to her lap and sighing. This couldn't be good… "I blamed her for Mason's death…"

Shocked gasps erupted from Guardian Hathaway and Alberta at Lissa's confession. Why the hell would she even think that Rose was to blame for Mason's death?! Sure, I never liked the guy, but Rose was not to blame for that! She tried everything that she could!

"And…" Oh God…there's more?! "I… I questioned whether she could guard me well enough…so that I wouldn't end up like Mason… And that Dimitri would be a better guardian than Rose is…" Lissa explained in a very small voice, tears spilling slowly down her face. Christian placed an arm around Lissa and brought her closer, rubbing her arm softly. But you could see in his eyes that he was as shocked as we were.

No wonder Rose had told me Lissa wanted nothing to do with her anymore…

"How could you?" I asked in complete shock. Lissa turned her tear-stained face to me and looked me with the most heartbroken face I'd ever seen in my life. But that didn't matter to me right now. My anger was rising and it was all being directed toward Lissa, after everything I'd seen Rose endure in her subconscious.

"I didn't mean it… I don't even know why I said it…" Lissa said, trying to defend herself.

Never had I gotten mad or yelled at Lissa, but this was an exception. "How could you tell her that?! Do you have any idea what she is enduring right now because she's protecting none other than you?! All of the pain that she is being put through, it's all for you! So that you don't get killed! And you dare tell her that… How dare you?!" Lissa's eyes shut tight once my words sunk in. In her mind, she knew that Rose had been captured because they wanted information on the last Dragomir. It was obvious.

"What have they done to her Adrian…?" Alberta asked, asking the question Guardian Hathaway was dying to ask herself, but wasn't strong enough mentally to hear all the pain her daughter was going through now. "Please, just tell us…"

"They're using Moroi against her… Of what she told me, they have a few captured and this guy, Gabriel, the Strigoi leader, is compelling the Moroi to torture Rose for information on Lissa."

Glaring slightly at Lissa, she wouldn't dare meet my eyes. She was already feeling guilty enough without my accusing glares adding to it. Christian glared back at me for being so cruel to Lissa and rubbed her arms even more now, holding her closer to him. Looking back at the guardians, Guardian Hathaway knew that Rose was in grave danger. It was evident in her eyes. What she didn't know was that Rose was in a large amount of pain right now…even in her unconscious state. She wouldn't last long if they continued to torture her like that.

"She doesn't know where she is or what time it is," I continued. "They have her in complete darkness, basically. The windows are apparently tinted black so she can't see the outside. She was knocked out at the school and woke up in that basement."

"She's in a basement with tinted black windows… That's like looking for a needle in a haystack," Guardian Hathaway replied, getting frustrated. This information was leading us nowhere, but we couldn't blame anyone, not even Rose. She was doing the best she could with what she had. Guardian Hathaway sighed and turned her attention to me again. "What are they doing to my daughter?"

"They're hurting her… I've never seen someone act so cruel toward anyone… She's tied up in there and can't really move. And at first, the leader brought in an air user and began suffocating her."

Lissa turned her attention back to me and her eyes popped open wide. The others gasped and Belikov seemed to get angrier with every piece of information I was giving them. His hand was turning white as he tightly gripped the steering wheel. Man… I don't want to mess with him right now.

"Gabriel ordered two Strigoi to block her airways to her nose and to open her mouth forcefully. They're really strong. Even Rose couldn't struggle out of their hold. They pushed so much air into her throat that they clogged it. They tortured her with the air user until she could barely stay conscious anymore. Gabriel kept asking her for Lissa's location but Rose isn't telling him anything. She knows what she has to do and she won't give in." Looking at Lissa, her eyes only held guilt. And she should feel guilty, especially after what she said to Rose.

"I—"

"Did you know that she is basically being staked alive because she's protecting you?" Her eyes widened at my question. No one knew what was happening to Rose but me. And they were going to find out.

"What?!" Guardian Hathaway exclaimed angrily.

Nodding, I continued but never removed my gaze from Lissa's. And she did the same. But her eyes held fear, guilt and sadness while mine held blame and anger. "After the air user stopped suffocating Rose, Gabriel asked Rose where Lissa was again, but she wouldn't cooperate. Gabriel got pissed and commanded a few Strigoi to bring in an earth user." Many gasps sounded in the car as Belikov seemed to get angrier. What was with him? "When the earth user got in the room, that son of a bitch of a leader ordered the Moroi to stop Rose's struggling."

"Oh no…" Lissa said, her voice cracking badly.

"Oh yes. The earth wielder was compelled to use the wood of the chair and impale stakes in Rose's back."

Guardian Hathaway's eyes closed in horror and she bowed her head at the turn of events. She knew that Rose had been tortured, but not to this extent. Alberta looked away and, to my eyes, it looked like she was going to be sick. Belikov was angrier than ever. I think he would break the steering wheel if he could. Lissa turned away in pure horror and sobbed into Christian's shirt. As for Christian himself, he just sat there in stunned silence. It showed on everyone's faces that this was not something they were expecting to hear. And frankly, it wasn't something that anyone should have to bear, especially not Rose.

My voice became smaller when I began speaking again. "Gabriel still tried to get her to answer his questions as the stakes were pushed further in her body. But Rose wouldn't say anything. Not once would she cry at the pain, but it showed that she wanted to. She literally begged him to take away the pain, but he would only tell her that if she told him what he wanted to hear, then he would tell the Moroi to stop. But she still wouldn't betray Lissa. So…he compelled the earth wielder to…" I gulped once before I continued again, "to hook the stakes onto her bones and pull her towards him…"

"WHAT?!" Guardian Hathaway exclaimed, nearly rising out of her seat. Tears finally began pouring down her face as she heard Rose's horrible torture sequence today. "How dare he?! Where is this bastard?! I'm going to slowly torture the son of a bitch!"

"Janine, calm down. I know this is…very hard to hear, but you can't rush in. Rose could get hurt even more than she already is." That got Guardian Hathaway to calm down ever so slightly and sit back down in her seat. Who knew someone as small as her could have such big anger problems? Now I know where Rose gets it from… "And besides, we have no idea where she's being held…" Alberta turned to me and began speaking directly to me now. "Has he done anything else to her?"

"Well, when she still wouldn't tell him anything, he became angrier and decided to drink from her until she passed out. That's where the dream ended and I was pulled back here… But Rose did tell me something, a message that I have to deliver," I responded, not sure if they wanted to know the rest. The others would be angrier than ever if they knew that Rose didn't want us to find her.

"And that would be?" Christian asked, seeming to look through me instead of at me. He was too horrified about Rose's torture that he was just holding Lissa and nothing more, his eyes holding pure terror. Rose had saved him back in Spokane and I suppose they are now closer than before. "Spit it out already!" Christian exclaimed, thinking I took too long to answer him.

"She doesn't want us to find her… And since Rose knows that Lissa doesn't want anything to do with her anymore, she wants us to bring Lissa back to the Academy and keep her safe," I replied, repeating Rose's words nearly to the letter.

Guardian Hathaway shook her head fiercely. "Over my dead body we're leaving her there. I won't leave her behind!" she swore, staring intensely at me.

"And I'm not going back! After everything that Rose is doing for me now, it's about time that I saved her for once," Lissa said, wiping her eyes and looking at me. Rose was important to her now? At least she's determined.

"That what I figured your answers would be… But I didn't have enough time to prove it to her differently."

"Well, we'll just have to prove it when we find her. And we'll do it soon. We can't let her suffer any longer…" Lissa said, looking at the guardians and receiving an approval from all three. Belikov hadn't said anything during this entire conversation… What was going through his head right now? Well, I couldn't focus on that right now. Rose was more important.

"So, we'll just have to keep going. Maybe this will help… Gabriel has a Texan accent," I said, changing the subject. Everyone looked at one another and tried to decipher where we could find Rose at the moment.

"Maybe he moved away from Texas and she's in the area?" Alberta asked, looking at Guardian Hathaway. Both guardians looked at one another with a worried expression.

"Or he was born with the accent and stayed in Texas," Guardian Hathaway said worriedly. "We should head toward Texas then, seeing as it'll take us a while to get out of the state. It'll also give us some time for Adrian to enter her thoughts again and see if Rose knows where she is." Guardian Hathaway looked at me and I nodded, wanting to help save Rose in any way possible. Guardian Hathaway nodded in approval. "Alright everyone, we've got one mission and one mission only. To save Rose by killing all of those Strigoi who are torturing her. Can we do that?" Everyone nodded and Janine looked at Belikov. "Drive quickly, Dimitri. At this rate, we don't have much time to save my daughter."

Belikov nodded and drove even faster than he was now. We nearly had to hang onto our seats to stay in them.

God… Can I get off this crazy train? I thought.

But Rose's face appeared in my mind as Belikov drove rapidly toward Rose's supposed 'location'. How I wanted her to be safe again and see her smile again… No way could she die like this…alone. She needed to live.

Rose, hang in there… Stay alive…for me.

So what did you guys think? Good again? Bad? Could be better the second time around? Let me know in some REVIEWS!

Mortal-paralight

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