Disclaimer: I don't own VA. I do own this plot.

21

*Dimitri*

"Would he really do it?" Lissa asked quietly. "Would he really turn her?"

Dimitri didn't have to think hard to answer that.

"Yes," he said, voice cracking. He cleared his throat and tried again. "Yes. He'd do it because it would hurt Rose more than just killing her would. But he'd still kill her eventually."

"Then we have to agree to his terms," she said in the tone she reserved for giving royal decrees.

"No," Hans said immediately, turning to look at her. "We've already discussed this."

"What choice do we have?" Lissa demanded. "Things have changed. You heard him and he's absolutely right. There are other Moroi. Other people who can take the crown. There are two other spirit users in this room right now for Christ's sake!" Lissa flung a hand towards Sonya and Adrian where they sat at a small table in the corner of the room. "There is only one Rose and goddammit Marlen was right. That baby is something this world has never seen before. We don't know for sure if it will be a regular dhampir or if it will be a new race but we can't risk not knowing. It could change everything!"

"We cannot willingly surrender the queen!" Hans protested. "For all you know you can replicate Hathaway's condition with another dhampir couple." Dimitri felt a protective surge towards his unborn child. The child was not a 'condition' and he was about to say so when Abe spoke up.

"Of all of the people in our world," Abe said slowly. "This room holds most of the people with the highest clearance. And out of all of them Rose is the most dangerous to have pitted against us. She has access to information that could upend the guardian system. If she were to be turned Lissa wouldn't be safe, Court wouldn't be safe. Nobody would be safe. It would put you all back ten years in information and security. Not to mention that she'd probably find a way to kill Lissa." Lissa and Christian flinched at that. Honestly, Strigoi Rose was a terrifying thought to contemplate, not only for their personal reasons but because Rose would become an extremely dangerous weapon.

"But you heard Rose," Mia objected. "Not only would she be pissed if we did the trade but she's right. Our society is finally on its way to bridging differences. We are healing and finally moving into the modern age. Without Lissa that would all be lost. I love Rose as much as anyone else but we have to consider this from all angles."

"We're approaching this the wrong way," Sonya cut in, speaking for the first time. She left the small table and moved towards the computer, re-opening the video. She played it again and Dimitri couldn't help but look away. He couldn't stand to see Rose like that again.

"There!" Sonya crowed, drawing Dimitri's attention back to the screen. She'd paused it after Marlen had hit Rose. Dimitri didn't see anything useful from the image, only a terrible sight of his beloved. "We keep arguing over who we can stand to live without. But we can save both!"

"But we don't know where Rose is," Stella pointed out. "That's been the problem this entire time. We've dug up no useful leads."

"But we have another shot!" she pointed to the screen. "The Strigoi knocked Rose out. Knocked out not compelled her! Her mind isn't ensnared by compulsion right now. It's Adrian's chance!"

Adrian looked startled. "That's true enough," he agreed and Dimitri felt hope surge forward. "But we don't know if she's still out."

"The video was taken an hour ago," Sydney said. "Based on the force behind the blow I'd be willing to guess she'll be out for a few hours. You need to try."

All talk of who was the better sacrifice was put on instant hold as the rooms attention turned to Adrian.

He moved to the couch in the corner of the room and began settling himself down for the task.

"Ask her for details about her surroundings," Sydney instructed. "What she sees, smells, feels. Does she hear anything? Have the Strigoi said anything useful? Does she remember anything about the trip there?"

Adrian was nodded absentmindedly as he finally got adjusted. "I'll try my best," he said and Dimitri knew that Adrian was addressing him personally. "But I can't promise anything."

"If you do see her," Dimitri said, coming to stand beside the royal, "tell her I will find her. Tell her I'm coming for her."

Adrian gave one last nod before closing his eyes and diving into his work.

I was laying in my cell minding my own business when my hallucinations started.

At first I thought, perhaps, Marlen had hit me a bit too hard because I hadn't hallucinated Adrian before. I'd certainly had less than lucid moments when I thought Dimitri was beside me or I talked to Lissa through our now non-existent bond, but never Adrian.

"Oh good," I sighed. "Now I'm hallucinating."

Adrian, who'd been looking around the room in distaste, focused on me at my words. His eyes widened and he was by my side immediately.

"It's no hallucination, little dhampir," he said gently. "I'm here."

"You can't be," I argued. "There are too many guards."

Adrian shrugged. "Maybe I'm not physically here but I am here. This is a dream, Rose, and I'm really talking to you."

"A…dream?" I questioned, trying to process the meaning of his words. My mind was so scrambled I could barely piece together a few thoughts. "But I can't dream. He won't let me."

"He made a mistake," Adrian assured me. "Now stand up, come on." The chains around me suddenly vanished as Adrian controlled the dream around us. He reached out a hand and slowly helped me to my feet.

I gently probed the laceration around my left wrist, wincing at the pain. This was the first time my wrists had been free since I'd woken up in the cell. I dropped my hands to my belly, feeling the reassuringly solid curve underneath my hands. My shirt, as it must have been back in the real world, was completely ruined, parted down the middle with missing buttons and frayed fabric to reveal my body and its secrets to the world.

"How long have I been here?" I asked Adrian, marveling at the feeling of the child beneath my hands.

"Almost two weeks," Adrian said quietly. "How are you, little dhampir?" He studied me carefully.

I have him a weak smile. "I've been better," I admitted. My head was beginning to hurt. "But it's good to see you. Using spirit again, huh?"

"Yeah, I have to say I've kind of missed it."

"Thank you for doing this for me."

"Of course. Rose, we don't have much time. I need your help. What can you tell me about this place?" He gestured around at my cell. "We saw this room in the picture but have you seen anything else? What can you tell me?"

I shrugged and gestured around the room as if to present it to him. Suddenly I couldn't recall too many details. "I'm here mostly. It's cold. I'm so cold. And there are rats."

"Okay, anything else? Do you hear anything?" Adrian prompted.

"Footsteps," I answered immediately. "I have guards on my door. And talking. There are a lot of Strigoi here. I've seen maybe twenty but it sounds like there are more."

"Okay good, that's good to know. What else?" I could see him mentally constructing a list of the details I provided and tried my best to supply more.

"Marlen leaves sometimes," I said, recalling my time here and the gaps between visits. "I sleep a lot and I can't tell what time it is but there are stretches of time that Marlen doesn't visit. I think he leaves."

"It would make sense if he's hunting. What else? What about the building? What more can you tell me?"

"Trains," I said. "I hear trains," I concentrated on my surroundings. It had been a while since I'd been in a spirit dream but I remembered that I could manipulate my surroundings. I recalled the sound of the trains in the distance. I'd heard them a few times during my stay. A few moments later the distant call of a train horn sounded. Adrian jerked his head around, startled. "I think they're a mile or so away. And when they recorded the video…" I struggled to remember my surroundings. "We were in a really big room. Like, almost the size of a football field." I closed my eyes in concentration. "There were windows, in the ceiling. They were covered in newspaper. And lots of metal rafters. Catwalks. And broken machinery."

"What kind of machinery?" he demanded, grasping onto that detail.

I opened my eyes to look at him again. "I'm not sure. Most of it was broken down into pieces. But I think there was a conveyer belt."

Pain spiked in my head and the room suddenly went fuzzy. "What's happening?" I asked, suddenly terrified that Adrian was about to disappear and leave me alone again. "Am I waking up?"

"No, you're not," he assured me. "Its because of you. I think you have a concussion."

"Oh," I reached my hand up to my head. The throbbing was getting worse. "My head hurts all the time."

"Take deep breaths and concentrate," Adrian coached. He reached out and rested a comforting hand on my shoulder.

I did as he said, closing my eyes and breathing deeply. When I opened my eyes a few moments later the headache was still there but the room had clarified a bit.

"Good, Rose. Really good. Anything else?"

I looked around my cell, thinking. What could I tell him? I spent most of my time curled up in the corner sleeping. When I wasn't doing that I was being taunted or being escorted to the bathroom…

"They take me out of here for bathroom breaks," I told Adrian.

"What do you see then?" he prompted.

"A hallway." I concentrated once more and the room around us changed. Suddenly we were in the hallway I was escorted down for bathroom breaks. "There are office doors," I gestured to the doors that lined the hallway. They always stayed shut. "And flyers." Crumpled and faded papers suddenly appeared lining the walls. My memory of them was indistinct so the resulting images in the dream were blurry. Adrian squinted at one, trying to determine what it said. I tried my best to explain. "They're old and weird. Patriotic phrases about keeping America together, liberation and something about gorillas."

"Gorillas?" Adrian asked, sidetracked. He abandoned his quest for details and turned to look at me, concerned. "How's your head?"

"It hurts," I admitted. "But I'm serious."

"Okay," he said slowly. "Patriotic stuff and gorillas. What else?"

"At the end of the hall there's a door," I moved forward to show him said door. "We go through it and up a narrow flight of stairs to get to the bathroom. But on the door to the stairs there's a sign."

We were at the door now and he saw the sign for himself. Like my memories of the flyers in the hallway, my recall of the sign was less than perfect. I could recall the message as well as vague designs and did my best now to reconstruct it.

"'Now leaving work floor'," Adrian read. "What about it?"

"The logo," I pointed to the half finished image at the bottom of the sign. "I can't remember the whole thing but I think it's the company logo for wherever I am."

Adrian bent down to study the image, a half completed picture of interlocking lines.

"I'll draw it when I get back," he said at last, standing straight. The hallway dissolved around us as I lost my hold on the memory. We ended up back in my cell. Everything was fuzzy again. I cupped a hand to my forehead, emitting a small hiss of pain.

Adrian was at my side again. "I'm sorry, Rose. I don't want you to hurt."

"It's okay," I gasped. "It needs to be done. But I don't know anything else."

"I'll tell Sydney what you told me. She'll find you. And then your Russian will be here to save you."

I gave a small laugh. "Four years later and you still can't call him Dimitri?"

"Oh I could," he said flippantly. "But there's no fun in that. But seriously," he sobered up as he spoke. "We will find you Rose and then Dimitri will stop at nothing to get you. The man hasn't stopped looking since he found out you were missing. None of us have."

I sighed and dropped my hands to my stomach once more. "I wish I could have been the one to tell him," I admitted, tears fighting to escape.

"I know," Adrian soothed, rubbing a light hand up and down my spine. "But Lissa told him and that's the next best thing. It wasn't ruined by Marlen."

"There's so much I have to tell him."

"You'll get the chance soon enough. We're going to bust you out of here. All you need to focus on right now is keeping yourself and the littlest dhampir," he reached out and placed a brief touch on my stomach, "alive."

"I'm trying, Adrian. I really, really am."

The dream was extremely grainy now and Adrian was beginning to get lost in it.

"I have to go now, Rose. I'll see you soon."

"I don't want to be alone again," I said, voice cracking as panic shot through me. I couldn't go back to reality, bound on the floor of my cell with nobody there to comfort me.

"You aren't alone, remember?" he touched my belly once more. "You're never alone." He leaned forward and placed a barely there kiss on my forehead. "I'll see you soon."

And he was gone.

*Dimitri*

Adrian sat up so fast he smacked foreheads with Lissa.

"Ow shit!" he cursed, hand flying to his rapidly reddening head.

Lissa quickly righted herself and said, "You found Rose didn't you? I could see it in your aura!"

Dimitri, already standing near the prone form of the royal, moved in to squat beside Lissa. "You saw Rose?"

"Ow. Damn it Lissa you're head is filled with rocks. Yes, I saw Rose," he said, throwing his legs over the side of the couch and addressing his audience.

There was a general outcry of surprise and elation.

"How is she?" Dimitri asked immediately. Lissa shifted so she was sitting beside Adrian on the couch.

"She's…." he hesitated, looked guiltily at Dimitri, then finished, "bad, actually. I think she has a concussion. The connection was pretty poor and she was having trouble focusing. But I was able to talk to her."

Dimitri pushed aside his worry in favor of the good news. "What did she have to say?"

"Get ready, Sage," he said to Sydney who was already moving to her computer command center. "I have a list for you."

"Ready," she said once situated behind the computers.

"She's being held in an industrial building. It's large, with a workroom as big as a football field. Rose said it's at least two, probably more stories high with windows in the ceiling. There's old broken down equipment, catwalks and rafters." Sydney was busily typing to keep up with Adrian's list. "She said most of the equipment was too broken to recognize but she thought there was a conveyer belt. There was a hallway of offices outside her room that lead to a door. There was a sign. Can I have some paper?" Sonya immediately handed over a notebook and pencil. Adrian began sketching as he talked. "She could also hear trains. A mile—maybe two—away. She couldn't peg a schedule but they were frequent enough."

"What else? How was Rose feeling? Did she have anything else to say?" Janine demanded, coming to stand beside Dimitri.

"She was…like I said she was hurting. She's been kept in that room chained up the entire time. She'll need a while to recover."

"The baby?" Dimitri asked. "Was the baby okay?"

Adrian glanced up from his sketch to look at him. "Seemed so. I told her what you said. It helped." He turned his attention back to Janine and continued. "Rose said that Marlen leaves sometimes, overnight she thinks, but she's never alone. She's personally seen over twenty Strigoi but thinks there's maybe double that."

"That many?" Hans asked, incredulously. "You didn't even have that many when you kidnapped the Queen," he said to Dimitri, who winced at the reminder.

"Remember the increase in Strigoi activity lately?" he said dully. "I think we might have just found a major contributing factor. Marlen's been building an army."

"That makes this entire mission risky," he said. "We don't even meet half their numbers. We can't stage a rescue until we do."

"So we'll ask for volunteers," Lissa said. "Rose has a lot of friends at Court and there are more people who are willing to strike out at Strigoi. I'm sure we'd get enough people. The Moroi magic group, too. Only the teachers and volunteers," she stressed. "I'm not going to force anyone to walk into that situation."

"It might be enough," Hans admitted. "But do we even know where she is?" he directed that question at Sydney.

"I'm narrowing it down," she said, not looking away from the screen. "If we look for buildings of those specifications in one hundred miles of the crash site and factor in train tracks with crossings within two miles of the buildings…." she trailed off as she typed. "It's something to go off of. The system will run down all of the possible matches. It may not be enough, though," she admitted. "This is Pennsylvania. There are a lot of abandoned industrial parks."

"And we only have until tomorrow," Christian said unhelpfully. "Is there anything else?" he directed his question at Adrian.

"Well…" Adrian hesitated. "Rose started rambling at one point. I told you I think she has a concussion. She wasn't making sense."

Brain trauma was a serious thing and Dimitri felt his concern for Rose grow markedly. A simple backhand from Marlen could have much larger ramifications then it had seemed at the time.

"What was she saying?" he asked.

"She remembered posters in the hallway," Adrian said. "They'd take her through it to go to the restroom. Then she started rambling about 'keeping America united', 'liberation' and gorillas. It was about then that the dream started slipping though." Adrian looked guilty for admitting it, like he was going to tarnish Rose's reputation by admitting it.

"She's been locked up by herself for a while," Daniel said after a few seconds of silence. "That messes with a person's mind. Not to mention whatever they've been tormenting her with. I'd be surprised if she didn't go a little crazy."

That put a sobering effect on the gathering. Adrian fiddled nervously with the notebook in is hand before he realized what he was doing.

"Oh, here. This is the sign she showed me. There's part of a logo on the bottom but she couldn't remember the rest." He passed the notebook to his wife. Sydney scanned it quickly. "I'll cross reference any results with this. It might narrow things down." She went back to typing and Dimitri realized that they'd get no more from her until the computer did its job.

"We need to get a team together," Janine said, echoing his thoughts. "Lord Ozera is right, we don't have much time. When the results come back we have to be ready to move."

*Dimitri*

"I know that rescue missions are not common," Lissa said to the gathered crowd of Court guardians, all of which had been extensively checked out by Abe's sources and deemed free of any possible connections to Moroi rebels. "Most of the time we write off those taken as dead and move on. Only, in the case of Guardian Hathaway we know she is alive. In less than twenty-four hours the Strigoi who have her will be contacting Guardian Belikov. At that time we are to either trade myself for her or let her be turned. Many of you know Guardian Hathaway," Lissa continued. "You know of her kindness and willingness to help others. You know of her dedication to her job. I think you also know what a dangerous enemy she'd make to the Moroi." In the crowd someone scoffed. Lissa gave a wry smile. "I would not want to have Rose Hathaway against me, which is exactly what will happen if she is turned." Against Hans's better judgment Lissa had decided to reach out to the Court guardians for help finding Rose. As Janine had said, they'd need a team ready at a moments notice. Hans hadn't wanted to do that until they had a solid lead on where Rose was but conceded under Lissa's demands. Dimitri, though conscious of Hans concerns, was confident in Sydney's ability to track Rose down in time.

"I cannot promise you that everyone here will come back alive. I cannot promise you that the mission will be successful. However, I can promise you that everyone standing before you will do anything to see Rose safely back home." Lissa gestured to the front of the room where Dimitri, Janine, Hans, Mikhail, Eddie, Angeline and the rest of the royal guard stood. "We will be bringing magic users with us as well. This is a chance to strike at the heart of the enemy. We know where they are and we have a good idea of their numbers. If there was ever a chance to take a proactive approach against the Strigoi now is the time!"

Dimitri saw people nodding along with Lissa's words. This was what it meant to be a good monarch, he knew. This was what Rose fought for every day and this was what had driven her to risk her life and soul in order to keep Lissa on the throne. People listened to her. She spoke to them on a personal level and, even in the face of danger and possible death, rallied them. To the dhampirs in the room she was their queen, their leader and the beacon of hope for a brighter future. She fought for them as much as she fought for Moroi. She fought for equality and peace. Dimitri knew, too, that it must stay this way. Lissa must live to bring their people into a better future.

He wondered what the guardians before them would say if they knew Rose was pregnant. They had debated and decided to keep that a secret. If something were to happen they did not want word getting out. Besides, all of Rose's fears about disrupting the guardian system were completely valid.

So the choice to be a part of the rescue mission would be completely based on their feelings towards Rose and towards their queen. Lissa was the picture of poise and calm as she waited for volunteers but Dimitri knew she was on pins and needles. Not only was Rose on the line here but this moment was the culmination of everything she'd been working towards over the years. To proactively seek out Strigoi with the aid of Moroi magic. To put decision making in the hands of the dhampirs. This was a monumental moment for the queen.

There was a moment of silence within the crowd as they made their decisions. Then one man stood up. Dimitri recognized him as one of the guardians Rose sometimes spared with at the gym. He'd also been one of the guardians that had arrested Rose for the murder of Queen Tatiana so many years ago.

"I will go," he said. "For Rose."

Lissa beamed at him. "Thank you."

"So will I," said another man, also standing.

"And me."

"Me too."

In rapid succession every guardian in the room got to their feet and proclaimed their willingness to go after Rose.

In the end thirty-four guardians volunteered. Including their original rescue team that brought the number up to forty-seven. Plus Christian, Mia and three other magic users.

For the first time since Lissa had told him that Rose had been taken, Dimitri felt like he'd really get to hold her again.

Now all they needed was for Sydney to pull through.

I woke up to red eyes. Maybe Marlen was going for a scare tactic, maybe he thought he'd startle me. He was wrong.

I don't know if my lack of reaction was due to the fact that I had often woken up in Siberia to Dimitri's Strigoi eyes or because I was too tired to actually react. Either way I did nothing more than blink slowly when his eyes came into focus.

Marlen gave a grunt of annoyance and straightened up from his crouching position beside me on the floor of my cell. I must have been returned to it sometime during my dreaming. I wanted to go back to sleep. I wanted to go back to my dream with Adrian where I was free of my chains and not alone. I watched Marlen pace and realized just how alone I was in this moment. I was surrounded by dozens of Strigoi but the presence of another living—or close enough—being didn't actually mean you had company. If there wasn't someone with you who genuinely cared about you then you were alone.

I'd never been more alone in my entire life.

Even with Dimitri in Siberia he'd held some semblance of concern towards me, tainted as it was by his own power hungry desires. But after having just left my dream with Adrian, having seen the worry in his eyes and felt his desire to help find me, the difference was as startling as having a bucket of ice water dropped over my head.

I wanted to cry. There were very few times in my life when I just wanted to curl up in a ball and cry. A few of those times had happened during my pregnancy. But concern about what others would think, fear over my changing lifestyle and trepidation over being thrust into parenthood all paled in comparison to the waves of desolation that crashed over me now. A small part of my mind wondered if Lissa would peg this downward spiral of emotions as another pregnancy symptom but the rest of me didn't care what it was. I wanted to close my eyes and hide until Dimitri and my friends rescued me. I wanted someone else to be responsible for the hard work now and for it to be okay for me to need help. I was so tired of being strong.

But you have to be strong, a voice in my head—sounding suspiciously of Dimitri—said. It's not all about you.

Not all about me. No it wasn't. I wasn't the only one locked in this cell and sometimes I tended to forget that.

I shifted and repositioned my bound arms so that I could awkwardly touch the curve of my belly. Never full contact, I thought bitterly, barely the brush of fingertips. I craved the ability to lay my palms fully over my swelling belly like I had in my dream. I wanted to be able to marvel in the changes to my body and the meaning behind it. But for now I'd settle with a caress.

Marlen was watching me from across the room.

"I wonder if they'll actually come for you," he mussed, moving to lean against the wall behind him as he studied me, arms crossed. "Will they come out of love for you and the hope your child brings or will the old guardian dogma win out? Will they value their pathetic queen above you?"

"She's not pathetic," I hissed. I tried to shift once more and sit up but couldn't make my body comply. I managed to get halfway up before my world started spinning and I went crashing back to the ground. I gritted my teeth against the sharp pain in my shoulder and side and continued on. "She's good and pure and smart. She cares about all of her people, even those that oppose her. She wants what's best for the Moroi and the damphirs. She belongs on that throne!"

"You follow her so blindly. I wonder if you realize that you are just as much a prisoner with her as you are with me."

"I don't recall ever wearing chains around her," I pointed out, holding my bound hands forward in example.

He shrugged. "There is more than one way to be a prisoner. You are as bound by your duties as you are by these chains. So much so that you are even putting her above your own child."

"I am not!" I argued sharply, but despite my objection the words stung. I wasn't, was I?

"You fight for them to leave you here while they go on protecting her," he pointed out.

"What are the chances you'd actually let me go?" I snapped. I couldn't look at the situation as black and white. This entire time I had to believe that there was a very real chance that Marlen wouldn't keep up his end of the deal. Could I risk Lissa and myself? Marlen had said that he had a deal with someone inside Court and they had said not to hurt me but would it really be in his nature to keep that promise once he had what he wanted? What more would he benefit from his turncoat companion after this? He wasn't really concerned with burning bridges. If that were the case then better to insure one life than risk both. But did that make Marlen right? I didn't really have any choice but when I'd yelled at the camera for Dimitri to save Lissa…well I'd meant it. I had a child inside me, my own child who I was supposed to love and protect with every breath in my body, and yet I had told them to save Lissa. It wouldn't really make a difference in the long run but what did that say about me as a mother? Did I even have the right to be one?

Unaware of my internal debate Marlen answered, "If I had it my way, none. Of course, I still could do that. But I made a deal and if I'm to get everything we agreed upon then I'll stick to it."

Everything agreed upon? What would he get after the exchange?

"They won't do it," I said. "They won't make the trade. I guess you'll just have to content yourself with killing me."

"Oh trust me," he pushed off the wall and came towards me, once more bending down to look me in the eye. "I intend to enjoy every moment of your death."

*Dimitri*

The logistics meeting was a pretty somber affair, which made it even more startling when Sydney came running into the room, Adrian hot on her heels. Prior to this Dimitri, Hans, Eddie and Janine had been leaning over a table with a sketch of the building Adrian had described, guessing the locations of Strigoi. They were joined by a handful of other guardians, team leaders, while the rest prepared to leave. Janine was just sketching out the most probable configuration of guards when the Ivashkov's crashed in.

"Rose is brilliant!" Sydney cried out, brandishing a handful of papers she had clutched in her hand. "Completely brilliant!"

"What?" Eddie asked, confused. He was taken aback by her sudden appearance, let alone what she had to say. "I thought she was crazy."

"Well, no more than she usually is," Sydney assured him, venturing further into the crowded room, mindless of the guardians giving her weary looks. Years later people still viewed the human Lady Ivashkov with trepidation. Sydney ignored them and continued. "The computer brought back some results based off of the structural information."

"What was it?" Dimitri demanded, moving around the table and to her side in an instant.

"There were sixteen buildings that matched Roses description," she said at first.

"That's too many to check," Hans jumped in immediately, not waiting for Sydney to continue as she was obviously primed to do. She glared at him and continued as if there hadn't been an interruption.

"There are two main industrial parks that hold a majority of the locations but there are a total of seven different locations among them. Yes, that's too many to search in our time frame. However, Adrian's sketch came in handy." She sent a radiant smile in her husbands direction before proceeding. "The sketch is a partial of the logo for an old car manufacturing company: REO motor cars!"

"A car company? Are you sure?" Hans demanded.

"Sage knows her cars, Guardian Croft," Adrian assured Hans, moving to stand beside his wife and drop a kiss on the top of her head. More weary looks among the guardians.

"Why does REO motor cars make sense?" Dimitri asked.

"They started manufacturing in 1905 but after Pearl Harbor in 1941 their assembly lines got switched over to manufacturing tanks and other war necessities—like many assembly plants back then," Sydney said in her best lecturers voice. "The posters Rose was talking about? Those are all slogans for the Vietnam War!"

"Even gorillas?" Janine asked dubiously, trying to figure out Sydney's 'brilliant' comment.

"Guerrilla warfare. It was a common tactic used back in Vietnam. The posters must have been left after the company went out of business. After the war a lot of production companies had a hard time switching back over to their normal products. REO went out of business in 1975. It all makes sense."

"Does that narrow down the other results?" Dimitri asked her, heart racing.

Sydney dropped the papers she'd been holding on top of the sketch they'd been working on. One was a map of eastern Pennsylvania with concentric circles marking it up. The other was a picture of an old four-story brick factory. "REO motors had an assembly plant in an old industrial park in Queen City, one that matches the details Rose gave us. It's one point three miles away from a popular railroad line and it's thirty-eight miles away from where Rose was taken."

A/N: I know you're all chomping at the bit for Dimitri to save Rose. Sorry it took so long but I wanted to explore multiple POVs during the situation. But I promise, next chapter is it!