Thank you all so, so much for the incredible support you guys have given me with this story! What started as a one-shot has grown into so much more and that wouldn't have happened without you guys, so thank you from the bottom of my heart. Another long chapter (I can't seem to write anything less than 4000 words at the moment!) but the words just kept coming! Please let me know what you think, and once again, thank you.


"Rose, Roza look at me," Dimitri said, panic in his eyes as he tried to wake me. I couldn't look at him, all I could focus on was the icy fear running through my veins and the alarm calls on both mine and Dimitri's phones and pagers.

After a few minutes, I blocked the shrill sirens and focused on the worried man above me.

"You'd think they would just need to ring our pagers," I groaned, using my humour to hide my fear. "Or phones, not both. Both is just overkill".

Relief shone in Dimitri's eyes as my panic subsided and he even managed a small smile at my joke. Turns out a fucked up sense of humour does have its benefits.

"We...we need to leave," he muttered, still hovering over me.

Pushing up, I straddled his lap, flipping him over and burying my hands into his hair.

"I love you, Dimitri," I choked, the seriousness of the situation hitting me like a truck. This might be the last time we ever wake up together. "I love you and I never want you to forget that. Whatever happens today, whatever decisions I make and whatever the consequences are, I love you".

"I know Roza, I know," Dimitri croaked out. I could tell he was trying to keep in the sobs that were waging war in his heart. He was trying to be strong, for me. "And whatever decisions you make," he continued, "know that I support you. I trust that whatever you do out there, there's a reason for it. I trust you Roza, but please, please come back to me".

I wanted nothing more than to assure him I would be fine when his voice broke on the last few words and the sobs erupted, but both he and I knew that just wasn't possible. We were both well aware of what could happen today.

Leaning down, I pressed a firm yet gentle kiss on his lips, before pulling away and standing up.

"We need to leave," I whispered, unable to meet his eyes. I couldn't have this conversation with him when I knew full well what was likely to happen.

Grabbing everything I needed, I padded into the bathroom. Ever since I had graduated I'd had a specific routine I follow when I know I'm going into battle. Granted, I haven't always known, but with raids and rescue missions becoming more common in the past years a routine had developed none the less.

Taking a deep breath, I began the process of brushing, plaiting and then pinning up my hair. Due to its slighter shorter length, the job didn't take as long as it used to, but it still allowed me to regulate my breathing and silence my mind. Part of fighting will always be about your mental state and how easily you can switch on the 'killing calm'.

Taking a deep breath, I stared at the reflection in front of me. I focused on my eyes and imagined switching a lever in my brain. With each breath I let out, my feeling and thoughts escaped until my head was totally empty. The only thoughts that brushed through were of the mission.

Dimitri met my eyes as I walked out the bathroom, take away coffee and breakfast muffin in his hand, and however much I could see that he wanted to talk about what was going to happen today, he recognised my mask. He recognised the guardian mask plastered on my face and the significance that had. A tiny part of my brain reminded me that I was avoiding talking, something I had vowed not to do, but I quickly silenced that thought. I was doing this for work, and to keep me safe and ready for action. No other reason.

"Stan sent a message saying that he wants us both in his office before this thing kicks off. Apparently, we have more than 1-hour, but less than 3, according to the cameras set around the court boundary," Dimitri said, as we jogged towards the guardian building.

I nodded.

Because we knew that this attack was coming, guardians had reinforced the boundaries and land around them with temporary walls and obstacles, assuring the court population that it was just an exercise. There was a risk of showing the strigoi we knew about the attack and were planning, but this extra hour was worth it. It was the difference between life and death. A huge number of lives.

We quickly reached the building, but rather than going up with Dimitri, I rested my hand on the door and paused.

"I'll be up in a second, I'll just be a minute," I said, not meeting Dimitri's eyes.

With a worried look and a nod, he set off bounding up the stairs like the commander he was born to be.

Turning around to see the scene before me, I took a shaky breath and pulled out my phone. There were guardians rushing about everywhere, far too many for anyone to take any notice of me, and so I started typing.

Liss. I'm sure you will have been informed by now that everything has started and you will have been sequestered away by a snazzy group of guardians. I just wanted to let you know how much I love you, and how proud I am of you. I know you're going to be mad at me for sending this, but we both know what the odds are today.

Take care of everyone for me, should anything happen x

Ok. Now I could continue with the day. Lissa always hated the texts, but I sent them any time I went into battle. I knew one of the worst things about losing her parents was that she didn't get to say goodbye and I didn't want that to be the case between us. You don't leave behind an epic friendship without saying goodbye.


"Right Hans, we need to be quick. I still need to go to the armoury and find my group," I said, walking into the planning room. Surveying the people stood around the table, I almost felt shocked at not seeing my mothers curly red hair, despite the fact that she died 5 years ago. This would have definitely been her scene.

Pushing in next to Dimitri, I forced thoughts of my mother from my head and focused on the paperwork laid out in front of us. Nudging my arm to catch my attention, Dimitri shot me a worried look, clearly questioning why I had been waiting outside the building. Not wanting to speak in here, I simply laced my fingers around his in a move that very clearly broke protocol, but I doubted anyone would call us up on it because of what I was about to do. If they did, well Dimitri was soon to be the fucking president anyway.

It was clear that nobody was going to call us up on the hand-holding even if they did see, and so I tuned into the meeting.


"Right, is everyone clear on the protocols of today?" Hans boomed once everything had been discussed. Everyone nodded solemnly, the protocols were always hard to hear because of how personal they could be, yet every guardian knew that they had to be followed.

"I'm not going to lie to you, this one will be a bloody one," Hans continued, his tone sombre and quiet. "We may lose a lot of good guardians today but our victory is essential in the war against the strigoi. This battle may very well be the turning point that we've been after for years. I know not many of you will be out there fighting, but to those who are, and to your colleagues, friends, family and lovers, I say thank you. Thank you for making this sacrifice to ensure our safety".

Looking up at Dimitri's face, I could see each word Hans said ripping through him like a bullet. Once Hanss had finished, I made eye contact with him and gave a solemn nod, portraying all of my feelings. Tugging on Dimitri's hand, I pulled him out of the room and into a smaller, empty one.

"This is it," I whispered, moving up close to him and resting my hands on his solid chest. "This is where we part".

Dimitri would be staying up here, in the planning legion, whilst I would be going to the armoury to be assigned to my group for the battle.

"Don't say it," Dimitri whispered, tears leaking from his eyes.

I leant forward and rested my head against his strong body as he wrapped his arms around me tightly and buried his head into my hair.

"Ok," I whispered selfishly. I didn't want to say goodbye any more than he wanted to hear it.

"I have so much I wanted to say, to do," Dimitri muttered, his voice thick and heavy.

"And you will say it all Dimitri," I said, looking up to meet his eyes. "This isn't the end".

The words felt thick and slimy as the lie left my mouth.

"Roza, my Roza".

I lifted my hand to rest against his cheek.

"I love you," I whispered, and Dimitri crashed his lips against mine. I could taste the salt from our tears as they mixed together, but I could feel the love we shared, the love no other couple could possibly experience. If they did, they surely wouldn't survive.

"I need to go," I whispered, pulling away and resting my forehead against his.

"I know".

Neither of us moved for another few minutes.

"Roza, go out there thinking of me. Don't put your mask on. Think of me, our love and the strength of our connection will bring you home to me."

"I will baby, I will," I sobbed as I pulled away from his arms, resting my hand on the door handle. This was pure torture, leaving the man that owned my heart, knowing that I might not see him again. Not just that, but I knew that my death would break him. I owned his heart, and if I died, it would die with me.

"See you soon, comrade," I whispered as I pushed open the door and left him stood there, engraving the image of my back into his head.

Hastily wiping my arm over my face, I started walking through the corridor to the exit door, however, as people noticed me they stepped into the doorways and bowed their heads as I walked past them. The whole floor stopped and showed me their respect, their honour of my sacrifice, even Hans.

Keeping my head held high, despite the tear streaks on my cheeks, I strode down the hallway, nodding as I did, before reaching the door.

"Thank you for everything you have all taught me," I said, turning around and meeting Hans' eyes, the man that perhaps taught me the most, before striding out towards the armoury.


"Rosemarie Hathaway-Belikova," I said quietly to the desk officer stationed at the armoury, not wanting to be overheard. As soon as the words left my mouth I was so thankful that I'd been able to officially change my name to share Dimitri's. I would have to speak to him about taking my name too, not that I thought there would be a problem, but he just didn't know I'd done this yet.

"This way," said the desk officer, breaking my thoughts and leading me into the chaos. Once I had been assigned my gear (excluding stakes) and put on all of the lightweight body armour, the desk officer led me over to my group. My stomach dropped when I saw who was in it.

"Vasily," I hissed as I joined the huddle. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"You didn't honestly think I would leave you to do this on your own?"

"Yes. Yes I did. You have a duty to Lissa, it's literally your job to get her away from court right now".

"Fuck the job," Vasily said, words I vary rarely heard come from his mouth. "Some things are more important. You are more important to me.

I shook my head. I was truly ready to go down protecting my race, but having Vasily here complicated everything.

"We get out there, we ID and photograph the leaders, then we leave. In and out," he said, voice low and challenging.

"No," I growled. "I'm fighting. You obviously don't fucking know me at all if you think I'd go out there and not fight".

"I do know you, I've worked with you for years and I know all your stupid ideas about sacrificing yourself for others, but not this time Rose. Not if I can help it. I get you in, I get you out".

Stepping up to him, a reached out and grasped his hand, seeing all the tension leave his body from the simple act of friendship.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, hanging his head. "I'm just really scared".

"Me too," I whispered back, feeling a release as the honest words left my lips. "Me too Vasily".

All of a sudden, our moment was interrupted by the blaring of sirens signalling it was time for us to move out.

"Here we go," I said, meeting the eyes of every guardian in my group.


We were efficiently loaded onto military-style trucks in our fighting groups and shipped to our specific location quickly. The plan had been carefully worked out a few days ago, and there was a large number of fighting groups consisting of around 10 guardians with mixed experience and ability. These groups were assigned a specific location and task. The benefit of using small groups was that they were easily movable if some areas had more strigoi than others, something that was useful when fighting unpredictable, blood-sucking monsters.

Gripping Vasily's hand as we rocked in the back of the truck, I squeezed tightly, perhaps more for my comfort than his. When the truck stopped moving, however, I knew the moment had arrived.

"Please depart in formation," the driver said through the communication devices in our ears. Knowing the drill like the back of our hands, we quickly assembled together and emerged from the truck into the bowels of hell.

Already, it was clear just how many strigoi there were. They were just beginning to get through the small parts of the wall that had been broken to funnel them to our advantage, but it was like a hoard with red eyes streaming through faster than we could stop them.

"We need to get up close," I shouted into my earpiece, and my team began moving forward in our formation. The whole team had been tasked to protect me, and aid me in IDing the leaders of the group, but to do this we had to get right into the thick of things. Soon enough we were faced with strigoi and my battle instincts took in as I began fighting my way through the wave. Thankfully, my body wasn't as weak as I feared. I wasn't as strong as usual, but it didn't affect me massively and soon enough I had my own pile of bodies.

"There's something strange about these strigoi," Vasily said through the comms, panting as he threw down the body of the strigoi he was fighting.

Now that he mentioned it, my body pile was rather big. I was good, but not that good. These strigoi were very easy to kill, young and unable to use their few-found skills yet. Cannon fodder.

"I'll send a message back to headquarters, cover me," I shouted, the rest of the team assembling into a protective circle around me as I flicked the switch on my earpiece to the pre-set channel that gave me a direct link to Hans.

"Croft?" I barked down the line, pressing my hand against my ear as if that would help me hear better amongst the chaos. If the man didn't have his earpiece in I would kill him.

"Hathaway?" came his reply mere seconds later. "Is something wrong?"

"Just an update," I assured him. "There's something strange about the strigoi out here".

"Strigoi? You shouldn't be fighting any damn strigoi! Your team were under strict instructions!" he exclaimed, his volume making me wince.

"Yeah yeah, we both knew that wouldn't fucking happen. I'm scarier than you are. Anyway, the strigoi out here are all really young. Nobody has encountered anything older than one year. It's as if they are sending the younger ones to tire us out before the leaders join in on the fight."

There was a long pause, and I almost worried he hadn't heard me.

"It's likely," he sighed after moments had gone by. "We'll adjust our plans around your intel. Rose, seriously be careful out there. I've never seen Belikov out there, he's like a fucking robot at the moment, and I don't want to have to find another president because you died and broke the man".

Hans was trying his best to make his point across with humour, but the seriousness of his tone told me how bad things were.

"I know, I know," I sighed. "I'll do my best, but things are unpredictable out here, I've never seen anything on this scale before. He... he'll be ok. He'll do the job for you regardless of what happens, and he'll do it well, we both know that." I whispered the last sentence, feeling the pang of loss sharp in my chest.

"I know he will," Hans admitted. "It's just been nice to see him happy. See both of you happy. You are a fantastic guardian Rose, I'm sorry I ever doubted you".

"Hey, I needed your doubt to kick my ass in gear," I joked, trying desperately to lighten the mood. "Don't get soft on me Croft, I haven't died yet."

I flicked my earpiece back in tune with my team, not wanting to hear any more goodbye's from anyone.

"Right, let's go," I commanded, pushing my way out of the ring and engaging with the closest strigoi to me.


"How many fucking more," I growled into my earpiece to Hans an hour later.

"We... we don't know," was his reply. "Intel suggests you're nearly halfway through".

"Only halfway?" I screeched, surveying the mass of bodies surrounding me. The boundary walls of the court were set well away from any buildings on a vast expanse of land without any bushes or trees until you got further into court. It was definitely more defensible and gave me a clear view of the guardians and strigoi fighting for miles around me. There really was a lot of reinforcement guardians here, and even with the new raids, a fight on this scale was totally unheard of. It looked like some epic battle scene in a film.

"If you're getting tired you can..."

"No," I interrupted sharply. "Don't finish that sentence".

"Other teams have been pulled back for a break, I can do the same for yours's".

"You just try, croft, and I'll pull this fucking earpiece out and go rouge. You know I will," I threatened.

"I know you will," he sighed. "We need you, Hathaway, if only to identify the leaders".

"I know," I whispered. "I know. Trust me".


"Any sight?" Hans said into my ear, catching me off guard. I didn't know he could hotwire my earpiece. I had set it to only receive my team comms, stupid I know, but his constant worrying was getting in the way of my fighting.

"Wait," I panted as I kicked the strigoi hard in the stomach, sending him flying backwards. He shot towards me, angry and fast, but I was waiting. Once he was within reach I ducked, sending my stake clean into his heart, using his own propulsion to finish him.

"No," I gasped, trying desperately to catch my breath before I found my next target. My limbs were becoming heavy and slow and I knew that if the leaders didn't appear soon, I would have to pull back my team for a break. The others were stronger than me (due to my recent injuries) but we were all getting tired and tired fighting never ends well. All of a sudden, a pair of red-ringed eyes caught mine.

I was rooted to the spot as my body reacted to the eyes that nearly killed me mere weeks ago. Well, did kill me. I'm just one hard son-of-a-bitch to kill permanently.

The eyes suddenly set off in a sprint towards me, the owner running so fast that he was almost a blur. When I blinked again, he was stood in front of me.

"Ah, Rosemarie Hathaway. How surprising it is to see you again," the strigoi said, as if we were pleasant friends bumping into each other at the shop.

"Croft," I growled, glad that he had made it into my earpiece and mentally chastised myself for turning him off. I'd matured, but this was a move even 17-year-old Rose wouldn't have done. Or maybe she would. I was wild back then.

The click of our connecting line brought me back.

"I have him," I told Hans, hoping that I could stay alive enough to relay the important information.

"Where is he," Hans replied, his voice smooth and calm, reassuring.

"Stood in-fucking front of me".

"Run, Rose. Fucking run. I don't care about the description, you were told not to get within 50-meters of any of them and yet you are stood with the shitting leader" he screamed.

"I can't. Listen to me. For once in your fucking life, listen to me". My eyes were locked with the strigoi. He must clearly know what I was doing. He was taunting, letting me relay the information because he knew they wouldn't be able to catch him or stop his group. There was just too many strigoi.

"Pale blue eyes, black hair, looks like he was an Ozera. Around 6ft 1, lanky, old. Very fucking old." I rushed my words as the strigoi started walking towards me.

"I am north-west to the 3rd watchtower. My team is scattered around the area. Send reinforcements, I'll hold him as long as I can. Guardian Hathaway signing off".

"Don't you fucking da..." screeched Hans, but I pulled out my earpiece before he could finish. If I was to stand any chance of surviving long enough for the reinforcement team here, I had to have complete concentration. This would be the hardest fight of my life.

In the millisecond before I sprung into action, I did as Dimitri asked me to. I thought of him, how much I loved him, and how much I wanted a future with him. I wanted to have his children and live out the rest of our days together, becoming an old and grumpy couple that cherished each other.

I thought of Lissa, how much I loved her and wanted more time to live life together. I wanted to support her and share all of the things I hadn't gotten to tell her yet. I wanted her to meet my children and I wanted to meet hers. I wasn't ready to leave her yet, but perhaps it was going to be forced upon me.

Finishing my prayers or thoughts, whatever the hell they were, I leapt towards the strigoi, hoping to push him off balance enough to give me the upper hand. Last time, I was against a whole group of these cronies without my stake. This time, it was just me and him, and I was most definitely armed. I had the best odds yet. Let's see what I could do with them.

The strigoi was quick and jumped out of the way, scoffing at my attempt. He was so quick that I stumbled a little on my landing, my limbs showing just how tired they were. Throwing myself back at him, I managed to get a hit on his stomach, swiping my stake and earning a roar of pain. Eager to use this moment to my advantage I thrust forward once more, but the strigoi was faster.

"No," he shouted, pushing his palm against my chest and throwing me to the floor. "I have fucked around with you for long enough, but this time Rose Hathaway, I will not. You won't be made into a strigoi, you don't deserve that honour, but I will drain every last drop from your body until I know that it is not possible for anyone to get to you this time".

Jumping down to the floor, he pinned me easily with his two large hands on my shoulders. Squirm as I might, I knew this was it. As he moved down to my neck, the warmth of his breath brushed over my face and my mind took me to a better place. Dimitri. I'd so often had Dimitri's breath flutter across my skin, warm and comforting.

In my very last moments on earth, I thought of him. My love. My life.