NaNoWriMo is over, school work has been caught up on, and the next chapter is in the works. Thank you for all the reviews you've given me for the last few chapters- I really do appreciate them, and throughout November when I was drowning in my remaining word count I went back and re-read them all to give me a creative boost. The muse returned, and my original characters finally stopped acting like the VA crew ;)

So now, to find out the identity of that mystery Guardian...

Five Guardians exited the van, completing the 12 that the American branch of the council had put forward.

"I suppose you already know all of them," I said to Dimitri whilst sizing up the new arrivals, "because you seem to know everyone in the world."

He shook his head. "No, I only know two of them. And you know one too."

I looked at him questioningly, only to see him nod at the rapidly approaching figures. Four were men, and one was a woman. Her short black hair and grey eyes seemed familiar, and a moment later, I was able to place her.

It was Tamara- the female Guardian who had been part of the swat team called to the Badica house after the massacre. Just as I realised who she was, she recognised me as well.

"Rose Hathaway." Her voice was lighter than I remembered, alluding to what I imaged to be a perpetual undercurrent of humour that had been suspended in the midst of the tragedy. "I knew you were something special, but it didn't take long for you to exceed even those expectations."

I reached out and shook her proffered hand, responding to her firm grip with my own before she moved on to greet Dimitri in the same way.

"It's amazing what having a good mentor can do," I said, only half joking. Her mentor had been Arthur Schoenberg, and she'd seemed pretty torn up over his death. Not as torn up as some people at their mentor's death, of course...

Tamara's smile started off a little sad, but became more genuine as she looked up at Dimitri. "Then Guardian Belikov, congratulations are in order for training such a fine Guardian."

He placed a hand on my shoulder affectionately, but not in any way that should tip her off as to the nature of our relationship. "Most of the credit has to go to Rose. I just made sure she got out of bed in the morning to train."

"I think there was a bit more to it than that, Comrade. Don't tell me you're getting senile already."

"I was just trying to be nice. Next time, I'll take all the credit myself."

"Um, no. 50/50."

"Deal."

Tamara watched our exchange with a smile that grew wider with each exchanged word. "I knew it."

I focussed my attention back on her fully. "Hmm?"

"I've heard the rumours- all of them; in their varying degrees of stupidity. I knew which ones had truth in them. I could see what was happening between you two even at the Badica house." Dimitri and I froze. Busted already. Tamara grinned outright. "Yeah, that's what I thought! I noticed that you had feelings for each other, even if you were trying to hide it."

"Damn," I said. "You should have mentioned it at the time. You could have saved us a whole lot of stress."

Dimitri remained silent, probably trying to work out how the hell anyone managed to see though his 'nope not falling for my student' facade.

"Where's the fun in that? Besides, it seemed to work out alright in the end."

"Yes, eventually," Dimitri said dryly.

Tamara's smile dropped a fraction. "I heard what happened- at St Vladimir's, I mean. I didn't realise that you were involved until people started talking about your restoration, and then what happened after that..."

My hand strayed unconsciously to my engagement ring, which was hanging from my nazar chain to stop it from being seen or getting damaged.

"The Moroi love to talk," I mumbled.

She nodded sympathetically. "But hey, it worked out alright. You got your happy ending, and Dimitri found his sense of humour. I knew it had to be hiding in there somewhere."

"I had a sense of humour back then," Dimitri argued indignantly.

Tamara just winked before waving a goodbye and jogging off to grab someone else to talk to.

"Honey," I said quietly, "you also had a penis before we met. That doesn't mean that other people ever saw it."

The look on Dimitri's face was priceless. I wondered if I had time to get my phone out and snap a picture.

Sensing my train of thought, Dimitri made an unintelligible noise before doing the same as Tamara, and ditching me to go and talk to somebody else. I wasn't too offended since I'd heard the new guy talking Russian and figured they might know each other, and anyway, it meant I was able to laugh out loud.

"Now look what you've done," Eddie said from behind me. "You've scared him off."

I turned around, smirking. "Just practicing my mind games. I'm here to win this thing."

"Dimitri is truly a man of immeasurable courage to put up with you every day."

"Jealous?"

Eddie made a face. "I love you Rose, but I wouldn't be able to marry you. I value my life too much. You're just trouble," he laughed, something which I was really glad to see. When surrounded by other Guardians he usually tried so hard to be stoic and cold, but fun-loving, carefree Eddie just wasn't meant to be suppressed like that. Mason's death had taken its toll and changed him forever, but as time passed and life sorted itself out again, he was coming back to us. I supposed I had Mia to thank for that.

Not wanting him to see where my thoughts were going, I reached out and punched his arm not-so-lightly. "I wouldn't marry you either. You're gross."

"You're even more disgusting."

Up ahead, Hans called for order and the group fell quiet. "We're heading over to the campsite now, so keep up and don't wander off."

"It's like being on a school trip with Stan," I mumbled to Eddie. "Remember that time we almost gave him a heart attack for coming back to the group two hours late?"

He snorted. "I can't believe you couldn't tell 24 hour time."

"Neither could Stan," I joked. "I've never seen a shade of purple like that on a man since that day."

"I'd call it Furious Fuchsia," Eddie mused as we set off. Dimitri dropped back to walk with us, having finished his conversation with the other Russian-but-working-in-America Guardian.

"Who was that?" I asked. Knowing that I wasn't allowed to reach out and touch him just made me want to do it more.

Dimitri's face was relaxed for now, if a little less expressive than normal. "Maxim Pavlov. He graduated from St Basils a few years ahead of me."

"Damn. You really do know everyone," I said. I'd been about to make another comment, but the words dried up when I saw the huge wooden structure looming ahead of us.

Huge upright poles pointed over 40 feet into the sky, connected by platforms or ropes or ladders to the ground.

"Damn," I swore again. I was doing that a lot today. "Now that's what you call an assault course."

The silence of the others only added to the effect of my observation.

After the majestic prowess of the course, the 'campsite' was not at all what I had been hoping for. Peaceful Pines had spoiled me, it seemed, and I wasn't a major fan of camping in the first place.

This reminded me of a festival I had gone to with Lissa, but without the music or alcohol. 'Tents' were made of nothing more than huge tarpaulins stretched over two poles connected and by a rope through the middle, forming crude bivouacs. In the far corner of the field was a brick building I sincerely hoped wasn't the only toilet block.

Around me, the men didn't seem to share my view. They grinned and slapped each other on the shoulder in the male equivalent of a hand-clasping-squealing-jumping-fangirling-fit. Jake Reyes- Shane's older cousin- was even whooping with joy.

Dimitri was straight in there to help put up our tent, with Eddie following along behind in true Mini Dimitri style.

"Men," said a blessedly feminine voice to my right. "Why are they so keen on sleeping on the ground surrounded by nothing by flimsy plastic?"

I rolled my eyes by way of agreement. "I think it takes then back to their caveman roots. They get a kick they've been missing ever since they killed the last woolly mammoth."

Tamara laughed. "I think that us two will have to stick together for this trip."

I nodded, watching Jake get completely tangled up in a guy rope. Hans had to save him from being strangled, and ended up looking as though he wished he'd just let nature take its course.

"I think that is a very good idea."

With Dimitri's awesome Eagle Scout skills, the tent was up in under ten minutes. We didn't even have a chance to go inside before Hans dragged us back the way we came, towards the obstacle course. He was moaning on about how we were cutting it fine for timing, and was even more pissed off since this time he couldn't blame it on me.

He was all worked up for nothing, though, since we reached the huge crowd of people whilst they were still busy chatting amongst themselves. The mass of over 200 people was converged on a gently sloping hillside, which curved on either side to enclose the assault course and combat grounds. People were speaking many different languages, and all identified themselves with their nation by way of marked clothing.

Not all people on the same team were from the same country. The nations with high populations of Moroi had a lot of Guardians to choose from, but these countries tended to be the ones that had once held the Court. Before the US it had been in England, before that Russia, and before that Romania. As a result, those countries had their own Council representatives.

Other countries that were smaller and had less dense populations of Moroi shared a Council which moved between them each term. The middle Eastern Council was currently in Jordan, as far as I could tell from the flags on their shirts, and the African one in Morocco.

As a general rule, Moroi weren't found anywhere within the tropics. Their aversion to the sun made them naturally avoid it, but they had some strange inborn knowledge of exactly where not to move beyond. As soon as they crossed the 'imaginary' lines of the tropics, they became even weaker.

There were 12 Council blocks in all, and looking around, I managed to spot a shirt worn by people from ten of them. The Nordic and East-Asian Guardians must have got here earlier and ended up with the spaces nearer the front.

A shrill whistle came from speakers wedged between small rocks all around us. People immediately began to shout and cover the ears, but I just rolled my eyes.

"Seriously, when will people learn that piercing others' eardrums is not the way to get them to shut up?" I asked Dimitri over the clamour. "They'd be better off firing shots in the air like in your ridiculous movies."

"They're not ridiculous," he said indignantly. "They're classic entertainment."

"So was watching lions maul Romans to death, but people saw sense eventually."

"You can't compare westerns to gladiator fights."

"You're right. The coliseum is nothing compared to the torture of watching your movies."

He was about to fight back when there was another, louder whistle, and everyone finally fell silent. I smiled at my lucky victory, and stood on my toes to try and see over the heads of the tall people in front of me. I wished my mother was here so I wouldn't be the shortest Guardian in attendance.

"Esteemed Guardians," a deep, accented voice began. "The International Guardian Council welcomes you today for this prestigious Tournament. We hope that over the next two days you will compete to the best of your ability to do your local Council proud, and also take away some valuable lessons. The foremost purpose of this event is education; through establishing connections between Guardians from all over the world, we will establish a network of knowledge that will aid us greatly in our battle against the Strigoi."

Applause followed the speech, and the man addressing the crowd was thanked. I couldn't see anything. I wondered if jumping up to sit on Dimitri's shoulders would breach the terms of Hans' 'don't let anyone know you're involved' rule. Friends gave each other piggybacks, right?

A different man began to talk.

"Now that you have all had time to settle in, the Tournament must get underway if we are to finish in time for dinner." A collective chuckle ran through the crowd, but I didn't find it funny. Seriously, no way I was missing dinner. `"The Tournament will run as follows. First, you will complete an assault course under timed conditions in view of your peers. As this is an opportunity for learning and sharing skills, you may complete the course by any means possible, following the simple rules that you start at the start, finish at the finish, and may not touch the floor. If you do, you will be disqualified from this particular test. Tomorrow's itinerary will contain the additional two assessment methods: strength and condition testing, and a combat section. If you have any questions, come forward and speak to one of the International Council. Otherwise, please make your way over to the starting pen of the course."

The tide of people began to flow down the hill and towards the roped-in section of the field. Beside me, Dimitri's impassive mask was already in place, but the way in which he stared ahead told me he was thinking about something.

"What?" I asked, not needing to elaborate further.

"The highest of those obstacles," Dimitri said. "They're just high enough that if you fell from them, you could die. But they're not too high to mean certain death if you were to fall."

I looked back at the course with new respect- and apprehension.

"Wow. And they felt the need to specify that you're not supposed to touch the ground."

Dimitri turned to me, the slightest shadow of concern marring his otherwise battle-ready features.

"Please be careful, Roza. I don't doubt your skill in any way, but you can sometime be a little... accident prone."

I couldn't argue- after all, I had fallen from a second-floor window one time.

"I'll be fine," I said lightly, glad he didn't know about that particular incident. "You're forgetting how badass I am. Just make sure you don't fall and break something." I lowered my voice. "If you're wearing a cast for our wedding, I'll finish the job and kill you myself."

Despite my death threat, that wedding-induced smile fought through his Guardian mask. "I'll remember that. I'm sure we'll both be fine."

"Exactly," I agreed as Eddie caught us up. "How hard can it be?"

Very hard. That was how hard this could be.

I watched the man-mountain of a Guardian struggle across the Quad steps, I felt a seed of self-doubt begin to germinate in my mind. Our Qualifier was supposed to be the hardest challenge we ever faced in an arena, but this was a world away from that.

Man-mountain gave up on trying to push off from one board to another with using his legs, instead throwing himself at them and gripping the top of the triangular blocks. Finally he finished them and progressed to the monkey bars, where his insane upper-body strength helped propel him forwards.

We'd been here for about two hours already, and weren't even half way through the contestants yet. I wasn't bored yet, though. In addition to the fact that the sun was bright and the day got, watching people hurl themselves at seemingly impossible obstacles was quite entertaining, as the plethora of related TV shows demonstrated. A couple of Guardians had even fallen off, but fortunately not on the highest areas of the course. People weren't so cocky when they knew that one wrong step could result in their untimely death.

There was a running order showing on a digital board to the side of the entrance to the course, but the names were hard to make out in the blazing sunlight. Sitting down here in the shade of Dimitri's body wasn't too hot, but it would be torture when running around on the course.

"Drink?" Dimitri asked, offering me a water bottle.

I shook my head. "Not a chance." If I drank some, I'd want more, then I'd need to pee, and I refused to go in a hedge. People had been sneaking out to the tree-line and back for the last hour now as they lost the battle against their bladder. I was not going to squat in the woods when 200 men were walking around.

Dimitri shrugged and took a swig himself, and I watched with envy for a split second before making myself turn away. It was easier for guys. Nobody would judge them for disappearing for a minute to pee against a tree.

I was getting way too hung up on that. For a moment I wondered if I actually did have heatstroke or something, but was too far gone to notice.

Before I could ask Dimitri what the symptoms were, our names were called by the steward standing by the name display board.

"Belikov, Castile, Hathaway!"

We got up and entered the smaller roped-off area where the last of the Romanian Guardians was bouncing on the balls of his feet, rearing to be set loose on the course. To speed things up, two people were allowed on the course at any one time. When the first person reached the orange flag that marked the half way point, the next person could begin.

The Romanian Guardian shot off as soon as his colleague passed the flag, leaving Dimitri in the front.

I leaned past Eddie to offer some final words of wisdom.

"Remember Comrade; loser is doing the dishes until Labor Day."

He smirked down at me for a moment before turning back to the course. "I'm not sure why you sound so excited. There's only one way this is going to end."

"Yeah, with you elbow-deep in soap suds." The Romanian crossed the halfway point and Dimitri took off. I was about to call after him with a joke about rubber gloves, but watching his muscles flex under the tight fabric of his shirt made the words dry up in my mouth.

The first obstacle was a warped wall that curved inwards on itself, and with his height and speed he was up the slope and grabbing the top ledge without even breaking stride. Maybe I shouldn't have been so cocky.

Next came the cargo net, and I watched as Dimitri pulled himself up using immense upper-body strength.

Fighting with him always ignited some kind of primal passion deep within me, and even from afar I was acutely aware of his presence. Watching him now, it seemed that gap had been bridged. I couldn't take my eyes off his long, lean body as he powered forwards, muscles tense and concentration etched onto his features as though he had been carved from granite.

My fingers travelled to play with the ring suspended from the chain around my neck, and once again, I was almost knocked off balance by the sudden realisation that this man was so absolutely mine. He was a warrior, battling for the greater good and no stranger to taking hits in the process, but also kind and gentle and totally in love with me too.

Unlike the huge, heavy Guardian that had gone before, Dimitri crossed the Quad steps with ease. Striking out with one leg to kick off from one board, he cleared the obstacle in what seemed like one smooth, continuous movement.

The orange flag rippled as Dimitri's body swung past it, suspended by the steroid-junkie granddaddy of playground monkey bars. The gaps between the bars were large, and I wondered if my arms were actually long enough to allow me to traverse them like that. I mentally cursed my mother for passing on her short genes to me, but the complaints were half-hearted as my focus drifted back to Dimitri again before too long.

Some of the obstacles were more challenging, and required Dimitri to pause and slow down to traverse safely. His final sprint to the finish line was something I knew I wouldn't be able to keep pace with, so I knew I'd have to do something different if I wanted to save face and come close to winning this thing.

Even though he had finished his turn, I couldn't take my eyes off Dimitri. Someone passed him a water bottle as he began cool-down stretches, and-

"Hathaway!" I startled, eyes finding Hans waiting by the rope, face contorted in exasperation. "Hathaway, go!"

Eddie was just passing the orange flag, and I took off without a single glance back at my boss.

From now on, it was just me and the track. It wanted to give me hell? Fine. That had been my speciality for years.

So it was Tamara! Obscure, but someone I'd always hoped would return to the series at some point.

I'll leave this AN short as my computer is acting really weird right now and it's taking forever for text to show up.

Review and watch Dimitri work out in that tight shirt ;)