"This is a stupid plan." Dimitri muttered beside me as we stood in a tight circle.

"Well, I didn't see anyone else trying to come up with a better one." I responded, but he kept grumbling. I rolled my eyes and looked around the circle at my friends, and family. It was weird thinking that I had a real blood-relative again. After Mom was killed, I didn't think that I would ever find my father or any aunt or uncle.

I knew Mom had a sister, Alberta, but I'd never met her, and I knew nothing about Abe's family. My friends had become my family, and I was alright with that.

"Are you sure about this, Rose? It's not too late to decide against this." Abe said for like the third time.

"I'm sure, Old Man. Unless you have a better plan?" I asked just a little hopeful. He shook his head and gave me an apologetic smile. "Alright, then let's do this."

We all joined hands. I was in between Dimitri and Abe. They both gave my hand an encouraging squeeze as I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I'd only used my teleportation three times: to get to Russia, to get back from Russia, and to get here.

With Dimitri's help, we'd decided to teleport into a larger city in Russia, scout the place, looking for signs that pointed toward a Guardian presence. If we located them, I would allow myself to get captured to find Victor's location. If I found him, I was to get out as quickly as possible, taking as many Projects as possible.

Once I'd come in contact with Victor, I'd have no problem finding him in the future. Needless to say, everyone thought my plan was stupid, but after hours of thinking, they couldn't come up with something better. So, we went with my plan.

"You have the place in mind?" I asked looking over at Dimitri lovingly. He brought my hand up to his lips, placing a soft kiss there.

"I do." He smiled as a shiver went down my spine.

"Later, Comrade. When we're alone."

"I can't wait, Roza." He smirked at me but quickly turned serious again.

"Alright, I'm ready. Let's do this." I said again. I let myself lock on to Dimitri's spirit. His presence next to me was overwhelming when I opened up to him. His senses overpowered mine and for a moment, I was him.

I dove into his memory. Suddenly, I was in a dark parking lot. The streetlamps that littered the lot were few and far between, leaving a lot of dark space. The memory was strong, though. Something eventful must have happened here for the memory to be this strong, but I wasn't about to ask him.

My mind started building the scene around us, letting the memory become real. I felt Dimitri stiffen beside me as the actual stimuli entered his senses. I squeezed his hand in reassurance, and he squeezed back.

When I was sure I was done, I opened my eyes. Adrian and Abe were looking around them with a bewildered look on their faces. Everyone else had experienced teleportation before, but in my opinion, it was still surreal every time I did it.

Dimitri kept hold of my hand as the rest of us released each other, moving toward the abandoned building in front of us.

"You're amazing, Roza." Dimitri whispered in my ear as we followed the others, lagging behind. I felt a blush creep onto my face.

"I love you, Dimitri."

"I love you, too, Roza." He pulled me to a stop and used the hand that wasn't tangled in mind to cup my face as he leaned down and pressed his lips lightly against mine. He pulled back to kiss the tip of my nose and then my forehead. I released a contented sigh to which he chuckled. "Promise me something."

"What?"

"Promise me that if something goes wrong, that you'll come back to me immediately. It doesn't matter if you've met Victor or not, if you aren't safe, come back to me." His eyes bore into mine intensely. It went against every fiber of my being to make such a promise, but I doubt that he would let me go if I didn't.

"I promise, Comrade. Don't worry, though, I'll be safe." He didn't look any less worried, in fact, he looked more worried. I really did mean it, though. I would come back if things weren't safe for me. I wasn't prepared to leave Dimitri, I doubt I ever would be. I could feel it in my soul that this man was my forever, and I planned on using every possible second of that forever.

He finally got over his worry enough to pull me the rest of the way to the building where the others were waiting for us. They'd already cleared a space for us to rest. We decide it best to sleep for the night and wait for daylight before wondering around an unfamiliar city. We hoped with a good night's sleep, things would go smoother.

Each couple had already curled up together. Abe and Adrian were both sitting and chatting more about the information that we had gathered. Dimitri laid down further from the group and pulled me down next to him. I felt Abe look over at us, but I didn't feel any malice toward Dimitri in the look. I felt the worry that radiated off every member of the group, but Abe's worry was for me and me alone.

Abe knew that Dimitri was the one that was going to get me through this without incident, and he respected that. Over the few hours of planning, I think he'd come to realize that Dimitri was in it for the long haul. I looked over at him and gave a reassuring smile, which he promptly returned.

I snuggled into Dimitri's chest, and his hand started stroking my hair. I fell asleep to the sound of his heartbeat.

When I awoke there was a feeling of dread that coursed through my body. I wasn't nervous about what I was about to have to do.

No. This was different. I sat up, careful not to wake the sleeping Russian next to me, and looked around. It was still dark outside, making it dark inside. I heard the wind howling, causing the building we were in to creek and moan.

After my eyes adjusted to the darkness I looked over to where the others were sleeping. I saw eight lumps on the ground in various positions. No one stirred as I quietly got to my feet. Something didn't feel right, and I was on edge. The windows of the building were covered in dirt and dust, the layer too thick and old to really be removed, but I wiped at the glass as well as I could to look outside.

The waxing moon shone overhead, illuminating the darkness just barely, but it was enough to see by. From what I could see of the parking lot, it was empty. The street that followed alongside the woods in front of me was deserted, but I felt eyes on me.

The dreadful sensation was still there and I couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen. I decided to split myself up and cover more ground. Not putting much thought into who came out, Rosie and Rosemarie were soon standing beside me. I put my finger to my lips indicating that they should remain quiet.

"What are we doing?" Rosemarie asked.

"Something's wrong, and I can't cover the entire building so we're going to split up. Each of you pick a direction and scout it, if anything is out of the ordinary, tell me right away."

"Should we wake someone up?" Rosie asked looking cautiously at the sleeping figures.

"I don't want to alarm them if it turns out to be nothing." I responded, though I would've felt better if Dimitri was awake, but again, I didn't want to wake him for nothing. Both of them nodded at me and picked a direction before soundlessly walking away. I turned and walked in the direction that they didn't pick, carefully edging my way around the sleeping masses. I hesitated as I moved past Dimitri but kept going anyway.

After clearing off the window, I peered out. This side of the building was backed against the woods. I squinted into the tree line, trying to make sense of the shadows that formed there. A movement to my right caught my eye. There was a figure moving slowly toward the building. It was trying to stick to the shadows, but the expanse between the trees and the building didn't provide cover for him.

With my suspicions confirmed, I ran back to the group and shook Dimitri awake.

"Comrade, there's someone outside!" Dimitri had been slowly working his way out of sleep but as soon as I told him that he was on his feet, pushing me behind him defensively.

"Abe!" Dimitri whisper-yelled in my father's direction. He, like Dimitri, was quick to his feet as we alerted him to an invader.

Rosie and Rosemarie quickly worked their way over to me and Dimitri. It didn't take long for Dimitri to become a little distracted by the three of us.

"Focus, Dimitri. How did someone find us?" He shook his head to clear his thoughts as Abe was making his way over to us. The three couples on the floor in front of us sat, alert and ready to take orders.

"I don't know. I do know that if it's just one person they're probably just scouting the area. How long do you think you could cloak us?" He asked looking over his shoulder at me. I pressed my body closer to his, drawing more strength from him.

"I'm not sure, but probably for a while. It would be easier if we were in a tighter group, though." I said looking around the space that separated all of us. Without being told, my friends got up and moved to where Dimitri, Abe and myselves were standing.

We huddled together and I focused on cloaking us, and just in time too. As soon as I'd place the shield, the door at the back of the building creaked open allowing some of the moonlight to shine through. The silhouette of a man stood in the doorway. On his shoulder was a bird.

"Why is a pirate looking for you guys?" Rosie asked sarcastically and I fought back a laugh.

"Abe?!" The figure in the doorway said. Abe moved slightly out of the group huddle, squinting his eyes at the figure across the room.

"Pavel?" He asked. If the figure was in fact Pavel, he looked around the room trying to find the source of the voice, but since I had Abe cloaked, he didn't find it.

"Abe? Where are you?" Abe turned back to me and nodded with a smile. I dropped the veil and allowed us to be seen.

Dimitri still had me pushed behind him, unsure whether to trust the new stranger.

"Pavel? What are you doing here? How did you find us?"

"Yeva sent me, said that you could use some extra force. This one begged to come along, and it wasn't like I could stop her." He said motioning toward the bird on his shoulder. The bird gave an annoyed screech and flew off his shoulder before landing a few feet away.

Before my eyes, the bird turned into a girl. The girl had brown hair and brown eyes. She was slightly taller than me, but she looked familiar.

"Vika?" Dimitri said from in front of me.

"Hey, Dimitri. Long time, no see." She said with a smirk.

"Vika, what are you doing here?"

"I'm here to help. Babushka said the you could use all the help you could get." She responded. "So, here I am." Dimitri fell silent and continued to look at the girl in front of him.

I peeked out from behind Dimitri. Abe and Pavel were chatting animatedly, and the girl, Viktoria, was looking between Dimitri and the two other me's. There was a confused look on her face as she was trying to piece together what was standing before her. Dimitri pulled himself out of wherever he had been and moved from in front of me.

"Viktoria, this is my Roza. She's Spirited also, very powerful. These are her alter egos, Rosie and Rosemarie." Each waved to Viktoria in turn but stayed silent, taking in the newcomers. "Roza, this is my sister Viktoria."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Viktoria." I waved at her. She came rushing over and engulfed me in a tight hug.

"I'm so glad to finally meet you, Roza. Please, call me Vika." I returned her hug and when I pulled back, Vika had a huge smile on her face, and I couldn't help but smile back.

"Alright, all." Abe's voice brought us back to the situation at hand. "Pavel just informed me that he knows where the compound is near here. There have been confirmed sights of Victor, so we're going to move on to the next part of the plan."

I felt Dimitri stiffen beside me. The next part of the plan meant that I was going in alone. Dimitri couldn't go with me and he was having a hard time with that.

"It's going to be alright, Comrade. I'll be fine." And for his sake, I hope I was right.