Hehe, first to review this gets a cookie.. XD

It was a gorgeous day in Paris. The sun was shining; the birds were singing a joyous tune as a slight breeze came through the air. The flowers had all opened, filling the air with such an aroma. It was sweet and surrounded everything. Outside was pure bliss; especially compared to the growing tension inside.

The amount of stress kept rising as Marie, Sophie, and Vlad awaited news from St. Petersburg. Each was more nervous than the next. It had been two days since they had last sent word and still no reply had come to reassure them of the best or worst.

"Oh, I do hope Anastasia and Dimitri are safe." Sophie had wiped her soft handkerchief across her eyes as to prevent the tears from flowing down her cheeks. She glanced over to the Dowager Empress, better known as "Marie" to her. "You all right?"

The Empress took a minute; her bright blue eyes were ever focused on the elegant flowers outside. But Sophie and Vlad both knew her attention was not upon the lightly swaying Roses or Tulips, but sending a silent prayer to her beloved Anastasia and her grandson in law, Dimitri.

"Fine Sophie." Her response was half distant sounding like a child in class being asked if they did their homework, not really wanting to respond but having to come up with something. "Come," she had finally turned to face them. "let us check the postage to see if there is yet a reply."

With haste the three of them made their way down the long shiny marble halls to the front desk sitting nearly right in front of the entrance. "Your Majesty, Mr. Vladimir, Ms. Sophie. Greetings to you all." He bowed very low before returning to his straightened stance.

"Is there by chance any mail from St. Petersburg today?" Marie asked not letting a bit of tension conquer her voice. The man gave another bow and handed her a fistful of mail. She knew a lot of people in St. Petersburg but she was searching for a specific piece of paper. There it was in amongst the other manila envelopes was a light blue one. Its silvery curvy writing was addressed to her but there was no return address noted.

Soon Vlad, Sophie, and she were inside the privacy of the drawing room and Sophie had managed to locate a letter opener. She slid it gently along the siding, just enough to make a small slit. Then she reached into it and pulled out the letter, but along with it fell out a small piece of material. Vlad picked it off the ground gently. It's smooth consistency meant it must be silk or satin. It was a light shade of purple, an almost Lilac color. All three looked at eachother in confusion as Sophie read the letter to them.

"When I came upon the scene of their apartment, I found that the door must have been forced open due to the splintering sides. There must have been a great struggle between the man and them as there are still many indents left within the carpet, as also a broken coffee table remains on the floor."

Sophie looked up at Marie and Vlad. She still wasn't quite sure as to why he had sent a piece of purple material that had obviously been torn off some form of clothing. Just then she remembered what it belonged to. "That piece of material is off the dress I bought for Anya the first time she came to Paris!" Vlad and Marie turned back to the cloth he held. There was no blood or hairs, just the fact that it was torn and becoming slowly unraveled; unlike this mystery.

"My guess is that they somehow managed to throw the attacker before escaping down the drainpipe."

Vlad smiled. "Probably Dimitri's idea." He was instantly reminded of the time he had been raising Dimitri after the siege of the palace and the Romanov's being assassinated. He had told Dimitri that he could not leave his room only to watch him scale down the drainpipe and give chase to him.

"So what do we do now?" Sophie asked as she and Vlad turned to look at the Dowager.

"Nothing." Before Vlad and Sophie could respond and protest she added. "If one of us travled to St. Petersburg to try and find them it would only make them suspicious as to why we were."

Vlad sat down upon the couch gently. He massaged his temples on his head with his fingers. There was nothing he could do to help Anya and Dimitri. They all felt like they were trapped. Not one of them spoke a word until the large clock in the hall chimed; signaling that time had passed and was continuing no matter what had come into the light of this situation.

"Come now," Marie had risen to her feet. "It's tea time. We must press on with our normal schedule like usual." Sophie and Vlad admired Marie. She was not going to go into fetal position. She knew that they must remain unfazed by all of this otherwise the public may get suspicious. Plus there was no way she was going to miss out on a steaming nice cup of herbal tea.

Anya and Dimitri were traveling southeast ward out of St. Petersburg and were almost to a rather small town just on the border between Russia and Latvia. They had climbed aboard a large supply truck that thank goodness had heating in the back of it. In amongst all the other things it seemed to be carrying they found a large amount of rubles and even some food. Dimitri was constantly shaking his foot and trying so hard to keep his eyes open. The dart that had penetrated his leg back at Emily's house must have a large amount of muscle relaxant and sedative-hypnotics. He could tell that they must have loaded them with a bit of it since his eyes had begun to droop. He felt almost like sleeping where he stood.

"Can you move your leg at all?" Anya asked glancing over at him. She sighed, he looked like he was about to drop dead in front of her. "This is all my fault." Anya muttered in a low tone to herself.

"What? No it isn't. I should have moved much quicker." Dimitri chuckled. "This doesn't even match the slap you gave me in the opera house. That hurt deeper than this ever could." He had put his arm around her. "Why did you put your hair back to that scruffy little dog kinda look?" He now noticed that her hair had been pulled up and was rather messy, she looked just like her old self.

"I figured that they probably didn't know what I looked like before I met my Grandmama and it could help me keep all this hair out of my way if need be I have to move quick." She smiled at him. "Oh, Dimitri." Her hand ran through his hair pushing it out of his face. "I guess you didn't expect this when you married me?"

"Nope, but when you marry a Romanov I guess you end up getting the adventure of a lifetime." He softly kissed her lips and ran his fingers gently down her face. "I don't ever regret it either." He reassured her.

Soon he and Anya had come to some sort of stop. They both peeked out the back before jumping out and running off. They soon came upon a sign: "Welcome to Pskov. Land of the border."

Finally they had spotted some sort of inn. It seemed safe enough. There were no police patrolling the streets or signs that shown their pictures. He and Anya made their way inside the cozy little place. Once inside they saw a rather burly looking Russian man sitting behind the counter. He had the radio on and it was playing faintly with soft music, like a waltz. The walls had lovely painted pictures on them. Some of summer time with flowers, and others of winter with a horse drawn sleigh.

"May I help you?" The man asked in a rather low relaxed voice. He seemed pretty friendly since he was smiling at them both. "Your husband looks rather tired." He noted as Dimitri had shaken himself awake yet again.

"Yes, could was please have a room for the night?" Anya got out some of the rubles they had lifted from the truck earlier. She had promised that one day she would find that man again and repay him, but for now it was desperate and vital for them. She paid the man the amount of rubles he requested and then the man led them to their room, he was rather surprised they were traveling with no suitcases not even one bag. Well, besides the small purse-like thing Emily had given to her well. She kept the rubles inside along with her Grandmama's music box. The necklace she wore underneath her dress, since they would be able to tell it immediately.

Once inside they just both fell down on the bed next to each other. They're feet stung from all the walking and they both still were hungry and tired from their practically nerve-racking ride over to here. "Well, I guess were finally getting that vacation." Anya said looking up at the ceiling.

Dimitri burst out laughing; she soon followed with some slight chuckles. They both remembered that they were planning to take a good week or two and go somewhere else and just relax. As if that would be happening any time too soon. Finally she rolled over to Dimitri's side.

"Are you feeling okay?" she asked watching him with curious eyes.

"Yeah, just tired that's all." Dimitri soon locked eyes with her. "Anya?"

"Yes?" she could tell he was being quite serious at this moment.

"If they show up and I am fully asleep I want you to run and not look back, no matter what. These drugs that were in this dart, I'm not sure what they are exactly but I know they are enough to knock someone out. I'll be as useless as a lead weight to ya if they succeed in their mission." He took her hand. "Will you promise me that if you need to run and I can't make it you will keep running?"

Anya was on the verge of tears, she could feel them brimming at the corner of her eye ducts. She turned away from him and sat up; her back was now facing him. "I can't..." was all he could make out from her sobbing. He sat up right next to her; she still turned her head from meeting his eyes. He finally took her soft chin in his hand and made sure her blue eyes met his.

"You have to promise me Anya." She wanted so desperately to divert her eyesight somewhere else but Dimitri's stare just wasn't easy to break. "Please?"

"Yes.. I will. I p-promise.." she managed to get out. He wrapped his arms around her allowing her to bury her face into his chest. He lovingly massaged her back as she held onto him like a little girl. He could remember the night he had saved her from jumping off the side of the Tasha, the ship she, he, and Vlad were traveling on. In order to get to Paris. Thank god they didn't need any papers to travel upon the ship. He had found her out on the rail one foot off the boat. If it hadn't had been for him she probably would have drown before anyone knew about her disappearance. The way she clung to him that night was the way she was right now. He knew she was scared and he was scared too.

"Any reports on the whereabouts of those two?"

The men who had been after them for the past couple of days were sitting inside a damply lit room at some kind of bar. Each one had a drink next to him, probably of Vodka or something other. The air inside the place was thick with smoke and the smell of alcohol. There was only one other person besides them in the place. He was a rather tall man with jet black hair. He wore a very nice suit with many buttons on the front. He was smoking a rather expensive looking cigar.

"So why did I get this call so late again. I mean we are friends Edven, but this is a little late for a friendly chat. Even if you did buy me my signature drink." The man spoke with a certain arrogance, as if he was the best at everything or something.

"Trust me this isn't a visit. I have a mission for you." The man's head arched up slightly.

"I'm listening." He knew it would entail money for himself.

"Well, what do you know about Anastasia Romanov?" Edven asked with a slight grin creeping at the side of his face.

"Um, ain't she that lost Grand princess or something? Heir to the Romanov throne?" The man answered wondering why they would possibly be talking about a girl the world hadn't seen for near twelve years now.

"Yes, she is. But she refuses to take the throne and her rightful place." Just then the man slid a pic of Anya and Dimitri over to him. "That my good sir is Anastasia. She goes by Anya now. Oh, and the man next to her is her beloved husband and the boy who snuck her out of the palace during the siege."

"And what do you want me to do about all of this?" the man knew perfectly well what his friend was going to ask.

"You must go and capture them. Watch out for the girl, she may look very delicate but she kicks and punches like a regular street fighter. You cannot kill them though." He pushed a rather large case to the guy. "These dart right here have enough power to shut someone down, if two hit them each. You won't have any problem, but you gotta make sure they cannot pull them out too quick. I think that's where we made a mistake and they got away." Edven finished.

"Don't worry, I'll have the Princess and her "prince" back to you in the time it takes to spend a ruble.

Ooh, boy.. poor Anya and Dimitri have like a trained Assassin coming after them.. please R and R..