The train sways and rattles, rocking it's occupants to a deep sleep. I, however, was unable to rest; I was wide awake, burdened with thoughts.

Dimitri is awake as well, but he, at least, has an excuse: guarding the door from strigoi. He sits on his bottom 'bunk,' while I watch him from my space on the top, across from him. Adrian snores softly above Dimitri, and probably hasn't moved in about three or four hours.

I am starting to see why I had dated him, because apparently I had. He was sweet, very sweet, and obviously cared about me. But I knew that my heart was still Dimitri's, and, hell, until my love fades, it would continue to be.

Using whatever ninja-skills I could muster at one in the morning, I slip out of my bed, my toes catching the edge of the bottom bunk, and I creep along the wooden piece. The room is small, and I am able to reach over with my leg and touch the other side, and I swing myself over.

Dimitri is hunched on his own bed, head buried in his hands, shoulders curved.

"Dimitri," I whisper, and run my hands up his spine, a soft massage. But he jerks away quickly.

"Don't," he hisses, his eyes flicking towards a sleeping Adrian.

I growl. "What? Why do you keep pulling away from me? I thought we'd been over this! I thought-"

"You thought wrong!" he whispers harshly. "Yes, Rose, I appreciate how I was able to discuss this with you. But you know. Just like you knew before. The reasons didn't change, Rose. You changed. You forgot. But I can't be with you, and that's final."

I feel tears spring to my eyes. "But you protected me. When the Guardians came to arrest me, you defended me. You wouldn't let them take me. You-"

"You shouldn't remember that! How do you remember that? Are you lying? Is this some attempt to manipulate me? By pretending that you don't remember the past year? To try to make me believe that you're completely innocent and harmless? Well, it's not going to work! I'm not falling for it, Rose." His voice is dangerously loud for the night, although his voice is barely above a whisper.

I choke on my own sorrow, trying to get the words out. "No," I whisper. "I'm not trying... I'm not trying anything. I know because Adrian told me. He told me about what happened when they came to arrest me. I'm not trying to trick you into anything, Dimitri. I'm not lying to you." The accusation tastes bitter, and tears dampen my lashes.

Dimitri's face softens. "Oh, Rose, I'm so-"

"Save it," I hiss, and try to push past him. This small room suddenly seems too cramped.

"No, Rose." He grabs my arms and pulls be back into the room. Although I struggle, he holds me tightly.

"Let me go!"

"It's too dangerous for you to be out there by yourself. I'm not risking-"

I cry out in frustration, finally waking Adrian. "Hey," he says sleepily. But he rapidly forces himself awake.

"Hey, let go of her!" He jumps down from his bunk and slips in between us. "What the hell are you trying to do to her, Belikov?"

Dimitri looks taken aback by an accusation of his own. "Wha- Nothing! No, I- We had an argument. I wasn't- I wasn't going to hurt her. I was trying to protect her. I-"

I sigh. "Adrian, he wasn't trying to hurt me. It's alright, it was a stupid fight."

But Adrian's eyes never leave Dimitri. He stares him down, before gently touching my shoulder. "Go to bed, Rose. I'll make sure you fall asleep alright."

I nod, but watch the horror in Dimitri's eyes at what Adrian was even suggesting.

My ex-boyfriend sits on the side of my bed, his eyes never landing on me for more than several seconds. He is too busy guarding me.

From the guardian.

...

The screech of wheels come at a god-forsaken hour, and screams sound like they come from the room beside ours.

Dimitri is instantly up. Despite training his entire life for the one purpose of protecting the Moroi, he grabs me first.

I am only kneeling on my bed when he appears in front of me. His palms go to my hips, and I can only grab quickly onto his shoulders before he pulls me off of the bunk. He hasn't trained in months, but he easily carries me across the room and sets me on the ground, motioning for me to get on the floor, before grabbing Adrian by the shirt and shoving him down.

The train jerks violently, and Dimtiri is thrown off balance. He falls roughly onto the floor, grunting from the impact.

"Dimitri!" I scream over the commotion. He slides on his stomach over to me, before forcing me down. He hovers over me, pressed against my back, and shields my head.

The locomotive rocks dangerously to one side, and sickening screams echo through the vehicle.

I whimper in fear, but Dimitri grabs one of my hands, and Adrian holds the other. "It's happening," Dimitri murmurs in my ear. Whether I was meant to hear that, I'll never know. "The strigoi. They've targeted the train."

With a scream of anger, the entire machine rocks heavily once more, before the whole thing crashes to it's side.

The three of us slide across the wooden floor, Adrian ending up under the bed. I narrowly avoid hitting my head on the frame, but Dimitri smashes his back against the leg of the bunk. He cries out, just as the train begins to shake again.

Dimitri, fighting against the shuddering vehicle, manages to stand up. He grabs my hand, along with Adrian's wrist, and throws us upwards, where we cling to the other bunk. The door is now over our heads, as the train has fallen horizontally, and Dimitri is forced to jump for the door. Barely able to grip onto either side of the door frame, he manages to open it. It swings violently downwards, and slams against my left shoulder.

I scream, more scared than in pain.

"Rose!" Dimitri yells against the moaning of the train. He climbs into the doorframe and pulls himself up and through, reaching back down to grab my hand. With both of his hands, he grips one of mine, holding onto mine tightly, pulling me through and setting me down, before grabbing Adrian.

The halls were tall and narrow, but now, turned on it's side, the floor and ceiling are on either side of us, the short, narrow walls forcing us to crawl down the corridor, manuvering around wall lamps.

We are forced to jump over other doors which line the "floor" like crevices, and I follow Dimitri loyally. But one violent jerk of the train causes me to fall through one of the doors, into an empty room. I scream and scramble, reaching for whatever I can grab.

That, unfortunately, is Dimitri's ankle.

I fall through, dragging Dimitri with me. As soon as the cold air hits me, I know the window's open below me. I can just imagine myself, falling into the small square, the metal train sliding over top of me, breaking every bone in my body.

But, at the last second, Dimitri grabs onto the side of the door.

He looks down at me, clinging desperately to his ankle. "Roza, hold on. Please, don't let go."

Slowly, so slowly, he pulls himself up, like the chin ups he always made me do in practice. Luckily, he didn't strap an extra hundred-and-twenty pounds onto one of my ankles.

But he pulls both of us up, into the hall, where Adrian quickly assesses me before all three of us set off again. When we reach the end of the hallway, Dimitri throws open the door, and we are swept with a wave of frigid air.

Dimitri squeezes through the horizontal door first, and I follow.

At this point, I am sure that I will die. I could handle strigoi. But when hundreds of tons of metal came upon me, I couldn't fight that. Dimitri is straddling the space between the train cars, one foot on either doorframe, his hair being tossed in the violent wind.

"Roza," he calls to me, reaching towards me with both hands. "You're going to have to jump."

I hesitate, staring down at the snow that is swept under the sliding train. But I climb into his arms, and he guides both of my feet to the edges. The rims are icy, but he holds tightly onto me. My hair is blown backwards, snowflakes piercing my skin.

But through the dark night and swirling flakes, I can see the edge on an enormous cliff, dropping off into certain death.

"Dimitri!" I scream, panic gripping my bones.

"Trust me," he says into my ear, his hands firmly on my hips. And in that moment, I do trust him. I'd trust him with my life.

I have to.

He lifts me up, half-throwing me onto the side of the train, which is now the top; windows line the wall.

I cling to the metal, praying that my fingers, numb from the cold, do not lead me to an icy grave.

Adrian soon joins me, and we both help Dimitri up onto the side with us. The force of the wind is incredible, almost sweeping me off into the snow.

The wind whips around all of us, tugging viciously at our clothing. Dimitri's long coat is thrown into the air.

"We have to jump!" Dimitri yells to both of us. We are all on our hands and knees, peering over the edge of the train. Jumping from this side would mean landing in the snow. Unfortunately, there was a very real possibility of breaking our necks at the speed we travelled.

But, our only other options were to jump off of the other side, or stay on the train, either getting crushed underneath it or sliding off the side of the mountain.

So, I grip Adrian's hand tightly in one of my own hands. The last thing I want my last memory to be is of Dimitri rejecting me, so I stay still. That is until, he makes a move.

He holds out his hand, palm lifted upwards.

"Roza," he says. "Please."

Without hesitation, I grab onto Dimitri's hand with my other; a solid chain. He kisses my knuckles before perching further towards the edge.

"One!" he calls out, screaming over the hissing wind. "Two!" I grip each man's hand with all that I have.

I glance over at Dimitri, trying to make it quick, unnoticable, but see that he's watching me as he speaks. His hand tightens around mine, a hard, solid squeeze.

"Three."

We jump.

The impact is jarring, to say the least, as we all smash against the ground. We tumble through the snow, sliding and rolling, head over heels.

In only a second, I realize that we might not be able to slow down. We might tumble off of the cliff, following the train.

Someone, someone on one side of me, manages to grab onto something. A rock, a root, I am unaware. All I can feel is the sudden and horrible hault. Whiplash strikes through my body, and I am tossed like a ragdoll.

But my arm is violently pulled. And one hand, one of the hands in mine, is torn away from me, ripped out of mine.

I have lost him.

But whom, I do not know.

Oh know! Was it Adrian, or Dimitri?

Please, no critical comments about the plot of my story! Don't give up on me yet, you know I have a plan!

I originally had planned for this chapter to involve a robbery on board, but decided that wasn't enough action, and the aftermath would have to be far too stretched out. So, here you are! The better of two plots.

I hope that I described this scene well enough to explain what's going on. The train tipped off of the tracks and fell onto it's side.