A/N: Hey all! So here is the next chapter as promised! Thank you all for your support through reviewing and favouriting/following this story! It's so bitter sweet that this story is about to come to an end in the next chapter, but it must!

So let's get on with the second last chapter!

Chapter Seventeen

THERE WAS NO WAY WE could let Zoe die, but the thought of letting go of my stake made me sick. Dimitri was the first to drop his, and I couldn't help but grimace as I threw my stake to the ground. Avery practically skipped with joy as she picked them up and handed them to the two Warriors standing behind her.

Except, they weren't Warriors I realised with dread, they were Guardians. And they weren't the only ones. About half the people who were currently circled around us were Guardians. But even though Avery had turned our own people against us, we were officially weapon-less, surrounded and probably dead-men walking, we weren't going down without a fight.

A sharp pain shot through my stomach, causing me to almost buckle over. Clenching my teeth, I managed to stay upright, but I knew I wouldn't be able to hold out much longer.

I just had to get through this one last fight, and then we'd be home free.

"Okay, they've dropped their weapons, now gives us back Zoe," Lissa jeered.

Avery giggled, her voice so high pitched I wanted to cover my ears.

"You're right Lissa, except it's not up to me is it? Zoe dear, what would you like to do?"

Zoe looked up at Avery and then back to us as she slowly rose off the ground. She began to stumble toward us, and Lissa pushed through Christian and me to rush forward and help her.

But Zoe stopped just before Lissa reached her, and stood up straight.

A smirk filled her face as she opened her mouth and hissed, "I would like nothing more than to see these devils rot in hell."

Lissa froze. I stepped forward to pull her back into our protective stance, but Christian bet me to it. I felt Lissa's whole body shake as she brushed passed so she could stand behind me, motionless.

"You were trying to split us up," Dimitri spat as he glared at Zoe.

Zoe raised her eyebrows, surprised. She was still practically a child, but it was clear that the innocence she was supposed to have, was gone. And having had the pleasure of meeting her Father, I knew why.

"Well, aren't you an observant one. Yes, my Father wanted me to somehow get you back on the Jet so they could blow it up with you inside. With you out of the way, it would have made this whole scenario much easier. I had it all planned out, right down to the last detail!" She sneered. "But you, Guardian Belikov couldn't help yourself! I thought the knowledge of Sydney and Adrian being at the air field would have been enough to get you on the Jet, but I guess I was wrong."

"What?" I gasped, as I turned around to face Dimitri. He averted my eyes and hung his head in shame. Christian and Lissa looked as shocked as I was.

I know I should have felt angry that he had abandoned his part of the mission, but I wasn't. As guilty as I felt for feeling that way, I was relieved that he did what he did, as it saved his life. We would find some other way to get Sydney and Adrian back. It wasn't all over yet.

"So," Zoe continued. "I think it's only fitting that the Queen is the first one to die, since she is the head of this whole operation."

My whole body tensed and burned with anger, momentarily relieving me of the pain coursing through my limbs. My eyes flickered around, analysing the whole situation, trying to figure out what our next move should be.

"This isn't an operation!" Lissa cried, breaking free from her shocked state. "It's a family unit! We are not monsters! The Stirgoi are, but not us! We've worked with the Alchemists for decades, and even though your people don't agree with our way of life, you've never shown or taken any violent action towards us. So what's changed?"

Every syllable of every word she spoke was filled with so much strength and power, that it took me a moment to realise that she didn't actually believe that she could reason with Zoe, she was just stalling. I looked back at Dimitri, who had snapped back to reality, and I could tell that his mind was working overtime to try and work out a plan too.

"We've never been on the Moroi's side. The only reason why we started working with you is so that we could learn how all three species operate. We needed this information to help us come up with a way to eliminate all Vampires. And once we figured it out, all we needed was the right opportunity to strike."

A way to eliminate all Vampires? What was Zoe talking about? And how did that involve us?

"We're still working on the implementation of our idea, but it won't be long until it's put in motion. So, all that needs doing until then is to break the Moroi's system and take out its strongest players." Her eyes flickered over our faces. "Simple strategy really, but a lot harder to put into practice as we've seen here today," Zoe stated matter-of-factly.

Well, that answered one of my questions, and confirmed our suspicions about why they wanted to attack Court. It also confirmed my reservations about them being a bunch of lunatics too.

"Why are you even helping them Avery?" Christian pointed out, unconsciously grabbing hold of Lissa's hand and drawing her closer to him. "They want all Vampires dead, including you."

Avery smirked.

"I made a deal with Zo Zo's father. If I helped them, they would allow me to live. But that's not even the best part!" She paused, her grin growing. "I was also promised that I would be able to bond with Lissa!"

Flames appeared from the corner of my eye.

"You're not getting anywhere near her!" Christian snarled as he held up a ball of fire in his hand.

Zoe stepped between us and Avery and held up her hands.

"He's right Avery, you're not. We don't make deals with the devil."

Before Avery could react, three Warriors pounced on her. One gaged her with a shredded piece of material, while the other two worked together to restrain her. I expected the Guardians under her compulsion to aid her, but it appeared that Avery needed to give a verbal command in order to control so many of them at once. Their eyes were still glazed over, which meant that they would only answer to Avery.

An idea sparked in my mind.

When Avery had finally stopped struggling, Zoe continued. "We need them all dead, so why would we let you bring anyone back?"

Time to test my theory.

"How could you? Your own sister has been captured by the same people who you share these ridiculous ideals with!" I shouted, taking a step forward. The six Warriors that surrounded us also took a step forward, but the Guardians stayed in the exact same position. I glanced behind me and locked eyes with Dimitri and Christian, who gave me a slight nod in understanding. With the four Guardians out of action, it gave us the chance we needed to make a break for it.

"Your existence goes against nature, the Alchemists and Warriors were created to restore balance by erasing you all. As for my sister, she will come back around to our ways, and will be the binding force that helps us to achieve our mission."

I wasn't sure what Sydney had to do with their mission, but I was fairly certain it involved the Alchemists using their original plan of brain washing Sydney, as that would be the only way to get her to "come back" to the Alchemists ways. I shuddered.

I took another step forward, and the Warriors once again shadowed my every movement. I didn't know if what I was about to try would work, but it beat the alternative.

"Wow, you guys certainly have it all figured out don't you?" I said mockingly, taking another step forward. "I mean, your plan is solid, pretty much fire proof."

Zoe glared at me, but was too confused to stop me. "I wonder if you guys are as fire proof as your plan?"

At my words, I spun around and shouted, "NOW!"

Christian's arms ignited with fire.

"GET ON THE GROUND!"

We all threw ourselves onto the grass as Christian spun around, sending streams of fire at the Warriors.

Screams filled the air as everyone around us collapsed to the ground, withering in agony. I looked around for Zoe, and spotted her tucked into a little ball on the ground, shaking. It appeared her confidence was just an act. She wasn't prepared for this.

Now was our chance.

Without a word, we all got to our feet and began racing towards the air field. I knew that we couldn't use our Jet, but there was a garage nearby that we'd be able to steal a car from.

Christian was drained after having used so much magic, and had to lean against Dimitri for support, but they were still a lot faster than me.

My pace began to slow, and my breathing shallowed as my heart began to give out.

Lissa slowed her steps to match mine, and glanced at me, her eyes filled with worry.

"I'm sorry Liss, I'm just exhausted from everything," I said, glad that it was still dark enough that she couldn't see the blood seeping through my clothes.

Another lie, but it couldn't be helped. There was no way that I was going to let her heal me in the midst of a fight. She needed her strength.

Lissa moved to wrap her arms around my waist to support me, but I moved away, knowing that she would discover my injury if she helped me. Confused, she opened her mouth to speak when someone rammed into my side, knocking the air out of me and sending me to the ground. I looked up to see a man wearing a black Guardian uniform. Avery stood behind him, gun in hand.

She held it up to Lissa and fired.

As I laid there bleeding on the ground, all I could do was watch as a stream of bullets headed towards my best friend.

It was like deja vu, except this time I couldn't move quick enough. I couldn't save her.

Her eyes closed, and a scream rippled through her body as she fell to the ground.

Tears ran down her face as she crawled to her knees and tried to shake Christian's still form awake.

During the whole commotion, the other three Guardians had started to attack Dimitri. He was unable to break free to help Lissa, but Christian was. Using all his energy, he rushed over to Lissa's side and pushed her out of the way from the bullets' path.

His unconscious body collapsed to the ground, blood pouring out from his chest. His skin was paler than I'd ever seen, and as Lissa bent over Christian, crying in agony, I knew he was dead.

But he didn't have to stay that way.

Lissa forced herself to sit upright, and placed her palms over Christian's chest.

"Kill her!" Avery screamed, throwing the now empty gun to the ground.

The Guardian who stood in front of me began to move toward Lissa.

Using all the strength I had left, I swung my body around so my legs tripped the man over, sending him crashing to the ground. I looked over to Lissa to find her sprawled across Christian's body. Using that much Spirit had caused her to faint, but from the rise and fall of Christian's chest, I knew it had worked.

I smiled.

"Get up and kill her already!" Avery demanded, kicking the Guardian who was sprawled across the grass next to me. He staggered to his feet, and I tried to get to mine, but Avery planted her boot onto my stomach to keep me grounded.

I withered in pain, and tried to knock her over, but the more I moved, the further she pushed the heel of her boot into my wounded stomach.

I turned my head to find that Dimitri had knocked the last Guardian he had been fighting unconscious, and was racing towards Lissa. But he wasn't going to make it in time.

The Guardian had reached Lissa, and bent down to pick her up.

Then everything went black.

I thought I had finally lost consciousness, but there was no relief of pain.

Avery screamed, and the feeling of her boot on my stomach vanished.

I could feel myself blinking, but no matter what I did, all I could see was darkness.

My body stiffened at the sound of footsteps, but relaxed at the feeling of Dimitri's hands on my face.

"Oh Roza… What have you done?" He mumbled. I could hear the pain in his voice, as his fingers softly travelled down my body to where the bullet was lodged in the side of my stomach.

"Dimitri, why can't I see?" I choked, my breathing heavy.

"Sydney! Can you reverse it?"

Sydney? She was here?

Someone else came and kneeled down beside me.

"No, but it will eventually fade. She was just in range of the spell, there was no way to not include her in it."

A spell? This was a spell…

"What's going on? Is Lissa okay? Where's Adrian?"

"It's a long story, but Lissa's fine. Eddie's with her and Christian right now. And Adrian's okay too, but he is still unconscious, so Jill and Angeline are with him," Sydney explained, her voice soft.

Eddie and the others were here? Nothing was making any sense…

My body began to spasm as I entered a coughing fit. I could taste blood in my mouth.

Dimitri and Sydney both held me down with their arms, and I knew what they were thinking.

"Why. Am I. Always. The one. Who… Ends up. On death road…?" I mumbled, trying to make my tone light.

"Because you never give me the chance to take the fall for you," Dimitri whispered, wrapping his hand in mine.

"Good," I breathed.

Then I stopped, and my whole body went into shock.

My limbs thrashed around, but I could no longer feel any pain.

"Roza, stay with me!" Dimitri hissed. "We have to get her some help!"

But Sydney stayed silent. She knew that were nothing anyone could do, not with both Lissa and Adrian out of action.

I could feel myself slipping away, but as I blinked my vision finally cleared and I was able to look into the deep, warm eyes of the man I loved. I wanted to tell him that he wasn't going to lose me and that I would fight for us, and everyone that I loved.

As I faded in and out of consciousness, Dimitri's eyes stayed locked with mine. He spoke with Sydney, but their words made no sense.

"No, we can't!"

"It's the only way! Do you want her to die?"

Dimitri's eyes flickered from Sydney to me, and back again, torn.

Then, my eyes slid shut, and darkness surrounded me.

"Roza!"

For a long time, there was nothing but blackness. There was no sense of time, or feeling, or anything.

Then, there was light.

A/N: Hmmmm... so Rose really, really has bad luck when it comes to guns! But will it be her undoing?
And what's the idea the Alchemists have formulated to get rid of all Vampires?

Any ideas on how this story is going to end? Anything you guys are hoping to happen? Let me know!

And for those wondering, the last chapter will be posted at the end of this week, either on the 23rd or the 24th! So not to worry Mina Luriya, you'll definitely be able to finish reading the story before the 1st of June! :)