When Rose is shot by Tasha Ozera in Last Sacrifice, both Lissa and Adrian use all of the Spirit they can wield to try and bring her back. In a shocking turn of events, Rose is not only healed, but somehow ends up somewhere she never could have imagined. Canon up until Time-Travel. Rated T for language. First multi-chapter fic.

Shock and disgust showed on almost everyone's faces as we stared at Lissa's bed. There was a fox on the pillow. Its coat was reddish-orange, tinged in white. It looked so soft and cuddly that it could have been a pet, perhaps a cat, something you'd hold in your arms and snuggle with. Aside from the fact that its throat had been slit. The inside of the throat looked pink and jellylike. Blood stained that soft coat and had run down onto the yellow bedspread, forming a dark pool that spread across the fabric. The fox's eyes stared upward, glazed, over with a sort of shocked look about them, like the fox couldn't believe this was happening.

Vampire Academy

- Richelle Mead

Bonds Of Time

Chapter Six

Leave My Body

The dark fog was closing in on me again, and from it's depths I could see a shape form. The woman's features became clearer and more defined by the second. It was Anna. She stood there in front of me with a small smile on her face as the fog crept closer and closer to me. I wanted to move but my feet were frozen in place as the darkness washed over me, consuming me and pulling me under. I put my hands over my ears and screamed in panic while my whole body began to shake with the intense pain and sadness that flooded my senses and threatened to drown me. And then it was gone and I woke up. Left with nothing but extreme vertigo and nausea that had me throwing my guts up all over the floor.

The water was far too hot, but I didn't have the will to turn it down. I stood under the boiling spray and tried to wash away the feeling of dark things crawling and touching me. My hands shook as I grabbed the towel off the bar and climbed back out of the shower stall.

There wouldn't be any running today. It had taken almost all of my energy to walk from the dorms to the gym, and by the time I sat down on the bleachers, my face was soaked in a sweat even though it was cold enough to snow outside. I wiped my forehead with the sleeve of my shirt and put my head in my hands to keep myself from passing out. I stared down at the floor beneath my feet and tried to distract myself from the awful feeling.

Three weeks had past since the last time I spoke to Adrian. Much to my dismay I missed him and constantly worried about him.

But life went on.

I kept up with my normal routine of running while everyone else slept comfortably in their beds. Well, everyone but Dimitri. He was a constant and comforting presence. We didn't always speak and there were times when he was strict to the point of driving me mad. But he was there. He was whole and content and I was glad to simply have him in my life, even at a distance.

Then there was Natalie. She was always around. Always watching. She always had an opinion about everything that Lissa and I spoke about. Natalie spoke nonstop about her father during the short spans of time during meals that I was able to talk to Lissa and my other friends. Where in my dream, I had saw this as kind of endearing it now grated on my nerves. She hadn't tried anything else and that only made me more nervous. Especially when I knew that she was in Lissa's room and her father had unlimited access to the campus. I didn't want to hate the small lonely girl, but I couldn't let myself lose sight of what she could possibly do.

Lissa and Christian's budding relationship was taking off like never before. It had gone from cautious flirting to publicly dating and the rumor mill was going crazy with theories. But Lissa was happier than ever before, and that made me freakin' ecstatic.

My workload was getting lighter though. With each passing day I completed more past due homework while keeping up with the inflow of new homework. It felt good to be in control of one aspect of my life and I wasn't going to let that go. I was just glad that it was Saturday and there would be two whole days free from classes.

"Rose?" Dimitri caught me off guard and I almost fell out of my seat.

"Yeah?" I tried to look up at him, but the lights behind him made my head spin even worse.

"Rose, your bleeding." He said suddenly concerned.

I could hear him walking toward me and looked down to find what he was talking about only to see that there was a small puddle of blood at my feet and blood covering my arms and thighs. I wiped a hand across my face and found that it was coming from my nose.

"Fuck!" I hissed, putting my sleeve over my nose to keep from making an even bigger mess.

I stood up and went to go get some towels when Dimitri caught me by the arm. My feet went out from underneath me and I fell backwards, landing heavily on the sparring mat.

"What did you do to yourself?" Dimitri hissed, kneeling down next to me.

"Walked here?" I grimaced and shielded my eyes from the light. "I don't know. Just fucking kill me now."

"Have you hit your head?" Dimitri asked seriously, prying my hands away from my face. "Have you taken any kind of drugs or medications?"

"I wish, to all three of those choices." I waved a hand in the air. "And no to all three, unfortunately."

"This is nothing to joke about, Rose." Dimitri leaned over stared into my eyes as though he was searching for answers hidden there.

I was covered in muck and gore, not to mention I felt like I had the shit kicked out of me, but there was one hot Russian man hovering over me. His face less than a foot away and he was cradling my head in his lap. And all I could think about was wanting his lips on mine.

But then he popped my little bubble of happiness by asking a question I didn't want to answer. "When was the last time you slept, Rose?"

My mind drifted over the weeks spent night and day either training or doing homework. There were many days that I stopped studying to run and by the time I returned I barely had time to take a shower and get ready for class. The times I had slept were filled with nightmares of Strigoi, darkness and death. It only made me regret falling asleep in the first place. But every night I still tried to take at least an hour nap to see if Adrian would want to contact me. And he hadn't.

"Don't lie to me." Dimitri must have saw my pained expression. "When was the last time you slept for a full night?"

"A few weeks." I whispered and covered my eyes back up. "I've been a bit busy trying to catch up in classes and stuff."

"That is no excuse for jeopardizing your health." Dimitri growled in irritation and it made my own temper flare up.

"You know what?" I sat up far too quickly and then stood, stumbling slightly, leaving Dimitri sitting on the mat. "I'm trying my damned best to meet everybody's demands in this fucking place. And every time I turn around its; 'You're doing this wrong, Hathaway.' 'You're a danger to the princess, Hathaway.' 'You're not allowed to breathe, Hathaway.' And that's just from the instructors. No one will dare even speak to me in fear of the consequences they'll face. I spend night and day training or in class. I've been on my best behavior and have held my tongue when being bitched at when all I want to do is tell them to shove their rules and this school straight up their ass. But I stay because of Lissa. She's worth all of this bullshit. I get that I fucked up by leaving with her, but at least out there we were bothsafe and happy."

I swayed on my feet but was able to stumble over to the locker to get some towels. It wasn't an easy task, because my nose failed to stop bleeding and the room was spinning faster and faster as each moment passed. Dimitri didn't say a word as I cleaned up the mess, but I could still feel him in the room. He was staying close and I didn't know why. I thought he would leave after my little rant of self-pity, but he had stayed. He wasn't going to leave me.

My last conscious moments were of the world tilting on it's axis and Dimitri being there like my own personal Apollo to hold me up. I felt his arms wrap around me in a tight embrace.

"You're going to be okay, Roza," he said softly, gently carrying me out of the gym, "I'll make sure of it."

I woke up to the dim lighting in the clinic. Dimitri was sitting in a chair by my bed, totally engrossed in the book he was reading while the nurse was across the room typing something on her computer.

"Not here, comrade," I groaned and rolled over onto my side so that I was facing Dimitri, "you could have taken me anywhere but here and I would have been happy."

Dimitri's eyes met mine and I swear I could see him thinking about it. Or maybe it was the drugs. Yeah, apparently I was on some nice little cocktail at the time. According to the little baggy hanging from the IV drip, I was on something I couldn't pronounce, that made me want to blurt out every bit of nonsense that came to mind and I proved that for a fact when the doc walked in.

"Who's my favorite doctor?" I smiled at her.

"Well, you certainly visit me more than anyone else." Dr. Olendzki tilted her head to the side and stared at the little screen that told her my vitals.

"So am I dying or some shit?" I sat up and put my chin on my knees as I stared at the squiggly lines.

"Far from it." The doctor laughed as she looked at me with an amused expression. "You're as healthy as can be. Just sleep deprived and dehydrated. But I think we've fixed that."

"Darn," I whispered in disappointment, "I was hoping to retire to Hawaii."

"Well, I don't know about Hawaii, but you are free to leave when you feel up to it." Her tone turned serious. "I'll be giving you some medicine to help you sleep. And you better take it or you'll end up back in here, missy."

"Okay," I crossed my fingers, paying more attention to Dimitri as he walked out of the room.

I began plucking wires away and yanked the IV from my arm before anyone could stop me. Blood trickled down my arm and I quickly staunched it with my shirt. "Oops."

The nurse rolled her eyes and huffed in irritation as she handed me a cotton ball and bandage. Because I was so coordinated at that moment, it only took me three tries to find the right spot. I was putting my shoes on when I overheard the doctor talking to Dimitri in low tones.

"It would be best to keep her from anything stressful over the weekend, but she should be ready for classes on Monday." Dr. Olendzki's words made me sad at the thought of missing training with Dimitri. "For the next few hours she's going to need supervision. Nothing major, it's just that the medication could make her a little more irrational than normal."

I let out a loud huff to let him know that I had heard her. I wasnot irrational.

Dimitri and I walked out of the clinic and I started to turn to go back to my dorm but he stopped me. He looked at a loss of what to do and I felt confused as to why. "You can't be alone right now, Rose. And as you are not allowed any visitors, there is no other option, you're going to have to come with me."

"I'll be fine." I reassured him. "You don't have to baby sit me."

He bent down to stare directly at me. "I gave my word that I'd keep an eye on you."

That was the end of the argument.

Hell, I wasn't going to gripe about spending more time with him. "So where are we going?"

"I have paperwork to do." He said ominously, as I tried to picture him behind a little desk.

The bond let it's presence be known and the extreme amount of irritation coming from Lissa was starting to burn off my lovely drug induced high. Natalie was chattering away on her cell phone while Lissa was trying to find some notes that had gone missing from her backpack. The two of them were in the back corner of the campus library, sitting at a table that was covered edge to edge in very old texts.

"Yes, daddy!" Natalie whined. "Of course…. No, I put it under bed…. Yeah, she's still doing just fine... I'm sorry, I'm trying… Yeah, I love you too…. Bye, daddy!"

"Is everything okay?" Lissa asked as she started digging through her bag again.

"Daddy worries too much." Natalie put the phone in her handbag. "Hey, why don't we go back to the room and watch a movie! I have that new one with that hot guy you like!"

"I'm supposed to meet Christian in fifteen minutes." Lissa huffed and slammed the bag onto the table in defeat. "I had his notes from history class and I promised I'd return them and now they've just disappeared."

"They're probably in our room." Natalie's tone and attitude were chipper once again. "Why don't we go back and I'll help you look."

"But I was sure that I put them in my bag before we left!" Lissa explained.

"They have to be in the room then." Natalie grabbed Lissa's bag off the table and pulled it onto her shoulder. "Why don't you go check and I'll track down Christian and stall for time."

"Thanks, Nat." Lissa said sincerely as they walked to the library doors. "If I'm not there in 20 you know where I'm at."

"Okay, good luck." Natalie said with a little smirk that sent made my skin crawl.

"Shit!" I growled out and took off running to toward the Moroi dorms. "Lissa's in danger."

Dimitri was on my heels in a matter of seconds.

"Put your hand on my shoulder and don't let me run into anything!" I told him and then slipped into the bond to check on Lissa.

It was easier than ever to get into her mind. Lissa was walking to her room, mentally retracing her steps to see if she could have left the notes somewhere else. We were about a thirty second run from there and I pulled myself from the bond and ran faster, shaking Dimitri's hand off of my shoulder.

"I never should have let her come back. It's not safe here." My irritation was building and the darkness started to get to me.

"What's happened, Rose?" Dimitri asked as we enter the dorm.

"Someone is trying to fuck with Lissa." I darted around people in the crowded hallway as I made my way to Lissa's room.

"Lissa, wait!" I yelled, catching her before she could open the door. "Don't go in there."

"Why?" Lissa asked with wide eyes. "What's happened?"

"I'm not sure yet, but something doesn't feel right." I told her. "Wait out here and I'll go in and check it out."

Dimitri looked like he was going to try and stop me, but when I grabbed the door handle and signaled for him to go first, he nodded and walked into the room.

We entered the dorm room and it was just like before. 'LEAVE NOW'was painted on the wall above Lissa's bed in blood. I shut and locked the door behind us so that Lissa didn't see it.

Dimitri took in the blood splattered walls and the dead fox corpse on the bed with a grim expression. Without waiting for instructions, I grabbed Lissa's camera off the desk and took a few snapshots of the evidence. Dimitri watched me in silence in between checking out the rest of the room. When I caught him glancing at the door for the fourth time I had to set him at ease.

"Lissa's okay." I said quickly, grabbing a roll of paper towels and a trash bag. "I'm keeping a check on her."

Dimitri nodded and helped me clean the blood from the walls while I made quick work of folding up the blanket, fox and all, and stuffing it into the bag. My stomach turned at the sight of the innocent mangled little creature, but I forced the feeling down. Neither of us spoke. I think that we both knew that there were people outside the door with very good hearing and we didn't need to tip off the wrong person. We had to get the worst of it out of the way before Lissa could come in. I couldn't bear to see her that distressed again. Not with how much she loved animals.

We had just opened the door when Natalie rounded the corner and ran toward Lissa who was reading her history book while sitting beside the door. Dimitri took the camera from my hand when I walked by and put it into his pocket without anyone noticing.

"What's going on?" She asked in that innocent little voice. "Are you okay, Lissa? Rose?"

"We're fine." I gritted my teeth. "Some idiot tried to play a prank on Lissa."

"How did you know?" It was Lissa who asked, but I could see that both Dimitri and Natalie were wanting the same answer.

"I overheard someone talking about it." I said evasively and through the corner of my eye I could see Natalie ball up her fist in anger.

Dimitri knew for a fact that my response was a lie, but he didn't say anything to go against me.

"I will stay with the princess for the rest of the day." Dimitri said in a curt tone. "You need to get back to your dormitory, Miss Hathaway."

Jesse Zeklos and some of his friends were staring at me with smirks on their faces. "Looking good today, Rose!"

Shaking my head and waving, I walked away without a word. I was still in my blood soaked running gear and I knew that I looked like a train wreck. There wasn't time in my schedule for little flings or flirting with guys I had no interest in.

I slammed the door to my room shut. This whole probation thing was really starting to get to me. I felt trapped in the little room while Natalie was talking to her daddy and plotting more ways to get Lissa to use spirit and there was nothing I could do about it.

There was a small brown paper wrapped box sitting on my bed. Considering what had just happened in Lissa's room, I was more than a little wary to open it. I steeled my nerves and used my fingernail to cut the packing tape. I kept my face as far back as possible as I used two rulers to open the lid. Only to find that it wasn't chopped up animal parts, but a very nice but basic cell phone. It was fully charged when I touched the screen and only one contact was saved. The name said 'Call Me' and I hesitantly pressed the button to dial the number.

"Little Dhampir?"Adrian's voice sounded like music to my ears.

It made me so happy that I dropped the phone on the floor and it bounced out of sight.

"Adrian?" I asked loudly. "Keep talking! I dropped the phone and have to find it!"

"What are you wearing, darling?" I could hear the smile in his voice and barked out a short laugh.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" I got on my hands and knees to retrieve the phone out from under my bed.

"Of course I would! Why else would I send a phone with a camera?"

My hand grabbed hold of something hard, flat, and cold and I pulled it out into the light. It fell from my hand and hit the floor with a loud clang. I would recognize one anywhere. It was a charmed disk given to guardians during times of battle hundreds of years ago. They could fight for over a week without sleep as long as they kept it close by. But they had stopped using them when it became evident that using one for any longer would eventually drain and kill even the strongest dhampir. The history books were pretty gory in just how bad that kind of death was. Slow and agonizing didn't even begin to cover it. The Moroi who charmed them claimed to have destroyed them all, wanting to rid themselves of anything that put their Guardians at risk. It was a forbidden antique and had to have been extremely expensive. And I knew exactly who had left it for me.

"Rose, did you find it?"Adrian sounded amused.

"Oh, I found it all right." I responded quietly.

End Chapter Six

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