Third Chapter is up! Thanks for following the story and reviewing. I woke up to more than 400 hits, and I was simply shocked. Of course, that's big for me, this is my first fanfic after all. Anyway, this chapter was harder to write, it is still on Adrian's POV, and here I end all the association's to Richelle's storyline version.

Adrian's POV is so hard to write, yet I had fun trying to figure it out but I still couldn't play a lot with his character. I don't really know how to write a GOOD POV for Adrian, but I can keep on trying, my dear friends. SYDRIAN'S COMING SOON, I CAN ALMOST TASTE IT! :)

Thanks to my Beta: CherrySlushLover, BTW, check her fanfic out "Embracing the truth", it's amazing. :D

DISCLAIMER: RICHELLE MEAD IS THE BOSS AND SHE OWNS VAMPIRE ACADEMY, BLOODLINES AND SHE'S CLOSE TO OWN MY SOUL... SHE'S JUST THE HBIC. OK.

ADRIAN'S POV

I didn't really want to hang out at a place where half the Moroi at Court were cheering and screaming and debating whether their candidate held better political views than the others. My head was throbbing with the headache that I had been inflicted with earlier at the interrogation, and I knew spirit was at its peak right now. What I needed was that pull of unconsciousness that alcohol gave me, that sweet surrender to obliviousness that drove craziness away.

I walked away from the building, maybe when I got to my room I could get wasted and just pass out on my bed. That was so unlike me! Normally, when I had a free night, I went out and partied. My headache had me pulling my hair out, and I got so distracted that I took the long way to get to my room, passing next to the Court's front gates. How the fuck did I get here?

As I was about to turn around, I saw a glimpse of blonde hair standing at the gates. I only saw her back, but it reminded me of someone I saw just an hour ago. That couldn't be Sage, the hair length was almost the same, but this girl was wearing all black, and had more muscles. She turned around and I could see her well—not Sage—I let out a sigh of relief. Sure, Sage's hair was pretty, beautiful even—God, this craziness was making me imagine things! I couldn't have been infatuated so soon by her hair, or her beautiful golden eyes, or the sexy mysteriousness she emanated from her aura, or—no, I'm dating someone-stop it-Ivashkov! I mentally rebuked myself.

I tried to distract myself by studying the Guardian's face, and it felt so familiar. Then it hit me, she was Lissa's guardian at LeHigh, Serena.

I approached her slowly, coolly walking with a hand in my pocket as I raised my hand to greet her; she slightly bowed when she saw me. "Lord Ivashkov, how may I help you?" she asked.

"Call me Adrian, please. And I'm just strolling around, getting some fresh air. Lately it is unbelievably stressful around here." I casually said, letting out a sigh and trying to make conversation. "I thought elections were stressful only for Guardians and candidates, but it is placing its weight on everyone."

"Yes, demand for more security has grown at Court. Guardians from all over the world have come to provide more stability to the elections. I was teaching at a school, and was called in for duty here since it is summer. The levels of stress are out of range." she said, as she let out a sigh too. We comfortably stood in silence for a while. She then said, "It's late, Lord Iva—Adrian, you must be tired after all this news at Court, and the sun is about to come out."

"Yes, I am. It was nice seeing you, Serena." I said, hoping I didn't sound too flirtatious. I was going out with another Guardian, for God's sake. I managed to put the gears in my head working, maybe Serena knew something about Grant, and Lissa wanted to know all she could. "Are you standing guard all night here?" I asked, maybe if she was I could get Lissa to talk to her later.

"Yes, Lord Ivashkov—um, Adrian." she said, as she raised her eyebrow, "Is something wrong?"

"Not at all, I just admire the dedication of you guardians. Good night." I said, as I gave one of my charming smiles. What drove me to do that? It can't be the fact that she's blonde just like—damn it, Ivashkov, you're doing it again!

"Very well. Thank you, Lord Ivashkov," she uncomfortably said. "Good night." She bowed and returned to her post. I walked away- stupid Spirit. Finally, I could get back to my room to black it out, but I also felt good for hopefully having found some kind of clue to solve this mystery; I wasn't as useless as everyone thought I was.

I woke up a few hours later, the headache numbed by the alcohol I had had before passing out. The sun was still high up in the sky, but it was probably a good time to tell Lissa what I had in mind. Before I headed to Lissa's room, I drank a couple of shots and lit a few cigarettes; no one could tell me that I couldn't. I needed my head to be a bit 'clear' today.

I knocked on Lissa's door and entered. "Get up guys," I said enthusiastically. "We've got a visit to pay."

"What are you talking about?" Lissa asked.

"I am not hanging out with Blake Lazar again." Christian shot me a warning look as he said through gritted teeth.

"You and me both," I said. "I've got someone better. And more attractive. Remember how you were wondering how close Serena was to Grant? Well, looks like you can ask her yourself. I found her. And yes, you're welcome."

"Last I heard, Serena had been sent away to teach at a school. One on the east coast, I think." said Rose's mom Janine Hathaway, with a frown.

"She is, but since it's summer, they brought her back here to help with election crowd control. She's working the front gates." I said with a proud grin in my face. I saw how Lissa, Christian and Janine exchanged looks.

"She's there right now? At the gates?" Lissa asked me.

"Yup." I said, "And we probably don't even need to buy her a drink."

We got to the gates, and Serena saw me first. I glanced at her apologetically for the surprise I saw on her face when she saw that Lissa was with me.

Lissa asked her about my dead great-aunt's plans to make Moroi fight, but Serena didn't want to give anything away because it was 'the queen's orders'. Some bullshit, she was dead!

Finally, I bluntly said, "My aunt's dead, and you said yourself that you might be talking to the future queen." Serena looked at me and took a deep breath as she finally told Lissa that she could gather the names of the Moroi involved.

We walked away, and I don't know why, but I felt exhausted. I wanted to go to sleep again. The guys went back to Lissa's room, and I went to mine. God, I missed my little Dhampir. Maybe she was asleep, and I could try getting to her in a spirit dream.

She was asleep indeed, so I created a dream in St. Vladimir's library and pulled her into it. Lacking creativity, Ivashkov? A library?

Rose materialized in front of me, and I was so happy to see her. Her aura was shining. Hell, her aura was brighter than the sun!

"Wow," was the only thing that I could say.

"Wow what?" she asked.

"Your... your aura. It's... amazing. It's shining. I mean, it always shines, but today... well, I've never seen anything like it. I didn't expect that after everything that happened."

"After what happened?" Rose asked back, tensed.

I laughed, walking closer to Rose. I patted my pocket for a cigarette, but stopped myself in time.

"Oh, come on. Everyone's talking about it. How you and Belikov kidnapped Jailbait—what's up with that anyway?—and coerced that Alchemist. It's the hottest news around here. Well, aside from the elections. The last test is coming up."

"That's right..." Rose seemed to calm down as she murmured low enough so that a human wouldn't be able to listen to it.

"Why are you sleeping in the middle of the day anyway?" I asked. "I didn't really expect to catch you. I figured you'd be on human schedule."

"It... it was kind of a rough night, what with escaping a legion of Guardians and all." I squeezed her hand to give reassurance that everything was going to be alright, but she didn't squeeze back. I frowned; it must have been a really rough night then. I smiled at her shortly.

"Well, I'd worry more about your old man than them. He is pissed that you didn't stay put. And that he can't get in to see the Alchemists. Believe me, he's been trying."

Rose had some crazy idea (seriously, all of her ideas are crazy to some extent) and explained how she needed to meet the Alchemists, and told me to get Mikhail to go to some hell-loose restaurant close to Court so that the plan could be carried out. So I accepted undoubtedly.

I quickly got out of bed to find Mikhail and tell him the plan right away, no one else needed to know- Lissa would be too caught up making her pre-election speech. Christian, well, he was Lissa's charm; she needed him by her side, so he was too useless to help me right now. I guessed I was on my own. I missed the speech ceremony, planning everything out with Mikhail; no way was I going to stay in Court if there was a way I could see Rose. We set out a bit after the crowd went wild, which was the perfect moment seeing as most guardians would be needed at the hall to control the Moroi.

We got to the restaurant, and shortly we saw another car pulling up in the dark parking lot. Mikhail got out, and I followed. I foolishly grinned at the sight of Rose, like any man in love would have if he hadn't seen his girlfriend in days. Then, another spirit user came out of their car, and I saw how hers and Mikhail's aura went passion red for each other. Their reunion held tears as they embraced each other and laid out the plan to meet the Alchemists. Apparently, only Rose and Mikhail were going in.

I walked over to where Jailbait was, and gave her a light punch in the arm. "And I'm going to stay and hear how on earth you got involved with this, Jailbait." She weakly smiled at me and told me she wasn't sure herself. I lightly hugged her reassuringly and smiled at her.

I looked around for Rose, but she was nowhere in sight; I thought I heard her voice behind a car and walked behind it too. "Little dhampir, are you—"

No. No. I should have seen this coming.

I... I should have known better; they were together all this time, they were... Rose... I had walked in to see that Russian, fucking bastard kiss Rose on the forehead.

I felt how my heart broke in tiny pieces, I felt how she ripped every nerve from my body as if it was nothing. All those kisses, the hugs, the smiles shared between us, they were nothing. This was how real sadness felt. I figured it out, having it ripped from me when I thought I had a chance of happiness after being miserable for my whole life. I saw how it was. I should have felt like the shittiest piece of life on Earth right now since she used me, but I didn't. Somewhere along the last days, I realized that I was trying to impress her, that I was trying to be someone I can't be, that I was doing everything for her and I tried to ignore it all, but what about me? Of course I would have to talk to her or maybe I could just ignore her. I felt bad, really bad, but not at my worst, something in me just told me that I could do better; I just had to let it appear before me.

I turned my back on all of them, and with a laugh caught in my throat, I lit a cigar.

I still feel so bad for Adrian in this part, but I'm glad this happened because SYDRIAN happens.. and SYDRIAN beats RODRIAN anytime.

Please review, it doesn't take that long... I really want to know your opinion, even if it's a bad one, so then I can fix the mistakes. Reviews mean: faster updates! ;D

So, read and enjoy! Tell me if I should change something or if it's too slow, I'm trying. :)

Thanks!